How to Split Shrimp

You'll need to split and clean shrimp before presenting them in a cocktail.

If you buy your shrimp whole, you'll need to clean, split and de-vein the shrimp to make them ready for cooking and consumption. Whole shrimp come with the whole shell, a head, a tail and a vein down the back that you won't typically encounter when buying them in a bag in the freezer section, or even when fresh at your local grocery store. Splitting shrimp is a fairly simple process once you learn the procedure. Does this Spark an idea?

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Small paring knife
Two bowls of ice water

Instructions

- 1
  
  Keep shrimp in ice water before and after peeling to prevent them from going bad.
- 2
  
  Pull off the head and legs gently.
- 3
  
  Pull off the outer shell by starting at the head and working your way down. You can choose to leave the tail and last segment of the shell on for presentation purposes.
- 4
  
  Cut about 1/4 inch deep along the middle of the shrimp's back with the paring knife.
- 5
  
  Remove the vein along the back if you can see it in the cut. Don't worry about it if you don't see one.