Shrimp Cocktail Recipe

The Shrimp Cocktail has grown into a luxury dish with an equally luxurious price tag.

Some American restaurants are now charging upwards of $30 for just a few shrimp and a dollop of cocktail sauce. High-pedigree chefs like Alex Stupak even amp up cocktail sauce with “crab innards and [lacing] them with shrimp paste and chiles” to justify the dish’s steep price tag. 

There are people with the audacity to claim authorship of the Shrimp Cocktail (or Prawn Cocktail as it’s known in the United Kingdom) recipe but this is bogus.

The idea of serving seafood on ice stretches back at least a couple hundred years and maybe much longer. Humans have been eating raw seafood for as long as they’ve roamed the planet. And sauces? They’ve existed at least since the days of Ancient Rome.

Aside from the shrimp, you probably have all of these ingredients in your pantry. If not, you should be able to find them at your local market.

In Shrimp Cocktail, the type of shrimp you choose becomes your paint brush.

We recommend using 16-20 shrimp (approximately 16 to 20 shrimp per pound) for a party dish. This amount of shrimp will feel substantial without busting your wallet.

Pro Tip
You can opt to buy U-8, U-10 or U-12 shrimp if you want to live large. Those designations mean that you’ll receive a maximum of that count shrimp per pound. If you buy U-10 for example, that means you’ll receive a maximum amount of 10 shrimp per pound.

Since we can affordably buy beautiful fresh shrimp sourced from Aveiro, that’s what we like to do. But fresh shrimp isn’t mandatory for this recipe.

Using frozen shrimp is more than acceptable. It only takes a 30 minute soak in cold tap water for frozen shrimp to be defrosted and ready for use. However, if you happen to live close to an ocean, sea or gulf, we say go for fresh shrimp instead.

We’ve noticed recipes where shrimp are cooked in a court bouillon – a simple stock with some aromatic vegetables, spices and lemon. In our opinion, why go to all the fuss?

All you really need for making tasty shrimp is salt. We use a ratio of 18 grams (i.e. 2/3 ounce) per each quart of water. Since quarts are similar to liters, you can use a similar formula in metric.

We like to weigh our salt since salts like kosher salt (light) and sea salt (heavy) vary by weight. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, we urge you to buy one as it’s a cook’s best friend in the kitchen.

Buy a kitchen scale from Amazon if you don’t have one or need an upgrade.

Chili sauce, with its capsaicin based heat, hits a different area of your palette than does horseradish. But which hot sauce is best for this recipe?

While you certainly can use hot sauces like Crystal, Louisiana or even Mexican sauces like Cholula, we like to use Tabasco. Since the piquant chili sauce gets good acidity from its high vinegar content, it works well here.

Pro Tip
You can use any flavorful hot sauce that you have on hand. Just make sure you taste your sauce and modify it as necessary to achieve your preferred heat level.

When it comes to lettuce, we like to place a beautiful, peacock-like plumage for visual impact. This dish, despite its simplicity, screams extravagance with this flourishing touch.

Pro Tip
You can dip the lettuce into the cocktail sauce and eat it if that’s how you roll.

Making Shrimp Cocktail may be one of the easiest things you can do in a kitchen.

We learned this when we cooked a whole bunch of shrimp a day ahead and brought them to party. They were a huge hit! We’ve never seen people so impressed by such a simple dish.

In this Shrimp Cocktail recipe, the first step is to clean and devein the shrimp.

Have two bowls standing by for this step – one filled with ice and another with water.

If your shrimp has heads, twist to remove them. Using a scissors, cut open the back of the shrimp.

Remove the shell and legs from the top to the start of the tail and remove the dark vein from the back of the shrimp. After you place the shrimp on ice, remove the heads, shells and veins. We have info on preparing frozen shrimp if this process is new to you.

Pro Tip
If you freeze the discarded heads and shells, you can use them later to create fish stock.

Place a 3 to 4 quart saucepan or pot on the stove, add salt and bring to a boil. Have an ice bath standing by. Boil the shrimp for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until the shrimp feel firm to the touch of a spoon.

Buy a 3-Quart All-Clad saucepan from Amazon if you need one or want an upgrade.

Cook the shrimp for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes in well salted water.

Once they’re cooked, immediately remove the shrimp and place them in an ice bath. Let them cool for 10 to 15 minutes.

You’ll want to make the cocktail sauce while the shrimp is cooling.

To do so, mix the ketchup, horseradish and hot sauce in a bowl. Adjust for taste as needed