Cocktail Sauce

Prepared horseradish loses its punch within about six weeks of opening the jar. That's the single biggest reason homemade cocktail sauce tastes flat compared to what comes with a shrimp tower at a good seafood counter. If the jar in your fridge door has been sitting there since last Easter, buy a new one before you start.

The ratio most old-school cookbooks use — roughly one part horseradish to eight parts ketchup — is a starting point, not a rule. Restaurants that serve chilled shellfish tend to push it hotter, closer to one-to-six, because the cold of the shrimp dulls the heat on your tongue. If you're eating this at room temperature with crackers or fried oysters, dial back.

One other thing worth mentioning: skip horseradish sauce in a jar. It's cut with mayonnaise or cream and will turn the whole bowl beige and dull. You want the white, eye-watering grated kind packed in vinegar. Heinz ketchup matters less than people claim, but it does give you the sweetness profile most of us grew up associating with this sauce, so it's a reasonable default.