Prawns - to devein or not devein??

[tigercametotea]

Do you devein your prawns?
It seems some people do and some people don't.
I have a pack of frozen uncooked king prawns from the local Chinese supermarket which are still in their shells, whole.
I'm cooking a prawn noodle dish tonight.
Not sure whether to bother deveining or not?
DH usually does the deveining, but he's not in right now, and I think deveining is a bit of a pain... should I or should I not?

You will be eating prawn poo if you don't devein.

I always devein big ones. And avoid ones so small that i can't de vein!
Can't stand the crunchiness of sandy prawn poo. Yuk.

That's why I often go for chicken instead.

I tend to devein if I can see the vein.
And yes to doing it with big ones.
Little teenies no don't bother eg DFIL brought us some shrimp the other day, we'd have been at it all year!

Hmm... In some dishes like Spanish, French or Asian dishes, large prawns are served whole with their heads, shells, legs and tails and the consumer has to peel the cooked prawns themselves. How do they devein them? I've always wondered about that. Maybe they don't? But that's the way I intend to cook my prawns - whole. Is it really that bad not to devein? I can understand the need to devein for prawn mayonnaise though, as the prawns are shelled... But yes the idea of eating the poo is gross lol

I've never bothered.

You lose quite a lot of prawn meat in the deveining.

Life is too short to devein.

I've never done it. Its not as if prawn poo is like human poo is it?

If I get a giant prawn to eat myself I will pull the manky bit out if I see it.
Quite often eat various crustaceans from shell on state.
If you are serving them whole then deffo just serve as they come IMO

You don't loose any meat of you devein properly.

Sharp knife down the spine and with the tip of the knife lift the vein out.

I would devein prawns but not shrimp.

I was thinking of posting this too! I took out the veins in some cooked peeled prawns yesterday, but didn't bother with the ones I couldn't see through the skin. Definitely devein larger prawns, it can be quite satisfying