My marriage is on the line here. My husband, who is from Baltimore, claims Old Bay Seasoning is different from Chesapeake Bay Seasoning. I thought Old Bay was a brand of Chesapeake Seasoning. Who is right?
Some other spice companies package knock-offs of Old Bay which is a proprietary blend of McCormick's of Baltimore, MD.
http://www.mccormick.com/content.cfm?...
It's the Real Thing that's been most widely used in the Chesapeake Bay area for 60 years for steaming crabs, shrimp and other seafood and as a spice in cooking.
Get Old Bay.
Other brands are available but why? Make your husband happy.
http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/c...
http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzey...
The real thing
100% agreement with MakingSense on this one. Buck up say you are sorry and cook him something with real old bay, and buy the big container to let him know how much you care.
There is no difference other than the high price that Old Bay costs. Many of the good Crab houses(Kantlers, Woodys) make their own and I don't think any one could tell the difference.
High price? Isn't a can of it on the order of $3 or so?
Old Bay is cheap. It has a particular balance of clove that is neither too intense nor too bland that I find is missing in other blends - it's just right. Clove is easy to get wrong.
Geez, the 6 oz can of the Real Thing costs all of $3. That's going to last most cooks a year at one teaspoon here and there.
If I were Cantler's, using 20+ pounds a day or whatever they use, I might make my own too, but for plain old home use, why cheap out?
Maybe there's not much difference for steamed crabs, but for crabcakes or in cooking, stick with Old Bay. Too many traditions are fading because people say they don't matter.
There are a couple of local(Baltimore area) "blenders" who make blends according to what the crabhouse request, their recipe if you will. J.O. Spice
puts out several variations...
Old Bay was a long time staple produced by the Baltimore Spice Company and was sold several years ago to McCormick...Many old time Marylanders ans some younger ones also have an affinity for Old Bay..
Utz Potato Chip Co makes a Crab Chip that will remind one of Old Bay
Old Bay is the real deal. There is no substitue. Which is not to say that other companies don't try, with their silly silly knock-offs.
I am a Penzey's fanatic, but their Chesapeake Bay seasoning is not even remotely a good sub when what you're craving is the perfectly balanced secret formula of Old Bay.
Okay, this comes a little late but here's the deal. Yer ALL WRONG!!!
The ORIGINAL OLD BAY came from the Baltimore Spice Company 21208 in Maryland. For YEARS McCormack kept pestering Baltimore Spice Company to give it up for a profitable sum of money. Baltimore Spice Company REFUSED to sell the recipe for some time. About twenty years or so as I recall it. Somewhere between my 20s and now in my 50's, I'd guess around 30, Baltimore Spice caved. I imagine McCormack company offered them quite a healthy sum to let it go.
The FIRST thing that Marylander's noticed was the McCormacks blend dubbed Old Bay, was NOT the same recipe. Thousands of Maryland resident's ran to the stores to buy up all the left over cans of Old Bay on the shelves that still had the "Baltimore Spice Company" address on the can. Including me. I still have my original can.
What most people believe is McCormack wanted to tout their OWN blend of crab and seafood seasoning and only use the NAME of "OLD BAY" on their label as MOST MARYLANDER'S that had ate the spice for years, including me, said it was NOT the same and completely different which lead to the assumption that McCormack wanted to buy out their competition and dissolve the company so there was no longer any Old Bay to compete with their less enjoyable spice.
The ORIGINAL "Old Bay" spice that maryland residents used to steam their highly coveted Maryland Blue Crabs, had a much hotter afterburn when eating the spice from the jar and off the crabs. McCormack's version of Old Bay was less hot, and did not have the same exact blend of spices in proportion to equal the original. There is NOTHING more I'd like to do than get a hold of the original owners and get that recipe ingredient potion in the right proportions and start my own seafood spice company. Maryland residents would go nuts over it and leave McCormack in the dust.
When Maryland residents stated they did not like the McCormacks blend of "Old Bay" spice, a new company in Maryland arose as the next spice to steam crabs with and that was JO Spice company that made a better tasting crab seasoning that was similar in flavor to the original Baltimore Spice version of "Old Bay" minus the hotter burn spice that was obviously in the original Old Bay. Furthermore, another company tried to produce a new spice for crabs called WYE RIVER but did not match the original Old Bay nor did it compete and fell to the way side compared to Jo Spice which is used more by Maryland residents who seek the original flavor of Old Bay when it was owned by Baltimore Spice Co.
