If you’ve ever tried to cook Chinese dishes with shrimp, you may have noticed that the shrimp you eat at restaurants seems plumper and tastier than the ones you make at home. To get restaurant-quality shrimp, there are actually two steps you need to do before you cook the shrimp in sauce, seasonings, or other ingredients in the final dish.

First, you need to brine the shrimp to get rid of the unpleasant coating that forms on the raw shellfish; this step will make them taste fresher and cleaner. Serious Eats recommends tossing the shrimp with salt, plus a ¼ teaspoon baking soda per pound of shrimp, then letting it rest in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

The next step is the velveting, which gives the shrimp a tender and silky texture. After marinating the shrimp in a mixture of cornstarch and a beaten egg white for 15 minutes, partially cook the shrimp in peanut oil until they’re opaque, drain them on paper towels, and then proceed with your recipe as usual.