What to Leave Out of Your Seafood Dish

Last weekend my husband and I purchased 2 lbs of fresh, shell-on shrimp from a local vendor at the Meridian Farmer's Market. The same vendor had for sale an interesting gadget for deveining the shrimp, and although I simply use method to stand in where a new-fangled gadget would otherwise expedite this process, I was still interested in an unknown procedure that might make my life easier when I was up to my elbows in shrimp shells.

Before I started cleaning the shrimp at home, I gave a few seconds to Google 'deveining shrimp' and 'why devein shrimp', just in case I was missing some important piece of info that would allow me to whip through the cleaning process in just a few minutes. Unfortunately, all I found were a ton of how-to's, none faster or better than my own methods.

Curiously, though, I also uncovered an apparent argument that exists among shrimp-cleaners, restaurant owners, and seafood eaters that revolves around the necessity to devein shrimp at all! For anyone out there who does not already know, 'deveining' refers to the removal of the shrimp's intestinal tract i.e poop chute that runs along the back of the shrimp. They should call it 'de-poop-chuting', because that's exactly what is happening. This poop-chute appears as a thin dark line, and some places serve the shrimp with it still intact. Gross.

Apparently there are those that argue de-poop-chuting is an unnecessary and lengthy work-intensive task that makes no real difference in the taste of the dish being prepared other than aesthetically. Well, I am very firmly on the side of the argument that says, "Uh, yeah, the feces of another creature does not enhance the flavor of this dish, nor does it look appetizing." For a tutorial on de-poop-chuting fresh shrimp, check this out. And remember that seafood and fresh fish are best eaten within 24 hours of catch. ;D