After nearly three decades of eating (and making) shrimp cocktail, I have come to an inescapable conclusion: The best cocktail sauce “recipe” is a combination of Heinz cocktail sauce, horseradish, and several dashes of Worcestershire sauce. I’ve tried fancier, more expensive brands of cocktail sauce, and I’ve made my own, but I always return to Heinz, metaphorical hat in hand. (My boyfriend made the mistake of buying the Beaver brand cocktail sauce this weekend, and I’m still a little miffed.)
This makes sense. Cocktail sauce is mostly ketchup, and Heinz makes the best ketchup, so it’s not surprising that their cocktail sauce strikes the perfect balance of sweet and tangy.
Most “homemade” cocktail sauce isn’t truly homemade anyway
“Homemade” cocktail sauce isn’t really homemade, is it? Even if you make “your own” cocktail sauce, you have to start with ketchup, and we already know that homemade ketchup sucks. (What’s the best ketchup, you ask? Heinz. It’s Heinz.) Unless you plan on making your own ketchup to make your own cocktail sauce—and I wouldn’t recommend it—just get the Heinz, and doctor it to suit your whims.
As much as I love Heinz cocktail sauce, I will admit it greatly benefits from the funky, tamarind-tinged umami brought by Worcestershire sauce, as well as a few extra spoonfuls of sinus-clearing horseradish. (I’ve never actually met a cocktail sauce that was horsey enough for me, and this includes the ones that claim to be heavy on the root.)
Keeping a little jar of prepared horseradish and bottle of W sauce in the fridge is therefore necessary, no matter which cocktail sauce you buy. If you’re wondering how much horseradish is “enough” horseradish, that’s easy: You want to add enough so the color of the cocktail sauce lightens by an entire shade. You don’t want a red sauce; you want that stuff to be a dark pink. Then, and only then, is it ready for your little shrimps.
Easy Improved Cocktail Sauce
Ingredients:
1 cup Heinz cocktail sauceAt least 2 teaspoons prepared horseradish, but feel free to add moreA few dashes Worcestershire sauceAdd all ingredients to a bowl and stir to combine. Give it a taste, and check in with your palate; some people are more sensitive to horseradish than others. If you want it to knock your socks off, keep adding horseradish until the sauce turns from red to dark pink. Serve immediately with chilled, poached shrimp, crab meat, oysters, or slather it on a meatloaf. It’s really quite versatile.
