Popcorn shrimp is the name of several small

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

fritter A fritter is a portion of meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables or other ingredients which have been Batter (cooking), battered or breading, breaded, or just a portion of dough without further ingredients, that is deep-frying, deep-fried. Fritters ar ...

dishes, so called because they are

finger food Finger foods are small, individual portions of food that are eaten out of hand. They are often served at social events. The ideal finger food usually does not create any mess (i.e. no crumbs, drips, or any kind of mess), but this criterion is o ...

s eaten like

popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated; the same names also refer to the foodstuff produced by the expansion. A popcorn kernel's strong hull contains the se ...

. In 1974, the American restaurant chain

Red Lobster Red Lobster Hospitality LLC is an American casual dining restaurant chain headquartered in Orlando, Florida. The company has operations across most of the United States (including Puerto Rico, Guam) and Canada, as well as in China, Ecuador, Hong ...

introduced a menu item called "popcorn shrimp", a

of small shrimp meat, which they still offer . Other restaurants were also serving menu items named "popcorn shrimp" as early as 1975. In 1986,

General Mills General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...

, the owner of Red Lobster at the time, applied to register the

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...

"popcorn shrimp" with the

United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alexa ...

, stating they had been using it since 1977. It took two years to be granted, but then General Mills cancelled it the following year. Some sources suggest that popcorn shrimp originated as a

Louisiana cuisine Louisiana Creole cuisine (french: cuisine créole, lou, manjé kréyòl, es, cocina criolla) is a style of cooking originating in Louisiana, United States, which blends West African, French, Spanish, and Amerindian influences, as well as i ...

, and chef

Paul Prudhomme Paul Prudhomme (July 13, 1940 – October 8, 2015), also known as Gene Autry Prudhomme, was an American celebrity chef whose specialties were Creole and Cajun cuisines, which he was also credited with popularizing. He was the chef propriet ...

made it famous. However, at least for the name, what Prudhomme invented was Cajun popcorn, which he put on the menu of the restaurant he worked, sometime later than 1975. Prudhomme published a recipe of Cajun popcorn in his cookbook in 1984. It is

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, mu ...

, made by dipping peeled crayfish tails in a batter of eggs, milk,

corn flour Cornflour may refer to: * Cornflour (in the UK), corn starch, from the endosperm of the kernel of the corn (maize) grain * Corn flour (in the US and elsewhere), very finely ground cornmeal, ground from dried maize See also * Flour * Starch ...

, wheat flour, and spices, then deep-fryed, and served with

sherry Sherry ( es, jerez ) is a fortified wine made from white grapes that are grown near the city of Jerez de la Frontera in Andalusia, Spain. Sherry is produced in a variety of styles made primarily from the Palomino grape, ranging from light versi ...

wine sauce. * A copy of the recipe in ''Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen'' but fraction numbers were lost in OCR, so some measurements are blank or wrong. He added that shrimps can be used as a substitute for crayfish. Eventually, "popcorn shrimp" became associated with Prudhomme. Apart from names, neither Red Lobster's home page nor Prudhomme's book mention the origin of their dishes. Today in the US, the words "popcorn shrimp" has no live trademark registration for foods, * in "Search Term:" enter "popcorn shrimp" and submit query. Examine each results' Live/dead indicator, Disclaimer (whether it covers the words themselves or only graphic designs), Goods and services and over 20 companies sell packaged foods by that name. * Search by string "popcorn shrimp". Click "Branded Foods" tab. As of 2021, 34 results from 21 owners were found. * Raw data can be obtained a
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Variations of popcorn shrimp span from heavily

breaded Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thickeni ...

styles,{{Cite web, url=https://food.ndtv.com/recipe-popcorn-shrimp-501362, title=Popcorn Shrimp Recipe, access-date=2021-08-18, website=

NDTV New Delhi Television Ltd is an Indian news media company focusing on broadcast and digital news publication. The company is considered to be a legacy brand that pioneered independent news broadcasting in India, and is credited for launching t ...

to light

tempura is a typical Japanese dish usually consisting of seafood, meat and vegetables that have been battered and deep fried. The dish was introduced by the Portuguese in Nagasaki through fritter-cooking techniques in the 16th century. The word ''tem ...

-style.

References

See also