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Seafood Cocktail Sauce

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This recipe for Seafood Cocktail Sauce is a classic. Combining the pantry/refrigerator staples, ketchup, cream-style horseradish sauce, and Worcestershire sauce with freshly squeezed lemon juice and other seasonings, this sauce is the perfect partner for plump, meaty, cooked shrimp and other seafoods.

Seafood Cocktail Sauce is spicy from horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice.
Photo: Cynthia Dalton

I love a good cocktail sauce but too often, they are sappy and overly sweet.

Seafood Cocktail Sauce is cocktail sauce as it was first introduced to me as a child.

My family and I were visiting my grandparents in New Orleans. We were moving form California to Ohio and the journey by car, into the unknown, took my four-year-old world by surprise. So much so, that I found myself too nervous to eat (never a normal state for my chowhound self).

That is, until I met my Gramma for the first time. She was a strong-willed, cheerful, calm presence with whom I instantly felt at ease. The more time I spent with her, the more the gitters melted away.

Gramma and my parents took me to Fitzgerald’s (which has long since been closed) for lunch on Lake Pontchartrain. A folksy, local dive, the casual atmosphere relaxed me even further.

However, when the shrimp and cocktail sauce arrived my poor Mom was just sure I’d get queasy again — it arrived legs and tails intact — surely I’d get grossed-out. But no, I didn’t. My Gramma happily showed me how to rip into those little suckers and I was soon a pro at it!

Shrimp and cocktail sauce ‘put me right’ way back then, and it’s still my go-to when I’m feeling even slightly under the weather.

Paired with hot house cucumber sliced into long spears, and a cracker or two, and you’ve got a really satisfying lunch that won’t weigh you down or make you feel groggy.

I hope you like Seafood Cocktail Sauce as much as I do. Please let me know in the Comments section below.

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 Seafood Cocktail Sauce
Cool, tangy, spicy, and sweet — this is the perfect accompaniment to seafood. I especially love this Seafood Cocktail Sauce with its classic partner, cooked shrimp. By the way, some cocktail sauce recipes call for part chili sauce, part ketchup but I find the chili sauce an unnecessary, extra expense. © The Working Lunch Project
Seafood Cocktail Sauce is spicy from horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice.
Votes: 1
Rating: 1
You:
Rate this recipe!
Course Lunch, Snack
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutes
Passive Time 1 hour
Servings
servings (2 tablespoons each)
Ingredients
Course Lunch, Snack
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutes
Passive Time 1 hour
Servings
servings (2 tablespoons each)
Ingredients
Seafood Cocktail Sauce is spicy from horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice.
Votes: 1
Rating: 1
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. In a small, non-reactive bowl, combine all ingredients.
  2. Cover and allow flavors to meld for at least an hour at room temperature. Use or refrigerate.
  3. This mixture will last several days. If it congeals under refrigeration, whisk in a tiny bit of hot water to loosen it back up.
Recipe Notes

Nutritional facts per serving:

38 calories

0g fat

297mg sodium

8g carbs

0g fiber

0g protein

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Sandwich Fillings

Lunch Lady Tuna Salad Sandwich Filling

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TAKE A TRIP BACK IN TIME WITH THIS RETRO TUNA SALAD SANDWICH FILLING

A tangy, sweet tuna salad sandwich filling made by combining tuna with mayonnaise, ketchup, dill pickle relish, and minced white onion. This is  just like the cafeteria lunch ladies prepared it back in grammar school.

.A tuna salad sandwich filling like you remember from the school cafeteria.
Photo: Cynthia Dalton

I REMEMBER IT WELL

My mom always made the best tuna salad sandwich filling. Her version was a savory combination of salad olives, finely minced celery, chopped green onions, fresh lemon juice, and mayonnaise,

Summer days often meant a big pitcher of bright, sunny-yellow lemonade, a large basket of salty potato chips, and an even larger tray of tuna salad sandwich halves.

THEN, THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE SACRILEGE OCCURRED

Then, the most unbelievable sacrilege occurred — a horrific event burned into the memory of my four-year-old brain forever. My older brother, a seasoned veteran of the grammar school cafeteria at age ten,  did the absolute unthinkable.  He took a portion of my mom’s tuna salad and added ketchup and dill pickle relish. Gasp! Who would mess with perfection in such a crass manner?

I wouldn’t taste it because it would have been a betrayal of enormous magnitude. My mother was polite about it and simply looked away, stoically.  And soon, the whole dark episode was forgotten.

EVENTUALLY I UNDERSTOOD

Later, when I anxiously began school, I foraged for even semi-palatable sustainance in the depths of an overheated, humid lunchroom.  The stifling air carried an admixture of disinfectant, margarine-stained, steamed canned green beans, and ancient upchuck,

It was then that I began to appreciated the sweet, cool, tangy embrace of tuna salad made by the lunch ladies. You see, it was the only fare that kept nausea at bay.

As happens, years later, during a stressful period of time, I suddenly had a craving for that exact tuna salad.

I keep the ingredients simple, based on my brother’s “recipe.”

The ingredients for a nostalgic tuna salad sandwich filling from the school cafeteria.
Photo: Cynthia Dalton

This recipe is relatively  easy on the budget, and the ingredients come together quickly, but give the whole thing a short stay in the refrigerator to allow the flavors to blend. One thing to remember though, you want to choose tuna that you really like — some brands are just mushy and fishy, which will ruin any recipe. I prefer albacore tuna in olive oil, but you may prefer tuna packed in water.

Tuna salad sandwich filling from childhood.
Photo: Cynthia Dalton

So, strap on your hair nets ’cause here it is!

Enjoy this recipe for tuna salad sandwich filling, for old time sake!

I’d love to hear your own lunchtime memories — please use the Comments section below to describe how you navigated the school cafeteria (or, avoided it) when you were growing up.

Print Recipe
 Lunch Lady Tuna Salad Sandwich Filling
When it comes to soothing, quick to fix, and budget friendly, this old-fashioned, cafeteria-style tuna salad sandwich filling can't be beat! Let the filling chill in the refrigerator about a half hour to allow flavors to marry. Also, to keep sandwich bread from getting soggy, I find it's best to pack bread and filling separately, until lunchtime. © The Working Lunch Project
.A tuna salad sandwich filling like you remember from the school cafeteria.
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Course Lunch
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Passive Time 1/2 hour (chilling time)
Servings
servings
Ingredients
Course Lunch
Cuisine American
Prep Time 10 minutes
Passive Time 1/2 hour (chilling time)
Servings
servings
Ingredients
.A tuna salad sandwich filling like you remember from the school cafeteria.
Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:
Rate this recipe!
Instructions
  1. In a small bowl, mix all ingredients together until well combined.
  2. Cover and chill in refrigerator 1/2 hour to allow flavors to meld. Use within 3 days.
Recipe Notes

Nutritional facts per serving:

209 calories

11g fat

461mg sodium

10g carbs

0.4g fiber

15g protein

 

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