Proper preservation of shrimp

[macushlah]

Back again for some more information on shrimping. What is the best method of cleaning and de-veining shrimp? Does a person need any special tools that would help. I hear it is possible to de-head and de-vein all in one fell swoop. How is that accomplished. Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Boater]

No Tools Necessary

I put the body in my left hand then snap the head off with my right hand. I usually break it off by bending the shrimp towards me right where the head joins the body. Don't go too fast or you'll leave the "vein" in the shrimp. But, do it a little slower and you will see the whole vein pull right out. It only takes a couple times to figure it out; pretty easy. At this point, I put the body in a zip lock with ice and toss the head overboard.

[bkmail]

Try letting them sit in a 5 gallon pail in seawater just like you would w/clams.
Or, just don't worry about it and chow down....but Boater's technique works pretty well also.
BK

[potbuilder]

What i do is when dumping the shrimp out of the pots i put them in a large bucket or fish-tote of saltwater, after a few minutes they will puke up a lot of whatever is in them,the water will change color, i them dump out the water and again fill the tote with more clean saltwater, they puke again and i change the water again. What i'm getting at is that the shrimp sort of purge/clean themselves this way and very little of the vein will be left, i never clean them of the vein, we just steam them in beer, garlic & butter and chow down.

[macushlah]

Thanks for the info,, Now all I need to do is get some of them thar shrimp. I guess that will have to wait till June when I get up there

[NRick]

Huh, we just pull the heads off and they either go in zip locks on ice or straight in the steamer. Ain't never bothered with purging, puking, deveining, or going slow. Quite tasty!

[tananaBrian]

Doesn't anyone freeze them whole? I'm a noob, but may have my boat in the water next year (I'm building one) and all this stuff is interesting learning...

Brian

[Larsenvega]

Doesn't anyone freeze them whole? I'm a noob, but may have my boat in the water next year (I'm building one) and all this stuff is interesting learning...

Brian

Freezing them whole is just wasting good freezer space. Unless you're eating the whole shrimp (yuck!), there's no good reason to postpone the proper cleaning of your shrimp. I'm partial to potbuilder's method of purging them out in saltwater. I don't know about you guys, but I don't like seeing a big 'ol poop chute in a piece of shrimp on the end of my fork. :eek:

[tananaBrian]

Freezing them whole is just wasting good freezer space. Unless you're eating the whole shrimp (yuck!), there's no good reason to postpone the proper cleaning of your shrimp. I'm partial to potbuilder's method of purging them out in saltwater. I don't know about you guys, but I don't like seeing a big 'ol poop chute in a piece of shrimp on the end of my fork. :eek:

I agree on the poop chute. As far as freezing them whole goes, you'd think it'd keep the meat from getting freezer burned. It would use more freezer space though ...

Brian

[4whlr]

Freezing Shrimp

We pull the heads off and then wrap in freezer paper and then vacuum pack. If you don't use freezer paper first, their shell will poke holes in the bags.

[akriverrat]

sidestripes deep fried whole until they float then placed on a paper towel and sprikled with salt is yuuuuummmy. head and all, even the big spike sticking out there nose crumbles like a potato chip.

[meat_purveyor]

oh, good! I thought I was the only one that ate the heads...

[Mountain Trapper]

pinch the heads then pack in a freezer bag with water. they keep really well this way.

[Paul H]

You can save the heads for making a good stock. It's easy to pinch the heads off after you get the shrimp out of the pots, tails in one bag, heads in the other.

The antenna are suprisingly sharp, so if you freeze the shrimp whole odds are the antenna will poke a hole in the bag.

[John_Pennell]

Shrimp heads make good bait

When I shrimped in Florida we'd save the heads for bait when we were out fishing for mangrove snappers, sea trout and such in the Banana River...or the Indian River for that matter. They worked great and I would imagine you could do the same up here...except for the snapper part.