Don Kelly's Ozello Shrimper | Recreational Shrimping Equipment and Information

It is best to ice down your shrimp as soon as possible after you get out of the water. We place the shrimp in large gallon or two gallon Zip-Loc bags, add ice to the bag and then lay them in our cooler fillled with ice, layering them with a top layer of additional ice. They stay there until we are ready to take their heads off.

I'm right handed. I hold the shrimp in my left hand, grab the head with my right hand, twist and pull. If done properly, you will de-head and de-vein the shrimp at the same time. This de-veining can only be done with fresh shrimp. If you choose to clean your shrimp the next day, you will find, the longer you wait to clean your catch, the more the veins will break off from the head. So, clean your shrimp as soon as possible (your family and friends who eat them will appreciate it much more.)

The video to the right shows an alternative method using two hands.  If you catch a lot of shrimp, you might find this method faster.  For an even more laid back approach, check out our friend who invented the Sportsman's Shrimp Cleaning Table.  He has a great idea going and has sped up the process quite a bit!

How to Freeze Shrimp

I personally have developed three main classifications of shrimp over the years: small, medium, and large (and an additional when "Jumbos" are in season.) I designed these classifications around how I like to prepare the shrimp. The small shrimp, I use with stir-fry's or sauteed in a wine sauce. Mediums, I like them beer battered and deep fried. Large, boiled for shrimp cocktails. Jumbos I like to show off and butterfly and deep fry them. Like Bubba Gump said, there are about a million ways to eat and prepare shrimp so my way may not be your way. To help standardize us all when talking about the sizes of shrimp, and to help you store them, we have provided the industry standard classification system for shrimp

Whichever way you choose, your family will also have to package them according to your own needs. A family of two will only need enough shrimp in a frozen package for two people and a family of four who really like shrimp may need enough food for eight. As a result, you will need to freeze your shrimp accordingly to save space and make it more convenient for you when you decide to make a shrimp feast.

All of the shrimp are stored in freezer bags. So, go to the store and get yourself several sizes of double zipper Ziploc freezer bags with the writable white stripe on the front. Don't go cheap and get the Wal-Mart brand. Shrimp have a horn on the tail that can puncture cheap bags and our experience has been that Ziplock Double Zipper Freezer Bags hold up the best. You can get them on sale at the dollar store after the holidays are over as long as you don't mind their snowman pattern. Write the date, sizes and number of dozen shrimp are going to be put in the bag with a black sharpie marker before you place any shrimp in the bag. It is very difficult to write on the bag once you have filled them full of shrimp.

Place the shrimp in the bags in whatever amounts and sizes you desire. Then, one bag at a time, fill the bags with water, making sure to squeeze all the air out of the bag to prevent freezer burn. Don't fill them up all the way. They will explode in your freezer. By now, you should realize that you have a bunch of shrimpy water balloons laying around your kitchen. You will need to make room in your freezer to hold them. You will need a flat space where you can stack the bags of shrimp on top of each other so that they freeze in the shape of a flat square. If you are lucky, you will have purchased or own a deep freezer where you can do this ,instead of taking up all the space in the home fridge. Watch for leaking water in the first minutes after you place the bags in the fridge. This means a bag has opened, wasn't closed properly or was punctured.

Freezing the shrimp takes about 24 hours. Once they are frozen, you can store them anywhere in the freezer you want. Shrimp can be kept safely frozen for over a year and taste just as good as the day they were frozen provided you follow these directions.  That's right!  You can freeze shrimp for over a year!

For more cleaning, preparing and storing related videos, check out our YouTube playlist for videos from Ozello Shrimper and around the internet!