Tortugas pink shrimp, sweeter and firmer than the Gulf browns, boiled in seasoned water and served peel-and-eat with drawn butter and lime. Menus call them pink gold for a reason.

Vast beds of pink shrimp were found in Gulf waters off Key West in 1949, and the seaport filled with trawlers almost overnight in what the island still calls the pink gold rush. Hundreds of boats worked out of the Bight through the 1950s and 1960s, and the fleet reshaped the waterfront that is now the Historic Seaport. Catches fell in the 1980s and the last dealers left the Bight by 1989, moving the working fleet across to Stock Island, where it still lands shrimp today. The Florida Keys Seafood Festival at Truman Waterfront Park each February is run by the fishermen themselves.

Where to eat Key West pink shrimp in Key West

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Make it at home

Serves 425 minEasy

Ingredients

  • 900g head-on pink shrimp, shell on
  • 2 litres water
  • 3 tbsp seafood boil seasoning
  • 1 lemon, halved
  • 2 key limes, halved
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 120g unsalted butter
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • Cocktail sauce and extra lime, to serve

Method

  1. Bring the water to a rolling boil with the seasoning, salt, bay leaves and the squeezed lemon halves.
  2. Simmer 10 minutes so the water actually tastes of something.
  3. Drop the shrimp in and cook 2 to 3 minutes only, until they curl and turn opaque.
  4. Drain immediately and spread on a tray so they stop cooking.
  5. Melt the butter with the crushed garlic and squeeze in the key lime.
  6. Tip the shrimp onto newspaper and serve hot with the garlic butter and cocktail sauce.

Editor tip. Buy them shell on and head on. The heads carry most of the sweetness that makes pink shrimp worth the extra money.

Common allergens: Shellfish, Dairy.