Marie Rose sauce

Origins

While Fanny Cradock is often given credit for popularizing Marie Rose sauce, versions of seafood cocktail sauces existed well before her 1967 recipe. For instance, Constance Spry published a recipe in 1956 for Tomato Ice, a chilled blend of mayonnaise and sweetened tomato pulp intended as a base for prawn cocktail. The American cocktail sauce, a mix of horseradish and ketchup, is much older and is served in the same style with shrimp or prawn cocktails.

It has been wrongly suggested that a milder British version of this American sauce was the forerunner of Marie Rose. The origin of the name itself is uncertain. While Cradock is sometimes said to have coined it, a common tale claims the sauce was named after the Tudor warship Mary Rose. The Mary Rose Trust, however, has dismissed this, noting that none of their divers from that era recall any such connection, and the story likely emerged simply because the ship was frequently in the news at the time.

Similar sauces

In Argentina, salsa golf is a similar sauce created in the 1920s at a golf course. In the United States, fry sauce is sometimes served with french fries, and Thousand Island dressing is a related sauce and dressing. Russian dressing is also similar, with mayonnaise, ketchup, horseradish, and other ingredients. Rosé sauce, a mixture of tomato sauce and cream sauce, is named after the French word 'rosé' for its pink color; in Korea, it is often made with gochujang, resulting in a sweet, spicy, and rich flavor.