OLD BAY

Add an indelible chef's touch - and zest - to seafood dishes and more with OLD BAY® spice, featuring celery seed, paprika, mustard, salt, red pepper, black pepper and more. This 75-year-old Chesapeake Bay seasoning is the perfect flavor solution for providing consistent, time-honored taste to your restaurant's recipes. Whether it's shrimp, lobster, and crab or chicken and vegetables, OLD BAY® seasoning can transform your restaurant's dishes from mild and boring to brilliant and tasty with a just a few dashes.

Spice Story

Born on the bay. Loved in the USA.

An icon of flavor for the Chesapeake region, OLD BAY Seasoning has gained fans across the country. Its bold, distinct flavor serves as a reliable, versatile seasoning for seafood and everything else. It is the key ingredient that brings dishes to life with an extra kick of unique, bold flavor anchored in salt, celery seed, paprika and mustard. OLD BAY Seasoning’s blend of 18 herbs and spices not only provides distinct flavor, it also adds excitement and zest to every moment. There truly is no substitute.

Because of its complex balance of ingredients, it’s delicious on everything from seafood to chicken, pizza and pasta, corn, salads & more. In fact, OLD BAY is more than a seasoning – it is an experience. For those in the Mid-Atlantic region, it’s a seafood, summertime, social ritual that is a marker for good times to be had, and good times to be remembered. For those who love it, OLD BAY is an irreplaceable flavor element that adds instant appeal to any food or dish. Even for those who have no idea the power of OLD BAY, it’s that secret ingredient building block that produces irresistible flavor in any dish.

Within that unique blend of 18 herbs and spices lies a collaboration of complex flavor elements, just waiting for a chef to let them shine. For example, celery seed is a key flavor in OLD BAY that gives it a subtle earthy note. Highlight this flavor element by adding celery, fennel, or mild mushrooms like button or cremini as an ingredient. Increase the heat factor by adding cayenne pepper to the mix. Sweeten the blend with extra paprika or diced bell peppers, creating your own signature flavor. Finally, simply tap in to patrons’ love of the seasoning by adding OLD BAY to dish descriptions on the menu. OLD BAY lovers will surely delight in seeing their favorite seasoning applied by a professional.

Spice Story

OLD BAY:
Did You Know?

A CHESAPEAKE
TRADITION

Fun Fact #1

OUR UNIQUE BLEND OF 18 HERBS AND SPICES WAS BORN IN THE CHESAPEAKE BAY AREA IN 1939. IT HAS BEEN MADE THE SAME WAY EVER SINCE.

Fun Fact #2

OLD BAY'S ORIGINAL NAME WAS "DELICIOUS BRAND SHRIMP AND CRAB SEASONING"

Fun Fact #3

THE MUCH BETTER NAME, OLD BAY, WAS INSPIRED BY THE OLD BAY LINE STEAMBOATS THAT TRAVELED THE CHESAPEAKE BETWEEN MARYLAND AND VIRGINIA.

Fun Fact #4

THE MAIN FLAVOR INGREDIENTS IN OLD BAY CONSIST OF CELERY SALT, PAPRIKA, AND MUSTARD SEED.

Fun Fact #5

OLD BAY IS EXPERIENCING THE SAME MENU GROWTH AS CHIPOTLE AIOLI, EGGS OVER-EASY, AND FISH SAUCE (Datassential, MenuTrends, OLD BAY, 2017)

Fun Fact #6

THERE ARE 2 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OLD BAY SEASONING - 1. IT'S GREAT ON SEAFOOD and 2. IT'S GREAT ON EVERYTHING ELSE.

The OLD BAY Flavor Story

OLD BAY is great on seafood
OLD BAY is great on everything else
Key flavors in OLD BAY include Celery Salt, Paprika, and Mustard Seed
Celery Seed has a slightly bitter flavor, with earthy and grassy notes like the celery we eat
Paprika has a mild, slightly sweet flavor and pleasant, fragrant aroma and is made from dried sweet red pepper
Mustard Seed delivers an initial floral sweetness with a pungent finishing bite

OLD BAY'S ICONIC FLAVOR IS A SECRET BLEND OF McCORMICK HERBS & SPICESread more Sourcing Locations