One Handy Gadget Makes Deveining Shrimp A Breeze, But Do You Need It?

There are some tasks in the kitchen that can be a real pain in the butt, like deboning fish (though fishmongers will do it for you on request), removing shells from hard-boiled eggs (vinegar makes the peeling a bit easier), and finally, deveining shrimp. While it's not totally necessary to devein shrimp in every case, there are some instances where you really should, like when you want your shrimp to look their very best. It does raise the question, though: Do you need a shrimp deveiner to complete this task?

People have been deveining shrimp for years without the handy deveiner tool, which can look like a vegetable peeler with only half of the metal blade (like this Good Grips Shrimp Deveiner from OXO), or may have an entirely exposed curved blade, to mimic the natural shape of the shrimp (as with this Luvan Shrimp Deveining Tool). If you're not confident of your knife skills, especially when holding something as small, wet, and slippery as raw shrimp, you can absolutely invest in one of these single-use tools and never look back. However, if you are pretty good with a knife (or you want to get better), skip the shrimp deveiners and do it manually.

You can absolutely get the job of deveining done with a sharp (this is key) paring knife and your own two hands. To start, you'll hold the shrimp vertically and cut a shallow slit down the back of the shrimp. If you don't want the shells on, you can remove them at this point. Whether or not you want the tails on for cooking, leave them on during this part, as they give you something more solid to hold onto, rather than squishy raw shrimp all around.

Dip the tip of your knife into where the vein starts near the end (opposite of the tail-side) and use the pointy end of the blade to carefully lift up that thread. Best-case scenario? The vein lifts up and out in one piece. But, if it breaks, just reposition your knife's point where it broke off and repeat the process starting from there. You can keep a paper towel nearby to wipe off the veins you've removed. It's a simple, somewhat monotonous process, but if you do it enough, we bet you'll get really good and really fast at it — no fancy deveiner tool needed.

Make no bones about it, even if you get quick at removing shrimps' veins, it's a real crappy job. Like, literally, because the "vein" is actually the shrimp's digestive tract. But not to worry, it's totally safe to eat so long as it's cooked properly (and you, the casual home cook, should only eat shrimp cooked, never raw). If you have no aesthetic reason to remove it, it's fine, you won't get sick. You might, however, get some interesting tooth-feel from it, as it can imbue the shrimp with a gritty texture, leaving you feeling like you're eating grains of sand.

What you should not do is eat shrimp, vein and all, raw, because that could have serious implications for your health. Farm-grown shrimp aren't necessarily raised in the most hygienic conditions, which leaves the shellfish open to a whole host of bacteria, including E. coli and salmonella. If you're in a high risk group, you should always make sure, especially if you're leaving the veins in, to cook your shrimp until they're completely white and pink, and totally firm.