The Fisheries Research and Development Corporation project 98/419 ‘An Investigation into the feasibility of producing a commercially acceptable prawn stock from the discarded heads of commercially processed prawns’ has successfully completed Objective 1, to develop a (prototype) prawn stock (liquid and powder) at the Centre for Food Technology from the discarded prawn heads of commercially processed prawn species Penaeus monodon.

Formulations of several prawn and seafood stocks were gathered from both Hiromi Ishikawa of Akebono Services and from a literature search.  Hiromi Ishikawa owns a leading seafood restaurant in Japan and therefore has first hand knowledge of the food service industry and what chefs require for producing seafood stocks. Preliminary trials utilised the recipes gained from both Hiromi and the literature search to establish a starting formulation.  The early development work identified the potency of the prawn flavour when extracted from the prawn heads, and also determined if there were any off flavours that developed from the prawn heads during processing.

Results from trials 1,2 and 3 indicated the combination of several fresh ingredients utilised in the formulations masked any unacceptable flavours produced during the manufacture of the prawn stock liquid. Some of these masking ingredients included tomato puree, carrots, onions, celery, lemon juice and white wine.  The combined effect of these ingredients was a clean but mild tasting prawn flavour with no off flavours or odours.