Devilled shrimp sauce.

In The English Cookbook, Victor Gordon is a staunch defender of devils. He includes no such advocacy in Prawnography, his alphabetical encyclopedia of shrimp preparations. He does, however, offer his readers a number of ways to devil shrimp, including this alternative to ketchupy cocktail sauce.

• 2 cups heavy cream
• pinch of sugar
• 1 teaspoon anchovy sauce (see the Notes)
• 1 teaspoon cayenne
• juice of a lemon
• 1 Tablespoon English or Dijon mustard
• teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire
• pinch of salt

Whip the cream until it thickens, whisk together the other ingredients and fold the mixture into the cream.

Notes:

-Anchovy sauce from George Watkins is widely available in the United Kingdom but hard to find in the United States, where specialty shops do stock and it is, of course, available online. A perfectly suitable alternative would be a scant ½ teaspoon anchovy paste.

-Gordon use half the amounts of mustard and Worcestershire and specifies “French mustard”. Colman’ prepared English mustard will create a hotter devil.