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Our Homemade Cocktail Sauce recipe combines just five ingredients to make a sauce that’s perfect for shrimp and other seafood dishes.
Easy Homemade Cocktail Sauce
This recipe is so easy and delicious that you’ll never want to buy jarred cocktail sauce ever again. And chances are, you have most of the ingredients in your refrigerator already!
Our cocktail sauce is a simple and perfectly balanced combination of ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, lemon zest and prepared horseradish. The freshly combined flavors are so much better than any jarred sauce you can buy, and it’s just perfect for shrimp cocktail or any other seafood meals like our fried shrimp or beer-batter fish.
The other benefit to making your own cocktail sauce is that you can adjust the amount of horseradish in the recipe to your liking. Our recipe has the perfect amount of heat but you can make the sauce as zesty or as mild as you would like.
Why You’ll Love This Homemade Cocktail Sauce
- It’s very easy to prepare and tastes better than any jarred variety.
- You can make as much or as little as you need for serving Shrimp Cocktail or other seafood dishes.
- You can adjust the spiciness of the sauce to suit your tastes. As written, this sauce is nicely balanced, but feel free to add more horseradish if you prefer an even zestier sauce.
Reader Review
“This is so delicious! I have been using your recipe for the past few years every time I make low country boil for my family…” -Amanda
Key Ingredients & Substitutions
- Ketchup – Store bought is fine or make your own.
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Lemon – You’ll add both lemon juice and lemon zest to the sauce.
- Prepared Horseradish – Look for the jarred, grated horseradish that only contains horseradish, vinegar, and salt. We use either Gold’s or Boar’s Head brands – they are sold in the refrigerated deli or dairy case at the supermarket. Do not use the creamy prepared horseradish such as Bookbinder’s brand.
Additional Substitutions
If you have access to it, you can use fresh horseradish root in this recipe and prepare it yourself. Here’s a link to a recipe for homemade prepared horseradish.
Special Tools You’ll Need
- Various Measuring Cups & Spoons
- Citrus Juicer
- Zester or Microplane
- Mixing Bowl
- Whisk
How do I make Cocktail Sauce?
- Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
- Chill for at least one hour before serving.
- Serve with cooked and peeled shrimp (aka Shrimp Cocktail.)
Very Important Safety Note
If you are serving Shrimp Cocktail and have sauce leftover that has been used for dipping the shrimp, do not save the leftover sauce…discard it.
Also, if the sauce has been sitting out for hours during your party, discard that as well.
To avoid waste, only put a portion of the cocktail sauce that you’ll need for your party or meal. You can always refill the dipping bowl with more sauce if needed.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I make Cocktail Sauce ahead of time? Yes, this sauce should be chilled at least an hour before serving. You can make this sauce a day ahead of serving.
- How do I store leftovers? See Very Important Safety Note above – only store cocktail sauce that has not been put out for dipping shrimp or other seafood. Store unused sauce in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to a week.
This Cocktail Sauce recipe originally appeared on A Family Feast in February 2013. We’ve updated the photos and post, but the delicious recipe remains the same.
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Cocktail Sauce
Our Homemade Cocktail Sauce recipe combines just five ingredients to make a sauce that’s perfect for shrimp and other seafood dishes.
Ingredients
2 cups good ketchup (see our homemade ketchup recipe here)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Zest from half a lemon
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish (we use Gold’s or Boar’s Head brands)*
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients together.
- Chill for at least 1 hour.
- Serve with cooked peeled shrimp.
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Notes
* Do not use the creamy prepared horseradish in this recipe. You only want to use prepared horseradish that lists horseradish root, salt, and vinegar on the label.
I subsituted Chili Sauce for the catsup in the sauce recipe.
That can work Jan…but it will make the sauce even zestier than if you used the ketchup. Hopefully you’ll try it with ketchup the next time and give us a 5-star review!
I sometimes encounter the issue where the intensity of the horseradish itself seems to be unusually strong.. I.e the exact same quantity and ratio made into the cocktail sauce, but these occasional cases the sauce has quite a great deal more kick!
Any idea why, or a way to get that horseradish to “mellow” ?
It doesn’t lend well to dilution either, which I’ve tried a bit – Lose the right consistency very easily, and it doesn’t actually help much anyway, as the kick is still there and very noticeable, just more distributed..
Would love any thoughts!
Thanks,
Michael
Hi Michael – Thanks for your question! Jack and I have been discussing your dilemma and doing some online research as well. As I’m sure you know, horseradish is a root and from what we can tell, the different varieties of horseradish vary mostly in their foliage but not necessarily their taste or intensity when fresh. (Jack mentioned that he grew some horseradish years ago and it was so mild, he peeled and grilled it!) We’re guessing that the difference you are finding is in the preparation and perhaps the freshness of the ingredients when it was jarred. We typically look for the Gold’s brand of horseradish which we’ve found to be very consistent from jar to jar. And – we agree – the only way to dilute the intensity would be to use less of it not add more of the other ingredients. If you are trying a new or different brand, to be safe, I guess we’d suggest using less than the recipe calls for and then add more to suit your tastes. I hope that helps! (I’m not sure we have a perfect answer for you!) Thanks for writing to us today – Martha
This is so delicious! I have been using your recipe for the past few years every time I make low country boil for my family. I am wondering how long it will keep in the fridge?
Hi Amanda – We’ve kept it in the refrigerator ourselves for no longer than a week – but we’re also careful about dishing out only what we need for serving. If you’ve been dipping the shrimp in and out of the sauce, or it has been sitting outside during your party, you probably don’t want to keep for long after that, just for safety reasons. Hope that helps!