Your seafood gumbo will have the fullest taste imaginable thanks to this recipe for seafood stock. Any remaining seafood or fish bones and skins will enhance the flavor even more.
| Prep Time: | 15 mins |
| Cook Time: | 7 hrs 35 mins |
| Total Time: | 7 hrs 50 mins |
| Servings: | 8 |
| Yield: | 2 quarts |
Ingredients
- shells from 1 pound shrimp
- 5 quarts water
- 4 carrots, sliced
- 4 onions, quartered
- ½ bunch celery, sliced
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced
- 2 sprigs fresh parsley
- 5 whole cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
Instructions
- Bake shrimp shells at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) until dried and starting to brown on edges.
- In an 8-quart pot, combine water, carrots, onions, celery, bay leaves, garlic, parsley, cloves, pepper, basil, thyme, and shrimp shells. Bring slowly to a boil.
- Reduce heat, and cook 5 to 7 hours. Replace water as needed, 2 or 3 times, by pouring more water down the inside of the pot.
- Remove stock from heat and strain. Press all liquid from shells and vegetables, then discard them.
- Return liquid to heat, and reduce to 2 to 3 quarts, or to taste.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 112 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 12 g |
| Cholesterol | 86 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 13 g |
| Saturated Fat | 0 g |
| Sodium | 162 mg |
| Sugars | 5 g |
| Fat | 1 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Delishes yummy
Easy and so flavorful. I used more shrimp shells so I needed more water initially. Turned out great.
I added a teaspoon of Zatterains Crab Boil to give it a kick.
Thank you Sara for this recipe, I changed it by using Lobster shells, Snow Crab shells, & Shrimp shell. Roasted shells first. Omitted a few of your spices and added a few of my own to make Seafood Stock for a Seafood Soup. I won First Prize for “The Best Seafood” Category!
Happy I stumbled across this one! Making first gumbo and seafood stock was used in the recipe couldn’t find it at the store!! great base better than water and bouillon by far!
Loved it my gumbo was amazing
How lov-er-ly! Made this last night using parsley, bsil, thyme, and bay leaf from my garden. The only alternation was adding a 1/2 teaspoon of Old Bay Seasoning. Made Bayou Gumbo today, and it’s GREAT with this stock addition, This a wonderfully fragrant and flavorful stock. Thanks for sharing!
Wow, this is incredible stock. I omitted the cloves as I didn’t have any on hand but you’d never miss them. Used this for my gumbo and want an incredibly nice depth it added. Will definitely be making this one again and again.
Very good, but use sparingly as it is real strong. I made my world’s famous gumbo using this instead of chicken stock and everyone said it tasted too “fishy.” Next time I will uses half and half with Chicken stock.
I wasn’t sure about roasting the shells, but found it made a great difference. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for sharing this recipe! I am making gumbo tonight & will have to speed it up into 4 hours however I am sure it will be amazing! I will post later with my results & photos!
what fallows this ive madegumbo before so i dont know what to do after the stock is made
Wonderful. I make this and pressure can it so that I will have it on hand whenever I want to make gumbo. Adding a fish head and some clam shells will make it even better, but I used only shrimp shells for a long time.
This stock is the best I’ve ever made! I used this stock recipe when making seafood gumbo for about 75 people. Here are a couple of their comments:One lady from Mississippi said she absolutely LOVED the gumbo! A gentleman from Baton Rouge, LA said the gumbo was incredibly rich and flavorful–no doubt a product of a great stock!! Thanks for a great recipe…this is a keeper!
This is one of the BEST stocks I’ve made, ever!
I made this stock a few years ago to use as a base for gumbo for my Mardi Gras party. It was incredible and I beleive roasting the shrimp shells really makes the difference. I made shrimp etoufee this past Saturday for Mardi Gras party and wanted to use this stock but didn’t have the time to roast the shells and then simmer for the 7+ hours to make it. I had a pint of some really rich shrimp stock I had made earlier using shrimp heads and shells and a pint of some rich home-made chicken stock that I added to the water. The house smelled so good and the stock was so yummy. I had some left and added some other ingredients for a small bowl of soup yesterday – Delicious!! Who wold have thought to add cloves? Brilliant!
Firt time I made it and I was a sceptic but its great!!! I saved the stock in a 1/2 gallon milk jug in the frig.
this took my shrimp gumbo to the next level…its a must!!!! i did cut back on the cook time a bit…was good after 4 hours…i did use twice the amount of shells then what the recipe specified
The stock is excellent, but time consuming. After I roasted the shrimp shells, I simmered it in my crockpot all day. That worked well. The gumbo recipe that goes with it isn’t as good…
perfect starter gumbo stock recipe! I wouldn’t limit it to just shrimp shells though! Feel Free to add fish bones, crab shells or any other shellfish shells you have around. The best gumbo stock I make is almost exactly like this but we use leftover crawfish shells from crawfish boils done in Zatarains Liquid. It adds a real zing to the stock that really helps the gumbo.
Doubled the shell amount, turned out even better. Used it as base stock for Shrimp and Okra Gumbo. http://soup.allrecipes.com/AZ/ShrimpandOkraGumbo.asp