Classic Shrimp Cocktail
Perfectly poached jumbo shrimp served with zesty homemade cocktail sauce. A timeless elegant appetizer.
- 2 lbsjumbo shrimp(shell-on, deveined)
- 1 largelemon(sliced)
- 2 piecesbay leaves
- 1 tspblack peppercorns
- 1 cupketchup
- 2 tbspprepared horseradish
- 1 tbsplemon juice
- 1 tspWorcestershire sauce
- 1/2 tsphot sauce
Shrimp can be poached and peeled up to 1 day ahead. Store on ice in refrigerator. Cocktail sauce keeps 1 week refrigerated.
- 1Bring a large pot of salted water to boil with lemon slices, bay leaves, and peppercorns.
- 2Add shrimp and cook until pink and curled, about 2-3 minutes.
- 3Immediately transfer to ice bath to stop cooking. Drain and peel when cool.
- 4Make cocktail sauce: Mix ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice, Worcestershire, and hot sauce.
- 5Refrigerate shrimp and sauce until ready to serve.
- 6Arrange shrimp around a bowl of cocktail sauce on crushed ice.
Shell-on shrimp have better flavor; peel after cooking. Don't overcook - they should be just opaque. The ice bath is crucial for tender texture. Freshly grated horseradish makes a huge difference. Crushed ice presentation keeps shrimp cold and looks impressive.
Shrimp cocktail is one of the most enduring formats in American luxury entertaining, its popularity building steadily from the late 19th century through its mid-20th century peak. While cold dressed shrimp appeared on American menus and in cookbooks from the 1880s, the specific format — chilled shrimp arranged around a glass cup of cocktail sauce, often served on ice — became standardized in American restaurant culture during the 1920s through the 1950s, when it was a fixture at upscale steakhouses, supper clubs, and hotel dining rooms. The commercial shrimp industry in the United States expanded dramatically after World War II, with improved refrigeration and transportation making fresh Gulf shrimp reliably available across the country and affordable enough for home entertaining. Cocktail sauce — a blend of ketchup, prepared horseradish, and lemon — is an American invention, with early versions appearing in late 19th-century American cookbooks. The word "cocktail" as a reference to an appetizer or starter is believed to derive from the same cocktail glass shape used to present it, popularized at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair when a similar individual serving in a stemmed glass was described as a "cocktail." Today shrimp cocktail is understood as a timeless American classic — simple, elegant, and unmistakably celebratory.