Prawn cocktail: Difference between revisions

{{short description|Shellfish appetizer}}

{{expand Spanish|topic=cult|date=September 2021}}

| main_ingredient = [[Shrimp and prawn as food|Prawns]], [[cocktail sauce]]

'''Prawn cocktail''', also known as '''shrimp cocktail''', is a [[seafood]] [[Dish (food)|dish]] consisting of shelled, cooked [[Shrimp and prawn as food|prawns]] in a [[Marie Rose sauce]] or [[cocktail sauce]],<ref>{{cite magazine| url=http://www.foodtolove.com.au/recipes/cocktail-sauce-13119| title=Cocktail Sauce| magazine=Australian Women's Weekly| date=August 15, 2015| access-date=16 September 2014| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623210657/http://www.foodtolove.com.au/recipes/cocktail-sauce-13119| archive-date=23 June 2016| url-status=dead}}</ref> served in a glass.<ref name=BBC>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/properprawncocktail_93187|title=Proper prawn cocktail|publisher=BBC|access-date=23 October 2014}}</ref><ref name="Raj">{{cite book |author=Raj, Karan.|year=2002 |title=Modern Dictionary Of Tourism |publisher=Ivy Publishing|place=Delhi|isbn=978-81-7890-058-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2vufVmE5B2IC&pg=PA47|page=47}}</ref> It was the most popular [[hors d'œuvre]] in Great Britain, as well as in the United States, from the 1960s to the late 1980s.<ref name=guardian2>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/20/prawn-cocktail-is-back-in-fashion-says-mary-berry |title=Prawn cocktail is back in fashion, says Mary Berry |author=Haroon Siddique |date=2018-02-20 |publisher=Guardian }}</ref> According to the English food writer [[Nigel Slater]], the prawn cocktail『has spent most of (its life) see-sawing from the height of fashion to the laughably passé』and is now often served with a degree of irony.<ref name=Guardian/>

The cocktail sauce is essentially [[ketchup]] and [[mayonnaise]] in Commonwealth countries, or ketchup and [[horseradish]] in the United States.<ref name="bbcgoodfood">{{cite web|date=14 April 2017|title=Classic prawn cocktail recipe|url=https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4602/classic-prawn-cocktail|access-date=31 July 2017|website=BBC Good Food}}</ref> Recipes may add [[Worcestershire sauce]], hot sauce, vinegar, cayenne pepper or lemon juice.

A dish of cooked seafood with a piquant sauce of some kind is of ancient origin and many varieties exist.<ref>[http://www.lovefood.com/journal/opinions/14768/retro-classics-the-prawn-cocktail Retro classics: The prawn cocktail] Jassy Davis, lovefood.com, 5 March 2012. Retrieved 27 June 2014.</ref> Oyster or shrimp dishes of this kind were popular in the United States in the late nineteenth century and some sources link the serving of the dish in cocktail glasses to the ban on alcoholic drinks during the 1920s [[Prohibition in the United States|prohibition]] era in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodlobster.html#cocktail |title=FAQs: fish & shellfish |work=[[The Food Timeline]] |first=Lynne |last=Olver |author-link=Lynne Olver |access-date=27 June 2014}}</ref> A version of the shrimp cocktail was popularized in [[Las Vegas]] casinos in the late 1950s (beginning with the [[Golden Gate Hotel and Casino|Golden Gate Casino]] on [[Fremont Street]]; they sold as many as 2,000 shrimp cocktails daily, at inexpensive prices, no more than 99 cents), and is considered somewhat synonymous with the gambling and entertainment mecca.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Diamond|first=Krista Marie|date=2019-06-24|title=How the Shrimp Cocktail Became a Classic Las Vegas Dish|url=https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/nevada/articles/las-vegas-and-its-love-for-shrimp-cocktails/|access-date=2022-01-31|website=Culture Trip}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-07-17|title=Shrimp cocktail had crowds flocking to downtown Las Vegas for decades|url=https://www.reviewjournal.com/entertainment/food/shrimp-cocktail-had-crowds-flocking-to-downtown-las-vegas-for-decades-1750377/|access-date=2022-01-31|website=Las Vegas Review-Journal|language=en-US}}</ref>

