Awhile ago there was a post voicing some frustration that kitchens weren't removing the tail on a shrimp when the rest of the shell was already removed. It sparked a debate upon the merits of leaving the shell on entirely with separate camps preferring the presentation of shrimp with nothing to clean on the plate vs. the appealing taste that you lose when you strip the shell.

I find myself in the middle, personally preferring shell on, but sometimes serving shrimp with shell and tail removed for certain guests who don't like dealing with the stuff.

Last night I tried something different because I had some time on my hands. I was crisping some shallots to serve with the shrimps as a topping and I decided to throw the shells in with the shallots to try to get the toasted shell taste in with the topping. I stripped the shells and tails in large pieces to make them easy to pick out (instead of having to pick out tiny bits of stuff) and toasted them with the shallots and it turned out excellently.

I could achieve a deeper toast on the shells than usual because I wasn't worried about overcooking the meat inside and the water content in the meat wasn't quenching the shells. I also rinsed the toasted shells in the extra shrimp meat marinade which I used to deglaze the pan after the meat was seared up nice to recover extra shrimpy goodness. I think a lot of the toasted taste from the shells might be from the little bits of meat in the legs we usually don't end up eating.

Anyways, does anyone else do this? If not, would anyone else give the idea a try to tell me if I'm just fooling myself?