No. It does not seem to work for me. However, to be honest, the so called seafood smell do not really brother me, so I am probably not sensitive to that smell. I think there was only ever once the fish smell got really bad into my hand and my fingernails. That smell would wake me up in the middle of the night when I moved my fingers toward my hands. It only happened in that one instance which the smell lasted 2-3 days.
FWIW, I really like the added visual interest added when I fully butterfly shrimp. I cut down the middle about 3/4 of the way to the tail. I always remove both the digestive tract and the nerve cord as well as the shell, including the tail. I’ve been doing it for years.
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Most of the time I’m bisecting lengthwise because I love the curlicues they turn into upon cooking, and I find the nerve generally comes out on the knife most of the time and I just wipe it on the edge of the cutting board. Sometimes it’s still on one piece or the other and I easily remove it.
But frankly, I don’t care too much about that one and if I’m leaving the shrimp whole I just ignore it. I’m (personally) not too worried about the mud vein, either, but it’s rare that I’m cooking shrimp only for myself so I always remove it.
We got fresh shrimp once from a farmers market in South Florida (on Captiva Island) and I asked how fresh they were. The lady said “My husband and sons brought them in this morning and I ripped their heads off an hour ago - fresh enough?” (smiling and friendly, not challenging).
We bought 4 pounds of these and I’d never before or since had such wonderful tasting shrimp, and the flavor lingered for long time after eating. They were huge, I think they were 8 or 9 to a pound (but could be misremembering) but the most amazing thing about them was the shells. I have really tough thumbnails - as a show-off move I’ve shredded wooden pencils with them. These shells, though, I simply could not break off with my thumbs/thumbnails and had to resort to a paring knife to get them shelled.
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My grandmother kept a bowl of water for this - same idea, without the water wastage.
Re tools - I have this. Works well to get the shell off, but mangles the shrimp if you use it to devein, so I use a paring knife for that.
But cleaning shrimp is my most abhorred kitchen task, so I usually buy them already cleaned.
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One of my most disliked kitchen tasks - deveining and shelling shrimp. I rarely buy shrimp because they’re not local to Cape Cod, and only cook with them if I find US gulf shrimp. I use a pair of kitchen shears to split the shells down to the vein, then pull the vein out with a paring knife and rinse. The best shrimp we’ve ever had was on trips to the coastal South.
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I’m temped by the shrimp cleaner but haven’t tried it. Otherwise I’m pleased with Toadfish’s other products … even their shirt. 
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Oh my god. You are my god (or close to god).
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Lolol
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No. Hope you learn to put a sock in it and stop being so holier-than-thou.
Wait, what… so you think recommending against wasteful water usage in the western US is being holier than thou?
I’m not in the western US, so you can save the outrage. A drought is, in fact, the last thing my area has to worry about.
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With all due respect, the drought in Western US is catastrophic, and its medium and long range ramifications mind-boggling. Reservoirs are at all time lows. California is facing its worst drought in 1200 years. That isn’t a typo.
I’m not disputing that. I don’t live in the Western US, or anywhere else that’s facing water issues. So I don’t need the finger-wagging.
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Seems New Orleans could often use a little less rain, generally speaking.
No need to argue about this. Water conservation is a good thing. On the other hand, the amount of water for a home cook to clean shrimps is fairly small. I cannot be certain, but when people say they use running water, it does not necessary mean turning on water faucet at full strength for an hour while deveining shrimps. Most likely, we devein a bunch of shrimps and then use low to medium running water on them. I would be very surprised that the amount of water usage is very much compared to say water to boil a large amount of pasta or water usage to take a shower…etc. Moreover, shrimp eating is only occasional.
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Exactly. Berating me about drought conditions is, to put it mildly, misplaced.
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When Scott first posted that I was a bit put off because it does sound preachy, but I also didn’t see it as him berating you. I’ve see this sort of comment every so often here - I think it may be almost knee-jerk reaction ingrained into those living with the drought and its associated problems.
Still, he could easily have clicked your profile to see that you’re in NO and then avoided the conversation entirely.
I do the same, only I use my Fiskers. They are also great for crab claws.
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I am in California.
A few days ago I had a repairman over to check out my ice maker, and he said I should regularly toss out ice. I said “you want me to throw away ice/water?” He said I waste the same when taking a shower, and I said “that’s why I don’t!” . He looked uncertain about whether to laugh.
When I travel I have to remind myself that some folks flush their toilets!
Joking. Mostly.
