How To: Devein Shrimp

Does this package look daunting to you? Unsuspecting in nature, it contains something that can be fairly intimidating for a midwestern home cook, you know, those who only see the ocean while on vacation. Unfortunately, I happen to be included among that group; however, I was unwilling to let fear get in the way of an awesome deal at my local grocery store. I came home armed with the knowledge that my neighbors are from the Louisiana, and would be willing to help me out if I made a total mess out of things.  

What is it that I'm going on and on about? Shrimp. Yep, shrimp. You see, most of the time when I buy shrimp, I get the frozen kind that are already shelled and deveined. But, I cannot pass up a deal, so I was forced to buy some that were fresh(er) with the shell on. At least they were de-headed; I'm not sure that even a good deal could have forced me into that situation! Nevertheless, when I came home, I had a pound of shrimp that needed to be shelled and deveined. What did I do? Conquer the shrimp on my own? Nope! I enlisted the help of my fearless husband.    :)  

(Those are his hands in all of the photos below! Thanks for modeling for me honey!!)

Turns out, there's really not that much to it. It's a bit labor-intensive, which is why I think they were on sale. Ha Ha! But all in all, it's really not too difficult. So, if you are game for learning a new skill to impress your family (or even yourself) then you should definitely get thee to the supermarket and pick up some fresh(er) shrimp of thy own and follow along with us! 

First, the set up. You will need two bowls: one empty bowl for the trash and one filled with ice water for the finished shrimp. It is vital that you keep the raw shrimp cold for bacteria preventing purposes!! You also need a good sharp knife because raw shrimp are fairly delicate and you don't want to smash the meat. 

On to the shrimp. First, you need to pull off the legs. Just grab them at the top (on the head side) and pull down toward the tail. They sometimes come off all together and other times you might have to pull them off individually. Either way, just get those little legs off!

The next step is to pull off the shell. When you pulled off the legs, you made a break in the surface of the shell, so I found that if I grabbed the shell from the underside, it was super easy to peel off. Eric liked to start at the head side where you could already see the meat of the shrimp and pull it off from there. Whatever way works for you; all that matters is that you get it off of that glorious meat! (Seeing a trend here? This is pretty easy stuff, it just takes experimenting to figure out the way that's easiest for you.) After I had the shell and legs taken off, I liked to run my finger along the underside (where the legs were) just to make sure that all of the bones and pieces of shell were taken off. 

Once the shell is off, you can pull off the tail if you want to. Some people like to cook shrimp with the tail on, so this part is totally optional! 

Now, take your knife and, starting at the head end, make a cut about a quarter of an inch deep. Extend this cut all the way from the head to the tail. You should be exposing the vein as you cut.

See how the vein becomes exposed? That's what we're looking for! Make sure to cut all the way to the end, since the vein runs along the whole top side.

Now, just slip your knife tip in between the vein and the meat. It will come off very easily, it's really just a matter of making sure you get it all! You could probably use your fingers if you wanted, but I felt that my fingers were a bit too big for getting into the small space. Also, if you look closely, you can actually see the little pink vein, not just the greenish-black stuff in the vein. I went ahead and made sure that was out, as well, just to be safe.   ;)    Oh, and by the way, not all shrimp have a vein. Not sure how that works out, exactly, but we had a few in our batch with no vein to speak of. 

And that's it! Now you just have 60 more to go! But really, as you go, you do get faster and more efficient. And at the end, you'll have beautiful shrimp just begging to be cooked in a delicious recipe. Oh, and wouldn't you know it, I have just the recipe! My next post will feature what I did with our hard-earned shrimp. Make sure you come back and check it out!