In the United Kingdom, the invention of the prawn cocktail is often credited to British television chef [[Fanny Cradock]] in the 1960s;<ref name=C4>{{cite web|title=The origins of 10 modern classic foods|url=http://www.channel4.com/4food/features/top-10s/the-origins-of-10-modern-classic-foods|publisher=Channel 4|access-date=6 June 2014}}</ref><ref name=Metro>{{cite news|last1=Scott|first1=Chloe|title=How to make the ultimate prawn cocktail|url=http://metro.co.uk/2013/06/18/how-to-make-the-ultimate-prawn-cocktail-3844869/|access-date=11 June 2014|work=Metro|date=18 June 2013}}</ref> In their 1997 book ''The Prawn Cocktail Years'', [[Simon Hopkinson]] and [[Lindsey Bareham]] note that the prawn cocktail has a "direct lineage to [[Auguste Escoffier|Escoffier]]".<ref name=Independent>{{cite web|last1=Hopkinson|first1=Simon|title=House of Brown Windsor House of Brown Windsor|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/house-of-brown-windsor-1238987.html|work=Independent|access-date=11 June 2014}}</ref>

Nigel Slater says "it is all in the sauce", and that "the true sauce is principally mayonnaise, tomato ketchup and a couple of shakes of [[Tabasco sauce|Tabasco]]."<ref name=Guardian>{{cite news|last1=Slater|first1=Nigel|title=Nigel Slater's classic prawn cocktail recipe|url=https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/may/16/nigel-slater-classic-recipe-prawn-cocktail|access-date=6 June 2014|work=The Guardian|date=16 May 2010}}</ref>

The chef [[Heston Blumenthal]] states that prawn cocktail is his "secret vice": "When I get home late after working in [[The Fat Duck]] there's nothing I like better than to raid the fridge for prawn cocktail." Blumenthal notes that it is best to use homemade mayonnaise, and recommends adding chopped [[basil]] and [[tarragon]].<ref name=GQ>{{cite web|last1=Blumenthal|first1=Heston|title=Prawn to be wild|url=http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/entertainment/articles/2012-03/23/heston-blumenthal-prawn-cocktail-recipe|website=GQ|access-date=6 June 2014}}</ref>

The television chef and writer [[Delia Smith]] states that the best version is with self-cooked prawns, and that in the 1960s it was "something simple but really luscious, yet over the years it has suffered from some very poor adaptations, not least watery prawns and inferior sauces."<ref name=Delia>{{cite web|title=Prawn Cocktail|url=http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/fish-and-seafood/prawns/prawn-cocktail.html|website=Delia Online|access-date=11 June 2014}}</ref>

As Hopkinson and Bareham note in ''The Prawn Cocktail Years'', what was once considered to be the "[[Great British Meal]]" consisted of prawn cocktail, followed by steak garni with chips and [[Black Forest gateau]] for dessert; they comment that "cooked as it should be, this much-derided and often ridiculed dinner is still something very special indeed."<ref name=LB>{{cite web|title=The Prawn Cocktail Years|url=http://www.lindseybareham.com/prawn-cocktail-years-book/|publisher=Lindseybareham.com|access-date=11 June 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150223105030/http://www.lindseybareham.com/prawn-cocktail-years-book/|archive-date=23 February 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>

The ubiquity of the prawn cocktail has led to such products as prawn cocktail flavour [[crisps]], which are still one of the most popular varieties of this snack food in the United Kingdom. Prawn cocktail flavour crisps were the second most popular in the UK in 2004, with a 16% market share.<ref name=Record>{{cite web|title=Stat's life; Ten most popular crisp flavours in the UK|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-114112453.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102173423/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-114112453.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 November 2012|work=Daily Record|access-date=11 June 2014}}</ref>

== Variations ==

Clams, oysters, squid (as a [[squid cocktail]]), or other seafood can be substituted for shrimp.<ref>''Lowney's Cookbook'', 1912, p36</ref> Various preparations use ingredients such as fish and octopus. Seafood cocktails often include lime juice and a tomato based sauce and are sometimes served with lemon. In the US, they are regulated by the [[FDA]] which requires the proportions by weight to be stated when the dish is sold in a prepared form.<ref>{{citation|title=Seafood cocktails|work=[[The Code of Federal Regulations of the United States of America]]|number=102.54|page=178|year=2001|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}}</ref>

*[[Ceviche]]

*[[Vuelvealavida]]

*{{cite web|url=http://www.foodbanter.com/historic/56045-origins-prawn-shrimp-cocktail.html|title=The origins of the prawn/shrimp cocktail|website=FoodBanter.com|access-date=31 July 2017}}

[[Category:British cuisine]]

[[Category:Oyster dishes]]

[[Category:Clam dishes]]

[[Category:American seafood dishes]]