By BOBBY HUEN
How Many Shrimp Per Person Should You Serve At A Dinner Party?
The number of shrimp you should be serving per person at a dinner party depends on two factors: how large each piece of shrimp is and how you are using them in your meal.
It's best to serve a quarter-pound per person for an appetizer or a half-pound for a main course. However, the number becomes more specific when it comes to weighing out shrimp.
Shrimp are often labeled as "colossal," jumbo," "extra large," etc., but a colossal shrimp in one grocery store might merely be considered jumbo in another seafood market.
A more reliable way to measure shrimp is by the number of shrimp that makes up a pound. A high number per pound means the shrimp are small, while a lower count means they’re large.
For example, if the label of a 1-pound package of shrimp says "25-30 count," the pack contains somewhere between 25 to 30 shrimp that are small in size and don’t weigh a lot.
Conversely, if a 1-pound package has a label that reads "8-10 count," it would imply the shrimp in that package are much larger in size and weigh more per unit.
Hence, if you have a pack of 25-30 shrimp, the quarter-pound rule would mean you should have about six shrimp pieces at hand per guest for an appetizer course.
Similarly, if you are preparing a main course for the dinner party, the half-pound guideline would mean you should have about a dozen pieces of shrimp for each plate.