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Old Bay Seasoning is a must on steamed blue crabs, but Chowhounds love it with lots of other foods, too. By all means, sprinkle it liberally on all your steamed shellfish and in shrimp salad, but try it in these other ways and see if it doesn’t become your go-to spice cabinet secret weapon.
Don’t stop at seafood.
Stock up on the classic stuff or make our Old Bay copycat recipe, then prepare to use it on all sorts of things besides seafood:
Instead of salt and pepper, try OBS on your corn. Use it alone or in conjunction with melted butter or even mayo (sort of like an East Coast twist on elote).
Give your favorite snacks a fresh kick with OBS — sprinkle atop French fries or tots, or use it to jazz up other veggie chips from kale to carrots. It’s great on simple roasted vegetables too.
Reach for OBS when a stew or soup seems to need a little more complexity. It works in gazpacho too.
Mix together ketchup, hot sauce, apple cider vinegar, and OBS for a perfect sauce for dipping shrimp.
If you’re looking for an easy way to season before frying or baking, this is it. It’s also a delicious trick for chicken wings.
Try OBS as a garnish for deviled eggs or a seasoning in egg salad. It’s great in potato salad, tuna salad, and chicken salad too. Basically, Old Bay + mayo + anything = more, please.
Or just sprinkle some on a ripe avocado and eat it with a spoon—it just might be your new favorite summer snack.
Calling all canners! Old Bay adds flavor to homemade pickles and adds extra zip to cucumbers, onions, and any other veggies you want to preserve.
Homemade roasted nuts flavored with Old Bay are almost as addictive as crab chips, but slightly better for you.
We covered egg salad already, but simple scrambled eggs and omelets also benefit from a touch of Old Bay, as do eggs Benedict, especially if they involve seafood. As you might imagine, a crab frittata would readily welcome it too.
Old Bay is ideal for meat marinades — chicken, seafood, even pork and beef. The blend tastes good on pretty much everything, and with some smoky flavor from the grill, it’s dynamite.
A simple cheese or pepperoni slice is instantly elevated with a dusting of Old Bay. And a white clam pie is likely to be another prime candidate for this treatment…
It adds a piquant layer of flavor that plays well with the inherent sweetness of the bread, and any leftovers can be blended into cornbread crab cakes for a meta meal.
This might sound a little odd, but think about Mexican fresh fruit snacks spiked with lime and chile powder—swap in Old Bay and it’s a surprisingly refreshing combo for summer snacking!
We’re sure you’ll find plenty of other uses for this beloved blend, but that’s a good place to start. Now excuse us while we go order another can.
