Marie Rose sauce (known in some areas as cocktail sauce or seafood sauce) is a British

condiment A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to impart a specific flavor, to enhance the flavor, or to complement the dish. A table condiment or table sauce is more specifically a condiment that is served separat ...

often made from a blend of tomatoes, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce,

lemon juice The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culina ...

and

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in dia ...

. A simpler version can be made by merely mixing

tomato ketchup Ketchup or catsup is a table condiment with a sweet and tangy flavor. The unmodified term ("ketchup") now typically refers to tomato ketchup, although early recipes used egg whites, mushrooms, oysters, grapes, mussels, or walnuts, among oth ...

with

mayonnaise Mayonnaise (; ), colloquially referred to as "mayo" , is a thick, cold, and creamy sauce or dressing commonly used on sandwiches, hamburgers, composed salads, and French fries. It also forms the base for various other sauces, such as tarta ...

. The sauce was popularised in the 1960s by

Fanny Cradock Phyllis Nan Sortain Pechey (26 February 1909 – 27 December 1994), better known as Fanny Cradock, was an English restaurant critic, television chef and writer. She frequently appeared on television, at cookery demonstrations and in print with h ...

, a British

celebrity chef A celebrity chef is a kitchen chef who has become a celebrity. Today, chefs often become celebrities by presenting cookery advice and demonstrations, usually through the media of television and radio, or in printed publications. While television ...

. It is often used to accompany

seafood Seafood is any form of sea life regarded as food by humans, prominently including fish and shellfish. Shellfish include various species of molluscs (e.g. bivalve molluscs such as clams, oysters and mussels, and cephalopods such as octopus an ...

;

prawn Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (which is a member of the order decapoda), some of which can be eaten. The term "prawn"Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature' ...

s in particular.

Origins

The sauce is often credited to

, who made it widely known. Variations exist internationally, and seafood cocktail sauces predate Cradock's 1967 recipe by some years. For example,

Constance Spry Constance Spry (née Fletcher, previously Marr; 5 December 1886 – 3 January 1960) was a British educator, florist and author in the mid-20th century. Life Constance Fletcher was born in Derby in 1886, eldest child and only daughter of Geor ...

published a recipe for Tomato Ice, a chilled mixture of mayonnaise and sweetened tomato pulp, in 1956 for use as the base of a prawn cocktail. The American cocktail sauce is a horseradish and ketchup-based sauce that is served with seafood, and dates back considerably earlier. Although this is not the same sauce as Marie Rose, it is served in the same distinctive style in a prawn or shrimp cocktail, and it has been suggested that US cocktail sauce, made milder for British tastes, was the precursor of Marie Rose sauce. The connection with the name Marie Rose is also not clear. Cradock is sometimes credited with the name, or there is an association with the British warship the ''

Mary Rose The ''Mary Rose'' (launched 1511) is a carrack-type warship of the English Tudor navy of King Henry VIII. She served for 33 years in several wars against France, Scotland, and Brittany. After being substantially rebuilt in 1536, she saw her ...

''. However, the ''Mary Rose'' Trust itself has debunked this, saying "As we still have a number of divers on our team who were around during this period, so we can ask them. Not one of them has any recollection of this happening... since the Mary Rose was in the news a lot during this period, it becomes clear that some people did the sums and came up with a nice story to justify the result."

Similar sauces

Argentina

In Argentina,

salsa golf ' (Spanish for "golf sauce") is a cold sauce of somewhat thick consistency, common in Argentina. According to legend, it was invented by the physician Luis Federico Leloir in the mid-1920s at a golf club at the seaside resort Mar del Plata. Tire ...

is a similar sauce created in the 1920s at a golf course, hence the name.

United States

In the United States, a similar sauce,

fry sauce Fry sauce is a condiment often served with French fries or tostones (twice-fried plantain slices) in many places in the world. It is usually a combination of one part tomato ketchup and two parts mayonnaise. Historically, the Argentinian salsa g ...

, is sometimes served with french fries. Another similar sauce called

Thousand Island dressing Thousand Island dressing is an American salad dressing and condiment based on mayonnaise that can include olive oil, lemon juice, orange juice, paprika, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, vinegar, cream, chili sauce, tomato purée, and ketchup or ...

is popular in the United States and Canada. The Thousand Island dressing recipe reputedly originated from the

Thousand Islands The Thousand Islands (french: Mille-Îles) constitute a North American archipelago of 1,864 islands that straddles the Canada–US border in the Saint Lawrence River as it emerges from the northeast corner of Lake Ontario. They stretch for abo ...

between the state of New York and the province of Ontario.

Ireland

In Ireland, Marie Rose sauce refers primarily to just ketchup and mayonnaise, and often salt and pepper. Marie Rose sauce in chip shops is usually known as "burger sauce", though there are many names in use. However, the above British versions are also used in Ireland. The name used is dependent on where it is being served (e.g. chip shop) and what the sauce is accompanying (such as chips or salad). More formal recipes may also incorporate ingredients such as

horseradish Horseradish (''Armoracia rusticana'', syn. ''Cochlearia armoracia'') is a perennial plant of the family Brassicaceae (which also includes mustard, wasabi, broccoli, cabbage, and radish). It is a root vegetable, cultivated and used worldwi ...

, herbs, and Irish

brandy Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured with ...

. Some restaurants may top or accompany Marie Rose sauce with Irish

cheddar cheese Cheddar cheese (or simply cheddar) is a natural cheese that is relatively hard, off-white (or orange if colourings such as annatto are added), and sometimes sharp-tasting. Cheddar originates from the English village of Cheddar in Somerset. Che ...

References

Sources

Marie Rose sauce
recipe
BBC - recipe includes a description of Marie Rose sauce
{{portal bar, Food British condiments Fish products