Shrimp peeler/deveiner

My wife hates to peel and devein shrimp so I'm always the designated shrimp guy in our house. I was using a plastic Good Grips peeler/deveiner for a while until the tip broke. Tonight I used my Ealy parer, which is a bit snub-nosed for the job IMO. I was curious what home cooks and pros were using out there for this task (other than using the Shrimp Butler :thumbsup.

My dad told me that this was why he had kids. I usually use whatever cheap paring knife is around.

+1 for the parer

Just a regular pairing knife idk why you'd need anything else :biggrin:

Scissors

If you squeeze right when you pop the heads the vein will usually come with. If not then another squeeze and the shell is off, quick paring to devein.

Little tougher when serving with shell on but want to devein. Pop the heads and curved foreceps (roach clips from days gone by) will get it out.

When it's just me I have no problem eating a little sand.

I have peeled so much shrimp in my days I HATE IT, you can peel the shell off in one go and if butterflying get the vein at the same time

I'm no expert but I use an original Ealy parer too.

CoqaVin said:

I have peeled so much shrimp in my days I HATE IT, you can peel the shell off in one go and if butterflying get the vein at the same time

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CoqaVin, I'm not questioning you but I'd love to see a video of his technique. I'm pretty quick but deshelling the tail and deveining are still two steps for me.

I will add, that while using a parer to shallowly slice through the spine, I angle the knife off center so that I don't cut the vein. This way it comes out in one shot. Having a paper towel on hand is critical.

Scissors is a good trick, it works for assembly line shrimp peeling.

I also don't pull the poop for home use.

For advanced you can use a wood skewer to pull the vein with the head and shell on for fancy peel and eats.

I've always used a fork. It works surprisingly well.

Dardeau said:

For advanced you can use a wood skewer to pull the vein with the head and shell on for fancy peel and eats.

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This :goodpost:

I pull the head and get the whole shell from the body with my thumb, works well if you have decent shrimp that aren't paper shells. Leaves the side of your thumb between your skin and nail pretty raw if your doing a large amount. With enough practice tho you can pretty much push through the shell of the shrimp with your thumb where the shell meets the legs and slide down and pull the shell off attached to your thumb. As for depooping just a sharp parrying knife down the back and a quick dip in heavy flowing water. I've never done it on shrimp as it seems a bit ridiculous, especially when your peeling 200+ shrimp. But the skewer thing made me think of cleaning spiny lobster. After we caught them, to clean them you would break an attenae off, shove it up the rear end a bit and twist around. Separates the sphincter mussel from the back of the vein and when you pull the head off the whole vein comes with it.

I use a petty called a three finger knife by Portland knife maker Arnon Kartmazov.
I'm a home cook so 3 pounds of large shrimp is about the extent of my task. The petty worked very well.

drawman623 said:

I use a petty called a three finger knife by Portland knife maker Arnon Kartmazov.
I'm a home cook so 3 pounds of large shrimp is about the extent of my task. The petty worked very well.

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should tell your wife suck it up and don't be lazy.