How To Remove The Unpleasant Fishy Smell From Shrimp

If you're looking to whip up shrimp scampi or garlic butter shrimp for tonight's dinner, know that cooking with the shellfish involves some cleaning and preparing for the freshest flavor. Even when you buy shelled and deveined shrimp at the grocery store or fish market, it might still carry an unpleasant, fishy smell. That smell isn't necessarily a red flag, especially if you can remove most of the odor before you start cooking. To get the best tips on how to achieve that, we spoke to Bart van Olphen, chef, cookbook author, and co-founder of Sea Tales, a sustainable fish company based in New York.

"It's fine if shrimp have some light fishy smell, but it shouldn't be anything strong or offensive," explains van Olphen. "It is also possible that the juice around the shrimp causes the smell and not necessarily the shrimp itself." If this happens to you and your shrimp comes packaged in juice or emits a fishy odor, the chef has a simple solution. "Wash the shrimp under cold running water or soak it for a few minutes in cold water with a tablespoon of sea salt," he says. And don't worry, it's not necessary to literally scrub the shellfish clean.

If a fishy smell still persists, there are a couple of other methods to get rid of it. But first, remember that you're dealing with fresh shellfish, so you should expect a subtle smell even after rinsing, similar to other seafood. However, you can soak the shrimp in an acidic ingredient to remove the smell further. A marinade with lemon juice, lime juice, or even buttermilk should do the trick in 30 minutes or less. Soak, then cook according to your go-to recipe.

A strong, unpleasant odor that goes beyond a fishy smell is one of the ways to tell if shrimp has gone bad. If your shrimp smells sour or similar to ammonia, and not fishy, then the only thing left to do is to throw it away because the shellfish is likely past its prime. (Sorry about the food waste.) The same goes for shrimp with a slimy appearance or a color that seems off. There are many other mistakes everyone makes with shrimp like buying old shrimp, which might come with a bad smell, so be sure to check the packaging for the best-by date. Otherwise, it might be an impossible mission to remove the fishy smell for cooking.