Recipe: Cocktail Sauce

Cocktail Sauce

Recipe By: Fonds de Cuisine
Serving Size: 1
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Categories: Sauces, Cold; Shelfish

1 cup Catsup (Heinz or similar)
1 cup Chili Sauce (Heinz or similar)
1/4 cup horseradish grated, varies to taste
1 each lemon, juice only

Mix the ingredients and let them stay refrigerated a day or so to combine flavors.

When I worked at McGuinness, on Broadway, in NYC, just across from the Latin Quarter, we used to have two 18 gallon wood pickle barrels in the refrigerator, each filled with cocktail sauce, as our raw bar was very popular on Broadway. When one was empty, we would refill it and start the next, leaving the first to "age in the wood" for a day or so, The boss Mr. Willie Glickstein, insisted that only Heinz Catsup and Chili Sauce be used and no other product ever entered the premises. We used frozen grated horseradish, as the boss thought it was the "freshest" and it had no oil of mustard added.

Thank goodness he didn't insist on fresh grating it, but you can. Just look out when you add the vinegar to the fresh grated roots, its like a mustard gas attack. There used to be guys with little wagons like hot-dog stands who went around selling freshly grated horseradish, but " them days is gone forever."

You can't argue with success, but you can vary the horseradish and fresh lemon juice to taste. My advice is to stick to the Heinz, half and half, and use this on clams and shrimps, not oysters.

Note: For some perverse reason, no doubt going back to childhood shrimp cocktails, I like this sauce on shredded iceberg lettuce.