On Wed, 09 Mar 2005 14:32:37 GMT, "TOliver" >
wrote:

>
>"Max" wrote ...
>> Hi
>>
>> Does anyone know anything about the origins/history of the
>> prawn/shrimp cocktail dish?
>>
>> Any info gratefully received!
>>
>I suspect the lack of answers is evidence not of a lack of interest, but due
>to a question for which there may be no definitive answers.
>
>How long have folks eaten boiled shrimp?
>
>Who first discovered that cooked shrimp kept longer than raw shrimp?
>
>Who first awoke hungry and shelled a few shrimp left over from last night's
>"boil up" and discovered that cool/cold shrimp were quite pleasant?
>
>Shrimp cocktails were certainly a regular menu item in fancy restaurants in
>the mid19th century and in the US spread rapidly to become "the" appetizer
>in restaurants in the mid20th century, the standard precursor of steak.
>
>...But then I can recall asa lad sitting on the plaza in Vera Cruz peeling
>shrimp and eating them with key lime juice, salt and chiles, under the
>general impression that folks had been doing the same since Cortez passed
>through town.....;-P
>
>TMO
>
Well, there is a bit more to a prawn (or shrimp) cocktail than eating
cold prawns just as there is a bit more to a hamburger than eating
hot beef.

Mid 19th century in US? What's the source? The Oxford English
Dictionary does not record the phrase in the USA until 1939:

1937 America's Cook Bk. 180. "Lobster or shrimp cocktail . . . Chill
thoroughly and serve in cocktail glasses."

Perhaps the recipe and name is even later in England. Earliest
citation by OED gives: 1960 M. Patten Cookery in Colour no. 23. "The
correct way of serving these cocktails, though, is to use glasses,
when the lettuce should be shredded very finely and put at the bottom
of the glasses."
Ibid. no. 25 "Cocktail sauce for Prawn or Shrimp Cocktail."

I thumbed through various English cookbooks and could not find it
until Gladys Mann's "Traditional British cooking for pleasure" which
dates from 1967.

Of course the dish may have gone under another name earlier on. But
eating cold prawns is not enough. Any earlier recipe under another
name would need to specify the properties of serving prawns in
individual glasses on a lettuce base and with a concocted sauce
containing ingredients such as tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce
and (perhaps) sour cream..

Anyway, it's off to prepare a prawn cocktail for this evening.