Home › Entertaining › Shrimp Cocktail
Shrimp Cocktail
1/4 cup tomato catsup 1/2 cup lemon juice 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 1 tablespoon grated horseradish 1 teaspoon Tabasco sauce 1/4 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons onion, chopped 4 tablespoons celery, cut fine 4 tablespoons green pepper, cut fine 1 1/2 cups shrimps Mix above ingredients, except shrimps. Chill. Cut shrimp in halves. Add sauce, rechill ten minutes before serving. Serves 8 to 10.
A 1930s cocktail sauce, sharper and looser than the ketchup-heavy version that later became standard. Two things want attention: the shrimp are assumed to be already cooked, and the heat level is high by modern habit.
- The shrimp are cooked before they go inNothing in this recipe cooks anything, so it depends on shrimp that arrive ready to eat — in period practice, canned shrimp or shrimp boiled and picked earlier in the day. Use cooked, peeled, deveined shrimp, well chilled and patted dry so they do not water down the sauce.
- How much shrimp that isA cup and a half of shrimp is roughly 8 oz cooked, which means about an ounce of shrimp per person across 8 to 10 servings. That reads as a stemmed-glass appetizer portion, not a plate of shrimp; if you want a substantial first course, plan on doubling the shrimp and keeping the sauce as written.
- Lemon juice, not chili sauce, is the baseHalf a cup of lemon juice against a quarter cup of catsup gives a thin, tart, pourable sauce rather than the thick red gel sold today. It is meant to be spooned over shrimp in a glass and eaten with a fork, so resist the urge to thicken it.
- A teaspoon of Tabasco is a lotHot sauces of the period were used freely, but a full teaspoon in roughly a cup of sauce is aggressive for most palates now. Start with a quarter teaspoon, chill, taste, and build up.
- Grated horseradishThis means fresh root, grated at the last minute, which is far more volatile and less sweet than bottled prepared horseradish. If you substitute prepared horseradish, drain it and use a slightly generous tablespoon, since it is already diluted with vinegar.
- The two chills are deliberateThe two chills -- The first chill lets the onion, celery and green pepper give up flavor into the sauce. The short second chill after the shrimp go in may be intended to keep them firm; shrimp left sitting in an acidic sauce for a long stretch can go chalky at the surface.
- Cutting the shrimp in halvesThe recipe says only to cut them in halves. Halving was common when shrimp came small and canned, and it makes the portion look larger in a glass. With today's larger shrimp, halving lengthwise still helps the sauce cling; whole small shrimp can be left as they are.
- ServingPeriod service is a stemmed glass or small cup set into a larger bowl of crushed ice, with a lemon wedge. Everything, including the glasses, should be cold before assembly.