Southern Shells · Seafood Market + Steamer

What does it actually cost?

The price on the board is for the whole pound — heads, shells and all. Pick any two and see what a pound of meat really costs.

Try it — change the prices to match your market

Yields are raw peeled meat, measured the same way on both sides. Head-on shrimp give up about 38% to the head; royal reds give up 45%, the most of any Gulf shrimp; a head-off tail loses only its shell, about 18%. Crawfish are the odd one out — they are never peeled raw, so the familiar figures (15% of live weight, 6 to 7 pounds of live crawfish per pound of tails) are cooked meat. Backing the boil out of that puts them at about 18% raw, which is what belongs next to a raw shrimp yield.

Sources: Kutkuhn 1962 and Klima 1969 (U.S. Bureau of Commercial Fisheries) for deheading, LSU AgCenter for crawfish, American Shrimp Processors' Association for peeling. Prices marked “est.” are Gulf Coast estimates. Change any price to match your own market.

Gulf shrimp, crab and oysters in Grand Bay. Gear that ships anywhere in the US.

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