How to clean shrimp/prawns

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These rather meaty prawns 🦐
A bit of a double edged sword that I don’t like that all prawns here usually requiring hefty ‘deveining’ it’s time consuming, but I do like that they taste extra prawny because they haven’t been purged in clean water to cater for a Brit’s sensitivities when it comes to looking at a poop tract 😂


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These rather meaty prawns 🦐
A bit of a double edged sword that I don’t like that all prawns here usually requiring hefty ‘deveining’ it’s time consuming, but I do like that they taste extra prawny because they haven’t been purged in clean water to cater for a Brit’s sensitivities when it comes to looking at a poop tract 😂


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You take out the flavor tube??? 🤣
 
These rather meaty prawns 🦐
A bit of a double edged sword that I don’t like that all prawns here usually requiring hefty ‘deveining’ it’s time consuming, but I do like that they taste extra prawny because they haven’t been purged in clean water to cater for a Brit’s sensitivities when it comes to looking at a poop tract 😂


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I've been beheading, peeling, and deveining shrimp/prawns for as long as I can remember. I'm pretty fast. I don't mind mudveins (guts) in boiled shrimp but DH hates it, so before boiling (shell on) I cut along the back dorsal side with kitchen shears and pull out the intestinal tracts under running water. With fried shrimp I butterfly and clean them before breading. They sell them already cleaned but somehow they taste different so I buy them shell-on. These days I rarely find them with heads on.
 
It's probably surprising to some folks in my country, too.
But I'm sure the heads go to good use. Cat food maybe ;)

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I've always found kitchen shears easier.

Heads for seafood stock for home cooks. Fertilizer would be more likely than cat food I think.

I lived in Florida for many years and heads on was the way they were sold up until the 80s when tourists were creeped out by them. Seafood vendors quickly realized the profit margin for taking off the heads and charging more.
 
Heads probably go into stock.

I would have said stock... but recently could not find any fish stock and ended up ordering cubes from the UK. Through Amazon of course. So if they go towards stock, I don't think it's here in the US.
And if I recall the packaging of my cubes, herring is used.
 
Me three. Scissors for lobster and king crab legs.
Though a fork will work on king crab legs, too.
 
I would have said stock... but recently could not find any fish stock and ended up ordering cubes from the UK. Through Amazon of course. So if they go towards stock, I don't think it's here in the US.
And if I recall the packaging of my cubes, herring is used.
I've never purchased it. I save my lobster, crab, and shrimp shells and freeze until there's enough for a batch of stock. That freezes well too.
 
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