Claire’s tip of the week

Woody F. asked, “How can you tell if shrimp is undercooked or overcooked? Also, how do you extract the black intestinal substance after you peel the shrimp?”

Let’s start with deveining. The dark line that runs down the back of the shrimp isn’t really a vein. It’s the intestinal tract, brown or blackish in color, that contains the body waste, aka poop. It is also a filter for sand or grit. None of which you want to eat.

Deveining isn’t difficult, it just takes time and a sharp paring knife. It’s easiest to start with raw shrimp. Deveining cooked shrimp is more difficult and annoying because the intestinal tract becomes cooked and tends to break off in small pieces.

Hold the shrimp in one hand, using the middle portion of the knife blade, run the blade down the back of the shrimp, from head to tail, forming a shallow cut to expose the tract. Use the tip of your knife to coax it out and your fingers to pull it out completely.

Raw shrimp are translucent and gray. Once cooked, the translucency becomes opaque and whitish, the gray turns pinkish-orange and tails take on a red hue.

Focusing on the head end of the shrimp, check the shallow created when deveining, and when it just turns opaque, the shrimp is cooked. If the color goes from opaque to a bright white it is overcooked.

There’s not much room for error when it comes to cooking shrimp. It happens quickly and requires your full attention. This is not the time for multitasking. The size of the shrimp affects the amount of time needed to cook. Generally, shrimp will cook in 3 to 4 minutes. Use the same size shrimp so they cook at the same rate. Use a proper size pan so they cook in a single layer or allow an ample amount of water and space in the pot. Once cooked, remove shrimp from the heat source immediately to prevent further cooking.

Another handy visual is the shape of cooked shrimp. Cooked shrimp contracts and forms a “C” shape. If it continues to cook the “C” closes and forms an “O.” Just remember, C=Cooked and O=Overcooked.

SUSAN STOCKER/SUN SENTINEL The dark line that runs down the back of the shrimp isn’t really a vein, it’s the intestinal tract and should be removed before cooking.