"Peter Volsted" > wrote in message
...
hi

> Alf Christophersen wrote:
> In Schønberg-Erken there is no mentions of any cocktails, so I guess
> the name for such dishes was not invented in 1933 when my copy was
> printed (8th revision I think).

Speaking about 'fish' never overlook Alan Davidson. In his "North
Atlantic Seafood". Viking Press, NY, 1979 page 474 he has a wonderful
recipe on Dublin Bay Prawn Cocktail and writes: "The word cocktail does
not sound either Irish or old; but this has been the traditional way of
eating Dublin Bay prawns in Dublin; at least from the time my maternal
grandmother lived there."
As he was born in 1924 I think that will backdate the birth of the
cocktail to somewhere in the last half of the 18. century.

That's interesting (and would give some credence to their early attachment
to US restaurant menus.

At some moment in time, "shrimp on ice" or "chilled prawns" made the leap
from serving plate to cocktail glass, cheap imitations of which, really
sherbet or fruit cups, always seemed to grace the shrimp cocktails of US
restaurants in the late 40s/early 50s. My mother always claimed that the
dish was extremely popular in the restaurants of Galveston and the Gulf
Coast in the 1920s.

Many of what are essentially shrimp cocktails continue to be served on
appetizer or salad plates in old New Orleans restaurants, (sauced with more
inventive blends than the statndard Catsup/Worcestershire
Sauce/Horseradish/Tabasco and maybe lemon) but in this era of ceviche in
stemmed margarita glasses, change has become rapid. The "classic" version
of my youth featured large shrimp (the tails left on the the fashion of the
currently popular frozen and defrosted bright red "hotel"/"banquet
hall"/"reception", viciously nasty buggers which out to be outlawed) served
meaty foreparts down, tails hanging over the edge artfully arranged around
the bowl of some sort of stewmmed glassware. The thinner the glass, the
more upscale the restaurant. Purists refused oyster cocktails, trusting no
raw oyster not pried from the shell before their eyes. Crab cocktail? The
more elaborate dish, Crab Louis/Louie, seemed to take a firmer hold in the
South...

TMO

TMO