I’ve a lot of experience with shelling and deveining shrimp… but some of my fav shrimp recipes involve slicing the shrimp in half lengthwise. When I do this I am seeing another vein like thing along the inside curve of the shrimp. It looks like a thick black hair, and it is easily removed by just pressing the tip of my knife down over a section of it on the cutting board, and dragging the shrimp away. It really does feel like a second, much finer vein.
What the heck is this? And if it is some other kind of vein, I’m bummed I have been eating this in whole shrimp I cook.
If nobody knows what I am talking about I can post a pict later today… just lemmeno.
Nerve.
I usually remove both, but they are quite different. The larger one on the back is digestive intestine. The smaller one on the bottom is a nerve cord.
Most restaurants do not remove the nerve cord. So even when you and I remove the nerve cords, when you eat out, vast majority of your shrimp dish will have this. Some don’t even remove the digestive tract.
I use my favorite knife, inexpensive Victoronix, serrated with pointed, not rounded, tip. I just use the tip to score an opening, then easily remove with the tip. I only buy wild caught shrimp from Whole Foods. Sometimes you can get them to clean the shrimp for you. (I only buy when they are on sale, prime membership.)
To be honest, I just use a paring knife. However, I know there are special tools, but I have never used them myself.
When I want to keep the shrimp whole, then I just slice on top and bottom and remove the two veins. For a few shrimps, I use the knife itself to remove the veins too. For a large number of shrimps, then I put them in still water or running water to rinse the vein out of the shrimp.
If I do not need to keep the shrimp whole, then I do what you do. I slice the shrimp in half. Now, both veins are exposed and easier to remove them at the same time.
I clean shrimp by making a little slit with a paring knife all along both the “back” and the “stomach” of each shrimp. Then I hold the shrimp under running water and just gently rub the offending veins out. I’m always cleaning several pounds at a time so I do all the slicing first, then all the deveining second—it’s more efficient.
I use @travelmad478 method. If you don’t like the shrimp smell on your hands, a squirt of yellow mustard rubbed all around and washed off is pretty effective.
The way I usually get a stink off my hands is to “wash” them under running water with a spoon. No idea why stainless steel gets you stink-free, but it works with garlic.
I was having lunch over at my girlfriend’s, about 10 years ago, and watched her lather up her hands and she began stroking her faucet.
When I asked her what she was doing her reply was she was getting the garlic aroma off of her hands.
SS really does work.
I’ll have to try @Vecchiouomo idea of mustard and have used lemon that worked in a pinch.
