Published July 1, 1997.
To arrive at the best shrimp cocktail recipe, we began with the best shrimp we could find and then gave them as much flavor as they could handle without overwhelming them. We cooked the shrimp for our shrimp cocktail recipe in a stock made from the shells (which hold a lot of flavor), wine, lemon juice, herbs, and spices, letting them remain in the stock as long as possible without overcooking them. We found that by bringing the stock to a boil, adding the shrimp, and then taking the pot off the heat we could leave the shrimp to "steep" for almost 10 minutes.
Note: When using larger or smaller shrimp, increase or decrease cooking times for shrimp by one to two minutes, respectively.
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