The default cocktail sauce is ketchup with horseradish stirred in, served immediately, and it tastes exactly like that. The fix is thirty minutes of resting time and a slightly better ratio.
Below is that sauce made properly, plus three others. Serve two side by side and the tray goes from good to memorable at a cost of about four minutes.
The classic, done right
Classic cocktail sauce
- 3/4 cup ketchup
- 3 tbsp prepared horseradish, drained
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- A few drops of hot sauce, optional
Stir everything together in a small bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least thirty minutes before serving, and up to three days.
The rest is not optional. Horseradish is volatile and needs time to bloom through the ketchup. A sauce made and served in the same minute tastes flat and thin, which is why most people think they dislike cocktail sauce.
Drain the horseradish before measuring. The liquid in the jar is vinegar, and enough of it will break the sauce into something watery.
Ladolemono, the Greek answer
Olive oil and lemon, whisked hard until it thickens into an emulsion. It is what cold seafood is served with across the Aegean and it does something the ketchup-based sauces cannot: it makes the shrimp taste more like shrimp instead of covering them.
Ladolemono
- 1/2 cup good olive oil
- 3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano, crushed between your fingers
- 1/4 tsp fine sea salt
- Black pepper
Whisk the lemon juice and salt together first until the salt dissolves. Add the oil in a slow stream, whisking continuously, until it thickens and turns pale.
Add the oregano and pepper last. Serve within a few hours. It will separate in the refrigerator, which is fine, just whisk it again.
This is also the sauce for chilled asparagus, grilled octopus, or anything else on a cold Mediterranean table.
Mignonette, if there are oysters
Three ingredients, no cooking, and it is what a raw bar serves for a reason.
Red wine mignonette
- 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
- 1 shallot, minced as finely as you can manage
- 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper
- A pinch of salt
Combine and let it sit for at least an hour. It is better after four and holds for a week in the refrigerator.
The mince matters more than anything else here. Large pieces of raw shallot are unpleasant on an oyster. Take the time.
Remoulade, for people who find cocktail sauce boring
Caper remoulade
- 3/4 cup good mayonnaise
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tbsp capers, drained and chopped
- 1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon or dill
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- A dash of hot sauce
Stir together and refrigerate for an hour. Holds three days.
Richer than the others, so it works best as the second sauce rather than the only one.
Which two to serve together
The pairing that works almost every time is one red and one not-red. Visually it gives the tray a second colour, and practically it covers both the guest who wants the familiar thing and the guest who is tired of it.
- Classic cocktail plus ladolemono. The best default. Sharp against clean.
- Classic cocktail plus remoulade. For a rich, cold-weather table.
- Mignonette plus ladolemono. If oysters are involved.
Keep the sauces off the ice. A sauce bowl set directly into a melting bed will be noticeably diluted within the hour, and cocktail sauce in particular goes watery and pale. Set the bowl on an inverted ramekin, or keep it beside the tray.
Keep it cold, keep it sharpThe AAF-01 Classic holds a deep crushed ice bed in 304 stainless steel, so the shrimp are still cold when the second sauce runs out.
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About two tablespoons per person. For twelve guests with two sauces, make a full cup of each rather than half, because the split is never even and one always outruns the other.
The Chilled Presentation Playbook
Fifteen pages: every method on this site, twelve sauces, an oyster guide, and a timed prep schedule for a table of twelve. Free, as a PDF.
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Common questions
What is cocktail sauce made of?
Ketchup, prepared horseradish, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce, with salt and optional hot sauce. The proportions matter less than resting it for thirty minutes before serving so the horseradish blooms.
Can I make cocktail sauce ahead of time?
Yes, and you should. It needs at least thirty minutes and is better after a few hours. It holds three days covered in the refrigerator.
What can I serve with shrimp cocktail instead of cocktail sauce?
Ladolemono, a whisked Greek emulsion of olive oil, lemon and oregano, is the best alternative for cold shrimp. A caper remoulade works for a richer table, and mignonette if oysters are also being served.
The Chilled Presentation Playbook
Everything on this site in one PDF, plus twelve sauces, an oyster guide and a timed prep schedule for a table of twelve.
No more than one email a month. We never sell or share your address. Privacy.