NOW, here is the kicker. McCormack MYSTERIOUSLY came out with ANOTHER Crab/Shrimp seasoning spice after their OWN blend of "Old Bay" was introduced. Hmm, imagine that! WHY would they put out TWO crab seasonings? It was called McCormack's "Chesapeake Bay" seasoning, It was NO WHERE NEAR touted as much as the McCormack own new blend of what they called Old Bay using the Old Bay name only. That newer spice label said "McCormacks Chesapeake Bay Seasoning." Most Maryland residents with GREAT TASTE BUDS that remember the ORIGINAL OLD BAY recipe from Baltimore Spice would tell you that the McCormack's Chesapeake Bay Seasoning blend that they did NOT tout WAS IN FACT the ORIGINAL OLD BLEND recipe of OLD BAY that the Baltimore Spice company made as it has that same exact flavor AND it had that after burn on your tongue that so many Marylanders remember. You'd have to be an older resident in your late 40's or greater to remember the original OLD BAY but I can tell you, after trying McCormack's OTHER crab seasoning "Chesapeake Bay seasoning" I can say for certain it was the ORIGINAL OLD BAY seasoning but McCormack eventually ended it's run and took it off the shelf! IF you can get a bottle of this seasoning left out there, you can experience the original OLD BAY seasoning. And I'll pay you good money for it! ;)
Shawn Kelley, Maryland.
This breaks my heart. I just recently used the last of a big box of this seasoning I got from my mother when she died in 1987. It lived in the freezer all this time and kept its flavor till the end. I was just starting to look around to replace it and now I know that it is probably futile. Too bad! I spent summers on the Chesapeake in my youth, and we always sprinkled it over our crabs when we cooked them. So sad and frustrating to hear that we can't get it anymore. More corporate greed and stupidity. Time to outlaw corporate "per$onhood."
You have no idea how much I'd like to get my hands on an original Old Bay or even better that McCormacks Chesapeake Bay Seasoning. THAT was real Old Bay. I recently went to Wegmans in columbia, Maryland after it recently opened and I had the lobster sandwich and asked them for some old bay. They gave me the can of McCormacks Old Bay. I put it on the sandwich and it was SO lousy it ruined my sandwich. Which brings me to going to Wegmans last weekend for another lobster sandwich. I walked in with my OWN salt shaker filled with Jo Spice and used that instead on my sandwich. I won't use McCormacks Old Bay anymore. It just isn't the real deal, tastes nothing like the original and is LOUSY compared to. I'm just SHOCKED that McCormack would stoop SOOOO LOW to "BUY OUT" another company to dissolve it rather than show TRUE INTEREST in food spices and keep the original recipe so fond to so many Delmarva residents that was a staple here for so many years. It really ticks me off that McCormack executives at the top would be so greedy to wipe out a small company that stands in their way to selling crab and shrimp spice seasoning in order to sell their own crappier tasteless product. Old Bay SUCKS! Period! Ask any Marylander and they'll tell you. "Old Bay? Oh god, no! It sucks! It's terrible compared to the original Old Bay by Baltimore Spice company." Me included! ;)
BY THE WAY!!! Here is the original OLD BAY that McCormack sold under a different name of Chesapeake Bay Seasoning! THIS was the one they took off the market a few years ago. They did not push it at all. But they kept pushing Old Bay they have now that's terrible. The one pictured here, THAT was Baltimore Spice's batch in that container they relabeled to something else. If ANYONE knows where I can get this stuff, HIT ME BACK! I want to buy all you got left!
Pic didn't show.
Question, is it possible that the Old Bay HOT version could be the original formula?
Also, I'm very interested in this subject and remember eating crabs as a kid in the 80s and remember that extra burn in the flavor. If just a few more Marylanders could come forward about the change in Old Bay, that would prove that this is a real controversy, and I could probably get on wikipedia and edit the Old Bay page myself to include the controversy and link this topic page as the source material.
I was, at this moment, searching for a new can of McCormick's Chesapeake Bay Seafood Seasoning, which has been the only one I would use over the past 35 years. On my stove is (after reading your post) my last pot of chowder. The last of my CB has been tapped out of the can. I am heart broken. If I had known, I would have socked up. When I asked my mother to send me a can...back in ... years ago, I thought it was hard to find because I lived in Texas while she lived in Florida. I can't believe its gone!! Wow, even as I write this, I'm beginning to feel anger. Many other spice blends have been given to me. NONE compare!!
