Friday 20 April 2012

How To Peel and Devein Prawns

crevettes
King Prawns
Back to the shellfish for a few days guys! It doesn't matter what size the prawns are, these steps apply to all of them, shrimps too. Peeling prawns isn't difficult if you know where to start and once you've done it a few times it gets much easier. If you're beginner, you'll be a pro in no time with this guide!


  • Hold the prawn making sure that the head is held by your dominant hand
how to peel prawns
Twist and Pull
  • Squeeze the head and twist it off firmly with a pull
how to peel king prawns
Orf With It's Head!
  • Turn the prawn so the tail is held by your dominant hand
peeling prawns
Squeeze and Pull
  • Squeeze just above the tail fan and where the prawn meat starts
  • Keep squeezing and twist off firmly
peeling king prawns
Comes Cleanly Off
  • Use your dominant hand to get your thumb under the shell
how to peel prawns
Getting The Body Shell Off
  • Peel back
peeling a prawn
Messy Job But So Worth It
prawn shelling
Keep Peeling
  • Repeat with the rest of the shell on the body
king prawn shelling
Coming Off In Larger Sections Now
how to peel prawn guide
Last Bit Of Shell
peeled king prawn
A Perfectly Peeled Prawn
Now for the deveining.
  • Hold the prawn on a flat surface on its back 
  • Insert a sharp knife where you see the orange vein start
how to devein prawns
Don't Cut Too Deep
  • Cut downwards until you reach the end of the tail
how to devein king prawns
Nicely Sliced
  • Insert the knife to expose the vein and pull it out with your fingers
deveining prawns
Removing The Yuck
  • Open up the very end of the tail, you should see a light brown/orange sack or vein
prawn insides
More Yuck
  • Ease it out with the tip of your knife
prawn poop
Nearly There
  • Turn the prawn so that the back is upright
  • Insert your knife very gently at the top and glide it down to the tail
how to prepare shrimp
Again, Don't Cut Too Deep
  • You want to be very slight in your cutting movement as you don't want the prawn to halve
butterfly shrimp
A Light Cut Is All It Needs
  • Carefully open the cut with your knife tip to check for a vein
how to devein shrimp
Just One More Step
  • If there is one use your knife to gently scrape it out, sometimes it will come out whole and you can use your fingers like with the underside vein, other times it's a bit messy and you'll have to use the knife
devein shrimp
Not Too Messy And Easy To Remove
So that's it, how to peel and devein a prawn, like everything, it's easy when you know how! I've been peeling prawns for as long as I can remember, since a little girl. I don't recall being taught, it's another of those kitchen things that I picked up from watching my mum do it countless times. I guess it's easy to take certain skills for granted when you've used them your entire life, you just assume everyone has them.

If you have reached this blog looking for how to peel prawns, I hope that you use this guide and tell me how you got on, I would seriously love to know that I had helped someone peel their first prawn! I'm not kidding, comment me!

Happy Peeling!

2 comments:

  1. Call me wind because I am blown away by your post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. You're an absolute spammer but I'll let this one through, purely because I find it funny.

    ReplyDelete

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