In Search of the Perfect Cocktail Sauce

Yeah...I know.  This is a First World problem!

In my world, there is only ONE use for cocktail sauce, and that is SHRIMP.
I was never a seafood aficionado in my youth, but I came to love the stuff when I became adult enough to understand that it is expensive.  (It's expensive for a reason, right?)  The rest is history.

Our family always gathered at my grandparents' farm for holidays.  Mom was busy cooking a huge holiday meal (Thanksgiving and Christmas) and so didn't want to have to also cook breakfast or lunch for us all.  Thus was  born the hors d'ouevres table--or "horse's ovaries", as we called it.  The card table in the living room held raw oysters, crackers, pickled herring, cheeses, shrimp and cocktail sauce, California onion dip and chips.  The cocktail sauce for Mom's shrimp was always excellent, flavored with just enough wasabi from Japan to make it zesty, but I never thought to ask for a recipe!  Unfortunately, Mom passed in 1986, and I've been left on my own to find the perfect sauce ever since.

In my quest to duplicate Mom's sauce, I thought the secret ingredient was wasabi.  When we came home from Japan in 1958, Mom had a quart-sized tin of powdered green wasabi.  (That tin lasted 20 years!!)  But since I didn't have that resource, I kept trying to find the right sauce.  I have powdered wasabi now that the US has discovered it, but my sauce still doesn't match Mom's.

A few years ago, I bought cocktail sauce from Aldi's.  It was "their" brand--Tate's--and it was GOOD.  It didn't need to be doctored to be just the right combination of thick and zippy.  The very next time I went to Aldi's to get more, they had changed their brand from Tate's to Burnham's.  Not quite the same.  And just last week, I went to Aldi's to get some Burnham's Cocktail Sauce, only to discover that it is now considered seasonal and not carried at the moment.  Huh?  Cocktail sauce is seasonal??
Who'd a-thunk it?

My sister told me that she always uses Holland House Cocktail Sauce, so I ventured out to find some.  At the time, I couldn't find it at Walmart, which is where I was shopping.  I picked up their store brand.  Meh!  Too bland.  Had to be doctored to make it zestier.

The last time I made the long distance trek to Trader Joe's, I ran into their version of cocktail sauce.  They always sell good stuff, so I got a bottle.  OMG!  Too watery and too sweet!  Couldn't even get it to stick to the shrimp!

Then I started shopping at Meijer.  Couldn't find Holland House there, either, at first...so I got the Meijer brand Zesty Cocktail Sauce.  It wasn't too bad, but the next time I went to get it, they were out.  Got the regular non-zesty Meijer brand cocktail sauce.  No twang to it.  Had to doctor it.  Yuck!

The last time I went to Meijer with cocktail sauce on my shopping list, I was delighted to find both Holland House AND the Zesty Meijer brand--so I bought one of each!!  I'm going to try the Holland House first.  Wish me luck!

It would seem that I eat a lot of shrimp.  Actually, I do now.  I always have some in the freezer.  It is low in calories and fat (although high in cholesterol), easy to thaw and eat as a diet treat.  Love it!

The verdict is still out on which brand is the perfect sauce for my precious shrimp.  I'll keep you posted!