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    Home » Recipes » Condiments and Sauces

    Homemade Cocktail Sauce

    Published: Jul 17, 2019 · Modified: Dec 2, 2020 by Fox Valley Foodie · This post may contain affiliate links

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    Homemade cocktail sauce takes seconds to prepare! #seafood #shrimp #sauce

    Homemade cocktail sauce is infinitely more flavorful than store-bought, it is also ridiculously simple to prepare with ingredients you likely have on hand.

    This week I did something for the first time in years, I bought cocktail sauce from a store. Whenever I create a recipe that mimics a commonly purchased item, I typically buy that product as well to compare it to my recipe. I'm telling you guys, store-bought sauce doesn't have half the flavor of this homemade sauce that literally takes seconds to prepare.

    Homemade Cocktail Sauce

    Cocktail Sauce

    The biggest benefit to making your own homemade cocktail sauce is the vibrantly fresh flavor of prepared horseradish that can be adjusted to fit your tastes. Store-bought cocktail sauce is fairly light on the horseradish flavor and its freshness gets cooked out when the manufacturer jars it and prepares it for shelf-stability.

    The other reason store-bought sauce doesn't taste as fresh is the addition of clam juice (shrimp juice?) to the sauce. Admittedly it does marry cocktail sauce to the shrimp that is being dipped, however, I personally enjoy my sauce to have more of a flavor contrast with the item I am dipping.

    TIP: If you enjoy the briny seafood flavor added to your cocktail sauce, I recommend buying clam juice and adding a few dribbles until you get the flavor profile you desire.

    Shrimp sauce

    How to Make Homemade Cocktail Sauce

    My homemade cocktail sauce is made with four simple ingredients you likely already have on hand. Ketchup is the base, prepared horseradish is the primary flavoring agent, Worcestershire adds depth, and brown sugar takes a bit of edge off the flavor.

    I eat a lot of prepared horseradish (affiliate link) and one thing I have learned is no two manufactures has the same heat level in their ground horseradish. When making this popular shrimp sauce, I recommend starting with less horseradish and slowly adding more, while tasting, until it has your desired punch.

    Easy Cocktail Sauce

    Admittedly, I often do not make my full cocktail sauce recipe when I am eating shrimp. I often made a 'cheater version' instead. Ketchup and horseradish, that's it. Bright, tangy, and vibrant! If you are in a hurry and want something quick and dirty, a half cup of ketchup and a tablespoon of ground horseradish will do the trick. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

    Homemade Cocktail Sauce recipe

    Spicy Cocktail Sauce

    For my fellow heat fanatics, I also want to quickly touch on how you can easily transform this into a spicy cocktail sauce. Hot sauce pairs exceptionally well with shrimp and cocktail sauce in particular.

    To spice up the sauce, I would start with a ½ teaspoon of your favorite hot sauce and add more to taste. Tabasco sauce (affiliate link) is a great one to start with, but any of your favorites will work fine. For me personally, I love the flavor of ghost pepper hot sauce mixed in!

    Homemade cocktail sauce recipe

    Homemade Cocktail Sauce

    Homemade cocktail sauce is infinitely more flavorful than store-bought, it is also ridiculously simple to prepare with ingredients you likely have on hand.
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    Course: Condiment
    Cuisine: American
    Prep Time: 2 minutes minutes
    Total Time: 2 minutes minutes
    Servings: 4
    Calories: 40kcal
    Author: Fox Valley Foodie

    Ingredients

    • ½ cup ketchup
    • 1-2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
    • 1 teaspoon brown sugar
    • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire

    Instructions

    • Add all ingredients into a bowl and mix to combine.

    Notes

    The heat level of prepared horseradish will vary by manufacturer. I recommend starting with 1 tablespoon and adding more as needed (if you don't enjoy the strong flavor of horseradish, you can certainly add less as well). Other ways to customize this recipe includes adding ½ teaspoon of hot sauce, or a dribble of clam juice. 
     
    If you are looking for more ways to enjoy shrimp, check out my Sticky Oven Baked Shrimp recipe too!

    Nutritional Information

    Calories: 40kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 303mg | Potassium: 116mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 155IU | Vitamin C: 2.1mg | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 0.2mg
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Lori

      July 17, 2019 at 4:48 pm

      Great recipe. I'm a lemonhead and usually add a squeeze. I have a difficult time finding a truly great preprared horseradish. Any suggestions?

      Reply
      • Fox Valley Foodie

        July 17, 2019 at 6:23 pm

        Lemon is a good addition, I have made the recipe with lemon in the past. I like my horseradish HOT. I have never found one in a store truly hot enough to satisfy my tastes, however, my father purchased one online that I really liked. Unfortunately, I don't remember what brand it was, but I have missed it ever since!

        Reply

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