These pickled shrimp are based on an old recipe recounted by Mobile’s Eugene Walter, who, among an astonishing array of other things, wrote the southern food cookbook from Time-Life’s famed Foods of the World series. And when I say an astonishing array, I mean it. He was a novelist and a poet, he helped to launch The Paris Review, he appeared in Fellini films, and he famously carried a shoebox full of Alabama red dirt all over Europe. He was also a gourmet cook.
Here I have used his method but changed up the flavoring. Where he calls for pickling spice, dry mustard, and mace, I update it with lime, garlic, and ginger. I usually use last night’s leftover shrimp, making this recipe fit firmly into my favorite category of recipes: Silly Easy but Everybody Thinks You Did Something Fancy. (The way I usually get leftover shrimp is to make extra and immediately hide it in the refrigerator behind something nobody wants.)
I love having these shrimp on hand because they are such a treat! And I can put them to good use in lots of different ways:
Pickled shrimp are the ultimate bloody mary garnish.
They are great with drinks any evening. I usually just serve them on toothpicks with some cocktail sauce.
They make a terrific shrimp taco with pico de gallo, avocado, and cotija cheese.
I like to make pasta salad with pickled shrimp, tomato, canned artichoke hearts, and feta.
I make the pasta salad above Greek style by using couscous or orzo as the pasta, and adding diced cucumber, a few kalamata or black olives, and a vinaigrette that includes some lemon juice and oregano.
You can make a fancy salad with pickled shrimp, sliced avocado, and fresh grapefruit sections. When you section the grapefruit, catch the juice, add some olive oil, a dash of honey, salt and pepper and use that to dress the salad.
And again with the avocado: top crostini with guacamole, a fat pickled shrimp, and chopped cilantro. It’s a salad on toast.
Pickled shrimp is a dandy addition to an antipasti platter or charcuterie board.
A pretty jar of freshly pickled shrimp makes a terrific hostess gift.
But my all-time favorite way to eat pickled shrimp is as a snack straight out of the jar.
New Pickled Shrimp
Ingredients
- 2 pint canning jars with rings and lids
- 1 t. peppercorns
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed and peeled
- 1 1/4 lbs. large shrimp, boiled and peeled--I leave the tails on
- A few small rings of fresh onion, or 1 t. minced, dried onion
- 1 small lime, sliced thinly into rounds
- 2 cups apple cider vinegar
- 2 T. lime juice
- 1 1/2 t. powdered ginger
- 2 T. packed brown sugar
- 1 1/2 t. salt
- olive oil
Instructions
- Dividing equally, put the peppercorns and garlic into the clean glass jars. Add the dried onion if you’re using that. Pack the shrimp into the two jars, adding raw onion and lime slices as you go.
- In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, lime juice, ginger, sugar, and salt. Bring to a boil and stir until everything is dissolved. Immediately pour the hot liquid over the shrimp leaving ¾-inch headspace. Everything in the jar should be submerged.
- Tap the jars on the counter and/or poke around the edges with a skewer to release any air bubbles. Add a little more hot liquid if needed.
- To make the jar airtight, you are going to float oil on the top of the liquid like this: using a dinner spoon, lay the spoon--back side up--against the inside rim of the jar and just touching the surface of the pickling liquid. Carefully pour the oil in a slow, thin, stream over the back of the spoon. This will allow the oil to spread over the surface of the liquid.
- Carefully screw down the jar lids and put the jars in the refrigerator. Let sit undisturbed for 24 to 48 hours. These will keep two or three weeks in your fridge unless you eat them all first.
Enjoy!
thanks!