The GI tract of the shrimp runs on top. Whatever's on the bottom isn't "poo". Rinse them, clean them up and you'll be done with it.

Right, it sounds like they were properly deveined.

Correct...what the others said. We've owned shrimp boats for over 50 years...have eaten literal tons of shrimp.

They're right. Throw them in the steam pot with a little too much old bay. Cook till they turn bright orange. Pull off the rest of the shell, along with that string thingy. All you need now is Cole slaw, hush puppies and cold beer.

OT: How healthy are shrimp and other seafood today, with all the pollution in the oceans? These little critters live by filtering the water, right? (I don't buy seafood or fish from China, but what about US seafood?)

I pick them out too. I know I don't need to but it grosses me out. A toothpick makes a quick job of it. Just slide it under one end and pull towards the other.

Chisue, I think it depends largely where you get the seafood. I only buy wild, and even then only in areas that are less polluted, like Alaska. I think generally speaking the smaller seafood are healthier as they have shorter exposure to pollution. I buy tuna that is line-caught and low-mercury. But I'm not an expert by any means.

It's really sad what we've done to the planet that we have to worry about such things.

One thing about shrimp, their life cycle isn't that long and so they don't retain a lot of pollution, as say, fish. I remember some years ago when there was such a brouhaha about only buying farm raised shrimp, and now they are saying only wild caught. I have heard that some of the shrimp farms in Asia are filthy and water is heavily treated with antibiotics. Also the run off from the growing ponds were severely damaging native mangroves that grow along the coast line. I will not eat tilapia....almost always farm raised in Asia. I (of course) will not eat any shrimp that doesn't come off our boat. I like crawfish...only in etouffe. Not crazy about just boiled crawfish...seems like a poor substitute for shrimp, but to each his own. I used to raise waterlilies and koi, and had 6 mud bottomed pond. Every spring I would pump out the ponds, hand pick out all the crawfish...or, crayfish,...and plant waterlilies and spawn my koi and put the eggs in with the waterlilies to hatch. If I didn't pick out all the crawfish, as soon as the tropical lily tubers sprouted, they would defoliate them. So, I made a lot of etouffe. When we sold that place and I no longer raised my own crawfish, and could only find that raised in China, I quit making it. (I was looking for the packages of tail meat...not the live crawfish...those have always been available). I even searched for it when I went to Louisiana....but in the supermarkets there, I could only find crawfish raised in China. Finally, I have found some packages of Louisiana crawfish meat, so I have started making it again.

Hmmmm etouffe. I cook mine with shrimp a little crab meat and chicken liver. Onion base cornbread with too much butter and fried okra. Oh god I'm hungry.

I've never had southern crayfish (crawdads), and am not overly interested in ours here. Friends of ours make a whole project out of setting traps in the river below their house and having a big crawfish boil every year...outside of course and talk about messy. It's an awful lot of work for one slurp of crawfish meat each (demonstrated as sucking out of the shell), the catching, the cooking, the breaking and eating...all of it ;)

I do like shellfish, and often cook steamer clams, razor clams, love our Dungeness crab, shrimp, and the little Hamma Hamma oysters are a treat...I just see more to discard in a crayfish than there is to eat ;) I did have some fun with them a few years ago, I had my niece and nephew here and took them out exploring into the woods. We made bread balls from rolling up bits of stale bread and plinked those into a creek, watched the crawdads come out of hiding to eat. They loved it - city kids ;)

Love love love fried crawfish tails, crawfish etouffee. Grandson and his dad enjoy the annual crawfish boil downtown.

Glenda, when Erica was a tot they went to the Crawfish festival and when they got home Heather found that Erica had put crawfish in her purse! Tee Hee! Guess she want them "to go".

No bottom feeding fish for me either. I miss swordfish dinners and little neck clam chowder on Cape Cod. (We are coming to the proper non-R months for such stuff.)

I agree, Morz, Crawfish are more trouble than they are worth to me. Plus, I don't suck the heads. That is why I like buying the packages of tail meat...plus the fat is in there, which is what gives the etouffe that nice yellow color. Peeling crawfish makes my fingers sore. Raw shrimp are much easier...get them very cold, peel back the first part and pinch the tail and it comes out of the shell.

Linda, the crawfish festival has become really big. Think I'll go have a bowl of crawfish etouffee for lunch today :o)

Thanks for all the advice on shrimp. I've haven't been able to order shrimp in a restaurant in over 20 years. They looked beautifully breaded and deep fried. Then I took a bite and they were not deveined. Almost lost the rest of my dinner. Now, I try buying them again and get grossed out again. I suppose I'd be equally disgusted if I peeked in a slaughter house! lol