What is the red stuff in shrimp heads?

Chef's answer
I never knew what this stuff actually was. Yes, it is normal. That's the shrimp's heptopancreas, their digestive organ. It's delicious- rich, sweet, shrimpy, and briny..
Frequently asked Questions 🎓
That white slimy stuff is called albumin, and it's actually just a harmless (albeit pretty gross-looking) protein that solidifies as salmon cooks..
Sometimes when you cook Bacon, some white gloop oozes from it. This is salt and water.
Sometimes when you cook Bacon, some white gloop oozes from it. This is salt and water.
Answer has 5 votes. Sometimes when you cook Bacon, some white gloop oozes from it. This is salt and water.
That white slimy stuff is called albumin, and it's actually just a harmless (albeit pretty gross-looking) protein that solidifies as salmon cooks..
The hepatopancreas of a crab is also called tomalley, or crab "fat".
According to the peerless Alan Davidson's North Atlantic Seafood, brown meat "consists mainly of the digestive gland or 'liver' and reproductive organs". So the website was right, up to a point. However, as every crab lover knows, the brown meat packs a far bigger flavour punch than the white.
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