I have never peeled or deveined a shrimp before, ever. My family was always culinarily-challenged, and I’m not sure they knew (or cared) about cleaning shrimp. In retrospect, that is kind of frightening, but I’ll get to that in a second. As for me, I have always bought them already cleaned, and sometimes even frozen. Some busy gals still love to cook, and purchasing prepped shrimp was an easy option.

Since I make it a point to learn anything in the kitchen I can, I decided that today would be the day I would buy fresh, shelled shrimp and clean them up myself. I’d seen how it was done on TV: tear off the legs, peel off the shell, slice down the back of the shrimp, and pull the ick out of there—easy. But doing it myself was like taking a trip back to high school biology.

I remember high school biology like it was yesterday. One of my best friends and I were paired up to dissect a fetal pig, which we affectionately referred to as Bubba. The teacher showed us how to gently pull its intestines out in one piece, and it looked so clean and easy. But once we were inside of Bubba, it was a different story. Our friend’s innards were covered in a slimy substance, and getting those intestines out without tearing them or him apart felt so impossible. And so, so gross.

Taking the shells off the shrimp was no problem at all. But inside, the shrimp had all sorts of “veins”, some thin and nearly invisible, and some that were so startlingly thick I had to close my eyes and wash the goo out as quickly as possible. I couldn’t shake the thought of shrimp literally being scared shitless as they died. I am still shuddering.

Obviously, if I’m going to be any kind of chef at any point in my life, I will have to get used to this. So from now on, I’d like to peel and devein my own shrimp as often as possible. But it just goes to show that even the easiest looking things can be difficult hands-on. I learn that lesson with food very often (like the time I bloodied my hand while shucking a clam—but that’s another blog post).

Since I’m still new to this whole super-fresh shrimp thing, will someone please answer me this: if the shrimp taste better cooked with the shell on, when does the deveining happen? Or does it??