- Epicurious Essentials: Cooking How-Tos
- Seafood
- Episode 5
How to Peel and Devein Shrimp
Released on 11/11/2008
(upbeat music)
[Narrator] Peeling and deveining shrimp.
deveining shrimp is not necessary but many people
like to do it to make the shrimp look better.
Also, the vein is actually the shrimp's digestive tract
and if the shrimp is large it can contain a lot of grit.
Here's some shrimp that we boiled to show
you how cooked, deveined shrimp look.
See how lovely they are?
To begin we've already rinsed the shrimp
in cold running water and patted them dry.
Holding the shrimp in one hand, pull off the legs.
Remove the shell by peeling from
where you've removed the legs.
And if you prefer to keep the tail on,
simply hold it firmly with one hand while
you remove the shell with your other hand.
Many people like to keeps the shells.
You can boil them for a great seafood stock.
Now to remove the vein, hold the shrimp
with the back side up.
Using a sharp paring knife or deveining tool
make a shallow incision along the vein.
And the vein is the black line running along it's back.
Use the tip of your knife to pull the vein up
and then pull it out.
If the vein breaks simply insert the tip
of the knife again and remove the rest of the vein.
When you're done, rinse the shrimp
with cold water and cook as desired.
(upbeat music)