Summer is coming soon, and it’s time for crayfish to enter the market. At this time of year, ordering a few crayfish at the night market and drinking some beer is simply irresistible. Whether it’s spicy crayfish or garlic crayfish, they are all loved by foodies. Crayfish can definitely be called the king of the night market.

However, there is some controversy about the way to eat crayfish. Most people eat crayfish mainly on the tail, and some people eat the head part. There is a very obvious yellow part in the shrimp head. Some people think it is shrimp roe, which is edible just like crab roe. Others think it is crayfish feces. After all, all the digestive organs of crayfish are concentrated in the head. part, so can the yellow part of the crayfish head be eaten?

The scientific name of crayfish is Procambarus clarkii. Its origin is the United States and Mexico. Later, crayfish was introduced to Japan and to my country in the 1930s. Because crayfish have strong vitality and reproduce quickly, they were introduced mainly as animal feed.

At the beginning of the introduction, crayfish were mainly cultured in Nanjing, and then gradually spread to all parts of the country. Because crayfish reproduced too quickly, and people were not in the habit of eating crayfish at that time, crayfish flooded. A large number of crayfish dug holes and gnawed straw. At that time, they became a headache for farmers. The reason why I didn’t eat crayfish at that time was that I didn’t know much about crayfish as a species. On the other hand, the meat of crayfish is too little. You know, the edible part of a crayfish from head to toe only accounts for less than 15% of the whole shrimp, and at that time, the material itself was relatively scarce, so it was basically Without such diverse cooking conditions now, the taste of cooked crayfish would naturally not be very good.

Crayfish was introduced to the Chinese dining table mainly in the early 1990s. At that time, people's material life gradually became richer, and people began to try crayfish, a relatively uncommon food. At the same time, various places gradually began to promote the cultivation of crayfish and began industrial development. In 2018, my country's total production of Procambarus clarkii reached 1.6387 million tons, and the total breeding area exceeded 1.12 million hectares

In 2018, my country's total production of Procambarus clarkii reached 1.6387 million tons, and the total breeding area exceeded 1.12 million hectares. hectares. Mainly concentrated in five provinces including Hubei, Hunan, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Jiangxi, the breeding area accounts for nearly 90% of the country's total area, and the breeding output accounts for about 95% of the country's total output. Among them, the breeding area and output of Hubei Province account for 90% of the country's total. half of the Procambarus crayfish industry. Crayfish has gradually developed into a market worth hundreds of billions.

The crayfish market is huge, and the price is not cheap. A portion of crayfish costs tens or even hundreds. It does seem a pity to only eat the tail, so the yellow part of the head of the crayfish Can it be eaten? To understand this problem, we must first understand the body structure of crayfish.

The tail of the crayfish is mainly the "muscle" needed for swimming, which is rich in protein, while the head of the crayfish is mainly distributed with various internal organs of the shrimp, including the brain, heart, Liver, intestines, gills and reproductive organs, etc.

What we call "shrimp yellow" refers to the yellow part of the shrimp head, but this part may contain different organs for male and female shrimps.

For female shrimp, the "shrimp yellow" includes its ovaries and its hepatopancreas, that is, the liver and pancreas. For male shrimp, it is its hepatopancreas. These organs of crayfish are all light yellow and difficult to distinguish.

To distinguish between male and female shrimps, you only need to look at the abdomen of the crayfish. If there are two longer light red cheliceps on the abdomen, then it is a male shrimp. If not, it is a female shrimp.

Therefore, whether it is a male shrimp or a female shrimp, the yellow part of the shrimp includes their hepatopancreas, and this part of the organ is mainly the detoxification organ of crayfish, so it is easier to accumulate heavy metals. Although crayfish have a strong ability to detoxify heavy metals, and the heavy metals in the internal organs will gradually be transferred to the shell through the internal organs, and then excreted through shelling, there may inevitably be some metabolic intermediates.

So in summary, it is best not to eat the roe of crayfish.

In addition, since shrimp heads are easy to accumulate bacteria and there is residual sediment on the gills, it is best not to eat the heads of crayfish.

So since the "shrimp yellow" on the head of the crayfish is not shrimp poop, where is the shrimp poop?

The answer is shrimp thread. In fact, the digestive tract of shrimp is very short. Except for the shrimp's stomach, which is in the head, after a short digestion, it directly enters the shrimp line and is excreted. The black or cyan line we can see at the bottom of the shrimp is the crayfish line. The substances remaining in the shrimp threads are naturally the excretions of the crayfish that have not yet been excreted from the body. I don’t need to tell you what they are, but you should understand them. Of course, if you really don’t want to remove it, it’s not a big problem. After all, the microorganisms in it have been killed after high temperature. But I believe many people will feel uncomfortable eating it after knowing it. In addition, if you don’t remove the taste, it will also be very uncomfortable. It will be a little worse.

The roe of crayfish is not actually shrimp feces, but mainly the liver and pancreas of shrimp. Since these organs may accumulate some heavy metals, it is still not recommended to eat them. In the future, foodies will eat crayfish. When cooking lobster, be sure to remove the heads decisively. Although crayfish is delicious, because cooking crayfish uses a lot of oil, salt and condiments, the salt content is high. For the sake of health, don’t eat too much.

Reference materials

[1] Investigation and analysis of my country’s Procambarus clarkii industry and development countermeasures and suggestions [J]. Jiangsu Agricultural Science, 2021, 49( 19)