June 18, 2009
Deshelling/Deveining Shrimp 101
I’m about to post a meal I made with shrimp, but before I do, I thought I should do a little shrimp deveining tutorial. It’s so easy to pass up the fresh, shell-on shrimp in the seafood section of the grocery store, since the thought of deshelling and deveining is such a pain in the ass. Trust me, I know- I’m the laziest cook alive, remember? Besides, it’s just so easy to get the ever-so-convenient bag of deshelled, pre-boiled, frozen shrimp at Trader Joe’s.
But honestly, deshelling and deveining fresh shrimp really isn’t so bad, and it really is worth the extra 10 or 15 minutes it takes. The result is fresher, plumper shrimp for your dish, a result which you can’t really get with the pre-boiled frozen kind.
Just four easy steps to get to deveined shrimp FREEDOM!
1. Peel shell off of shrimp.
2. Gently slice the back side of the shrimp, all the way down. Take out the poop sack if you see one.
3. Do the same for the front side. Slice knife gently all the way down.
4. You see that vein? Take it out!
All this shrimp took about 10 minutes to peel and devein! It’s actually sorta fun and relaxing- is that weird???
2 Comments
This is wonderful. Very informative. For steps 2 and 3 I use a toothpick instead of a knife. I kind of guide it under the skin to follow the crevice where the poop sack lies.
Tooth pick option leaves shrimp without open back, which is usually preferred in cooking. However, I always do Kayoko way to peel shrimp. I never do inside, though.
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[...] possible. Anything with a head still on it is going to taste a “whole” lot better. Deveining the shrimp is a bit of a pain, but when you eat the final product, you’ll appreciate the effort that pays [...]