About prawns
When prawns shed their shells, they may look a little different. This is completely harmless — and the taste is not affected.
During summer, the female forms her new eggs under her head, so when you buy prawns in summer you may see an orange lump by the head. Around October–November, prawns mate and the female immediately begins to press the roe from her head down to her belly, where she stores her fertilised eggs throughout the winter. In spring, the eggs hatch and the female immediately begins to shed her shell and feed to build up new head roe. During the shell shedding, the meat can become a little softer and the prawn becomes harder to peel. When she has just released the roe, she can sometimes look a little dark or "black" under the head shield, because her empty stomach and intestines (which may contain dark plankton) are more visible when the eggs are gone.
A fun fact about North Atlantic prawns is that they are always born as males and after 2–3 years they change sex and become females. This means all the prawns we eat are females.
We have fresh prawns in our shop, usually Wednesday–Saturday, basically every week. You can find our current selection under This week's range.
