Get your crustaceans straight. There is quite a difference between prawns and shrimp.
Prawn isn’t just British for shrimp. The two sea creatures, while similar in flavor and deliciousness, have their differences. The next time you want to show off your crustacean expertise at the fish market, here’s what you should look for: claws. If the creature in question has claws on two of its five pairs of legs, it’s a shrimp. If it has claws on three sets of legs, it’s a prawn. Other differences, which you probably wouldn’t be able to spot, include the way in which prawns and shrimp treat their eggs (prawns release them into the water, shrimp incubate them on the underside of their body) and gill type (prawns have branching gills, shrimp have plate-like gills).
This article was originally posted on Food and Wine, April 22, 2016, by F&W Editors.