Why You Should Reconsider Ordering Shrimp Cocktail When Dining Out

Starting a meal with appetizers is one of the greatest luxuries of dining out. At home, it can feel like too much work and too many extra dishes to prepare a multi-course dinner, but when you're out, it's just a few extra dollars added to the bill. That said, shrimp cocktail should not be high on your list of starters to order for the exact same reason. As classic a dish as it is, it is incredibly simple to make for yourself at home — and a whole lot cheaper.

Even if you live near the ocean, restaurants that specialize in seafood are typically on the pricier side, and that extends even to simple dishes like shrimp cocktail. If you're out to dinner someplace nice, you might be looking at a price tag of as much as $50 for a dozen shrimp and a bowl of cocktail sauce to dip them in. Even at a lower-end seafood restaurant, you should expect to pay $15 or more for an order. It just isn't worth paying that price for something so easy to make yourself.

It all starts to come into focus when you look at the prices of those same items at your local grocery store. You can pick up a two-pound bag of frozen colossal shrimp — larger is typically better for shrimp cocktail — for around $22 at the store. Add to that a $3 bottle of grocery store cocktail sauce, and you've got yourself four shrimp cocktails for no more than $25 — just $6.25 each.

The trouble with making shrimp cocktail at home is, of course, that you have to do the work yourself. But there really aren't many easier appetizers out there. Given that shrimp cocktail is served chilled, you can do the work ahead of time so that all you have to do at dinnertime is plate it. Plus, a homemade shrimp cocktail allows you to tweak things perfectly for your palate.

Poaching is the best method to cook shrimp for shrimp cocktail. This means briefly and gently boiling the shrimp, leaving them perfectly tender. But this is also an avenue to add more flavor to the dish. Instead of plain water, try poaching the shrimp with herbs and aromatics. You can add a smashed clove of garlic and a sprinkle of thyme, maybe a few glugs of white wine from a bottle that's been sitting in the fridge for a while, and you'll find that the dish takes on a whole new character. And the same goes for the cocktail sauce.

A classic cocktail sauce is made from just a few simple ingredients, with a backbone of ketchup, lemon, and prepared horseradish. Many recipes include other ingredients like hot sauce or Worcestershire sauce, but really you can get by just fine with a three-ingredient cocktail sauce. Or you can make a whole new dish by pairing the shrimp with something new and different, like a Marie Rose sauce, the creamy pink sauce that Brits serve with shrimp cocktail. So, next time you're out to dinner, skip ordering the shrimp cocktail — and add it to your grocery list instead.