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Shrimp are consumed by the millions across the globe every day, especialy in restaurants. If you've never prepared your own fresh shrimp at home, you might not appreciate the effort that goes into getting the raw product ready for the frying pan, oven, or grill.

Shrimp have a dark vein running along the top, and a smaller vein along the bottom. The bottom vein is part of the animal's nervous system, and most cooks don't bother with trying to remove it before cooking.

The top vein, however, is another story. This "vein" isn't actually a vein at all. It's the shrimp's digestive track, and the dark stuff inside is shrimp feces. Depending on the shrimp's diet and where it was caught, the vein can give the shrimp a gritty, sandy taste that isn't exactly pleasant to the diner. Shrimp caught in tidal creeks and marshes are notorious for their "mud line" or "sand vein." And larger shrimp have a much more pronounced vein than do smaller individuals.

As far as health goes, there's really no reason to remove the vein, but still, most cooks and diners prefer deveined shrimp. This process can be extremely time consuming if you don't know what you're doing. While living near the coast for a decade, I peeled and deveined many, many pounds of shrimp, and I think I've tried every gadget ever made for the purpose. After many trials and errors, however, I discovered the best tool for getting the job done, and everyone has several of these in a kitchen drawer. I'm referring to the plain old dinner fork.

To quickly peel and devein shrimp, the head needs to be removed first. To do this, simply pinch the shrimp just behind the head and in front of the legs. If you're squeamish and don't care to use your bare hand for this task, use a knife.

After the head has been removed, hold the shrimp in your left hand, a little past the middle of the shrimp's back, closer to the tail. With your right hand, insert the bottom fork tine just under the shell. Move the fork along the shrimp's back. At the same time, squeeze the shrimp in the last body section nearest the tail. With one quick movement, you'll remove the shell, the tail, and the vein. Voila! Your shrimp are almost ready for cooking. All that's left is to run the shrimp under cold running water to remove any grit that might be left behind.

Believe me, this is the absolute best way to clean shrimp. It takes a little practice, but after just a few tries, you'll have it down pat!

Learn more about this author, Holle Abee.
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