Cooking times are always on the recreational cooker’s mind. How long do you boil shrimp? is a common cooking question that needs an answer! Yet, the length of time that you need to boil shrimp is not an exact science, much like the time at which you should be cooking anything else. Instead of timing your shrimp—which, piece-by-piece, can range anywhere from two minutes of cooking to eight—there are other ways to determine if it is done or not.

As you may or may not know, raw shrimp is a nasty, grey coloring. If you are boiling raw shrimp, you are going to want to let it sit until it is bright pink and squishy to the touch. It should be firm, but with a little bit of cushy-ness.

If you are cooking frozen shrimp, they will already be bright pink, but they will be hard and frozen. You can figure out if they are done by feeling them. If they are firm yet have a bit of a bounce to them, then you know they are done. If they feel like the center is still hard and frozen, they may need to boil for a bit longer.

A good way to determine if frozen shrimp are finished is to cut a larger shrimp at the point where the circumference is the greatest. If the inside is still cold or room temperature, then you need to let them cook for a bit longer.

The good news is that it is incredibly difficult to overcook shellfish, so rest assured that the shrimp won’t fall apart if you overcook it. This makes the larger pieces easier to handle when you are cooking a large batch.

That’s your answer to How long do you boil shrimp!