Stark wrote:
> Had a good cream reduction sauce going, down to a thin batter
> consistency when I added a handful of shrimp, letting them cook while
I
> poached some eggs. Maybe a little longer than 5 minutes, but when
the
> eggs were poached and the shrimp pink, my sauce had broken up.
>
> Added a little cream and stirred; the sauce was edible but I wouldn't
> call it presentable.
>
> What happened? The shrimp were thawed but wet. Was there residual
> water? Should I have taken the sauce off the heat? Would the shrimp
> have cooked off heat? I couldnt whisk the sauce with the shrimp in
> there. Maybe I just looked at it wrong.

A lot of shrimp and other seafood is processed with sulfites or sodium
tripolyphosphate which makes them retain more water. This makes them
weigh more and look more plump BUT when you unfreeze them they shrink
and release a ton of liquid. Cooking such shrimp can be an unpleasant
surprise and I myself have had more than one soggy experience. I am not
sure how to deal with this - thawing the shrimp before cooking doesn't
seem to fully "dry" them (but probably helps). Trader Joe's sells
frozen shrimp that is guaranteed not to be processed with such
chemicals.