Marie Rose is a classic cocktail sauce used in England. It’s creamy and full of flavor, and it’s a great way to add a twist to your shrimp cocktail!
In England you will often see something called prawn cocktail on appetizer menus. Prawn cocktail is similar to the North American shrimp cocktail in that it involves crustaceans of the shrimp variety (potentially differently sized but the same idea) and a sauce to dip them in.
The sauce used in the UK is sometimes called cocktail sauce or seafood sauce or Marie Rose sauce. However, it is different from what we call cocktail sauce in North America.
Video: Making Marie Rose Sauce
American Versus English Cocktail Sauce
North American cocktail sauce is made from ketchup and horseradish sauce with a few other ingredients optionally added in like Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, and hot sauce. It’s typically very dark red. Here’s my favorite cocktail sauce recipe of this type. The English version, Marie Rose Sauce, has a lot of the same ingredients, but it has a creamier base and paler color.
Ingredients
Marie Rose Sauce is a very pale pink because mayonnaise is the main ingredient with just a touch of ketchup added. The other ingredients are similar to American cocktail sauce and include Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice and sometimes something spicy like cayenne or Tabasco sauce. Even though some of the ingredients are the same, the flavors are very different. This is mostly because the British version is very creamy and doesn’t have the sweetness of all that ketchup.
Using Marie Rose Sauce
Check out my recipe for making a British prawn cocktail using the Marie Rose sauce recipe below. You’ll definitely try this twist on your homemade cocktail sauce some day soon. But that’s not all it can be used for. Try it as a dipping sauce for popcorn shrimp or French fries. Or the condiment for your burger. Let me know how you use it in the comments below. Enjoy!
Podcast Episode: Making Marie Rose Sauce
Listen to learn how to make this recipe, along with some great tips from Christine, by clicking the play button below:
Listen to more Recipe of the Day episodes here.
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Marie Rose Sauce Recipe
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Sauce
- Method: Mix
- Cuisine: English
DESCRIPTION
Marie Rose is the classic cocktail sauce used in England. It’s creamy and full of flavor, and it’s a great way to add a twist to your shrimp cocktail. The main ingredients are the mayonnaise and ketchup with a pinch of salt. After that, add the other ingredients if you have them and if you want to go the extra distance.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 Tbsp. ketchup
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp. lemon juice (optional)
- 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce (optional)
- 1/4 tsp. hot sauce, like Tabasco (optional)
- Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
Instructions
- In a small bowl combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, and salt. Taste.
- Add any or all of the lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, and cayenne pepper. Stir.
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This post originally appeared in December 2017 and was revised and republished in July 2022.
Love this. I really don’t understand why people buy this ready made when you can create this beautiful sauce so easily. Thank you.
You’re welcome, Mark! I’m so glad you loved it.
Memories of Prawn Cocktail in England, very good.
Pauline, I’m so happy you liked it! It brings back a lot of memories for me every time I have it too :)
This is so easy to make and absolutely delicious! My husband gave it his seal of approval.
Fantastic! Thanks, Donna.
Excellent prawn sauce! The same as I remember it in England!
Wonderful, Meredith! I’m so glad.
I’m British this recipe very nice but I put English mustard in place of the paprika and cayenne
Thank you for sharing with us, Roy!
We also make sandwiches with this.
Mix the Marie rose with a bag of cocktail (small) prawns and put it in a buttered soft roll with lots of iceberg lettuce and some black pepper.
Also goes well in a small crusty baguette although it’s a bit messier to eat.
Or just sandwich bread.
Try to avoid making it too breast, medium cut or thin baguette or Robert rolls.
Other salads work well toov on top of the lettuce:
Cucumber
Onion
Spring onion
If you use more salads, add a pinch of salt to the salad while assembling.
Thanks for sharing with us!
I’ve never heard of Marie Rose sauce before, but Puerto Ricans have something similar called MayoKetchup!
Thanks for sharing, Rebekah!
Not bad, sounds like a good unique sauce to try.
Thanks, Calvin!
Would go great with shrimp,Ill use the Worchestershire sace,thats my fav!
Thanks, Debbie!
I’ve never heard of this sauce before. Might have to surprise my British uncle when we visit them for Christmas. I’m supposed to bring an appetizer, would be fun to bring English shrimp cocktail!
Fun, Angelica! Let us know what he thinks!
This is a sauce I’ve never heard of, I will have to make some to try before I can say if I feel it’s good or not.
We look forward to your thoughts, Deborah!
I’ll stick to the American sauce but, this sounds great on a shrimp poor boy.
Thanks for your reply, Judy!
I’ve never seen this kind of sauce for shrimp. I’m not fond of mayonnaise so I think I’ll stick to my American cocktail sauce.
That’s ok, Sarah! We’ve got you covered for that too! https://cookthestory.com/cocktail-sauce-recipe/