Dear McCormick,
Give us back our Chesapeake Bay Style Seafood Seasoning... Or give up the recipe.
Thankyou!
You won't be able to do that because Mccormicks own the original recipe. If you try to sell a copycat of the original they will sue you. How will they know, you ask? By reverse engineering your version in a chemistry lab. They will know what spices you used and in what proportions. The original owners are also probably sworn to secrecy as a term of the sale, so you won't get it from them or they will be sued.
Thank you ShawnKelley. I've lamented this for years. I am 51 and grew up on the Magothy River. I certainly remember the original. I spent my childhood with burning lips and heaven help you if got any in a cut on your fingers. After McCormack put out their watered down, fake version, my family switched to JO. I live in Boston now but still have JO shipped to my house every few months. I miss the original Old Bay like I miss my Baltimore Colts. I love JO and I love my Ravens, but to many people of my generation, they will never replace the originals...
I have one old can of Chesapeake Bay Style Seafood Seasoning, with a precious few tablespoons left. I wish I could find a good approximation of the recipe! Old Bay is just not the same. It says "Salt, Spices (including celery seed, red pepper, mustard and black pepper) and Paprika." Anyone know of a copycat recipe for this non-OLD-BAY mix?
Man... break out the tin-foil hats....
also, you typed it out so many times and it never occurred to you that you were completely misspelling McCormick?
Shawn, there is even MORE to this story...let me start by saying that I had ALWAYS used Old Bay on crabs but NEVER, NEVER, NEVER on shrimp. You steam shrimp with the original McCormack Seafood seasoning. THAT was long before they ever messed with the Original Old Bay. And, even back then, these unscrupulous louses changed the formula on THAT seafood Seasoning spice. Fortunately, my dad was in wholesale foods and on pretty good terms with the McCormack salesman. It took a month but after their discussion on the change in formula, the salesman came back and advised that what McCormack had done was pulled out much of the Celery Seed and salt. I forget the exact ratio but he told my dad how much Celery Seed and salt to add to get the formula back to the original blend. We tried it and by golly that did it!!!!!!! And, so for many years, we had our favorite shrimp spice back again...take McCormack Seafood Seasoning and replace the Celery Seed and salt that they had removed.
Later, of course, came the fiasco with Old Bay. Furthermore, I learned that McCormack was discontinuing their Seafood Seasoning. So, I bought two cases, before it was no longer available. Those two cases are just about gone now. I only have one can left. I am heart broken because without that...steamed shrimp will never be the same.
I've looked long and hard for the original recipe - no luck. So now, both me and my son, with whom I shared some of those two cases with, are going to have to come up with our own formula. Of course, while we are at it, we might as well, go for the original Old Bay formula as well. Wish us luck, if we can hit, I'd be happy to share. One other thing; since I do still have some left, do you have any idea who I might go to to have it analyzed?
James and Dottie Strigle invented J. O Spice on Tangier Island Virginia, in 1945, and the company is now in Halethorpe, a close in suburb of Baltimore. J. O. has it's own flavor and was NOT an attempt to mimic Old Bay spice mix. J. O Spice is STILL run by the J. O. Spice founder's daughter and her son. It differs in taste from Old Bay because J. O. Spice uses specially graded Kosher salt, and does not contain cloves.
Old Bay was first made in 1940 by the Baltimore Spice Company, so that entire story that someone else told you all on here was MADE UP... it is a fine, complicated spice mix that has many fans both in Maryland and even globally.
Mc Cormick was founded in 1889- PRE-dating BOTH other companies by decades. it too is based in Baltimore, Maryland. Mc Cormick was sold a majority INTEREST in Baltimore Spice Company / Old Bay- that is why the branding and the tins have remained almost identical as before. Why mess up a good brand and confuse the legions of Old Bay customers? Mc Cormick isn't foolish! So don't you be, either. try doing a little research out here on the great wide web before you believe everything that you read!
I just looked at the Wikipedia page for Old Bay seasoning, and they don't at all mention the controversy about the change in the formula made by McCormack. It would be really nice if someone on this list who is knowledgeable and well spoken would add that information to Wikipedia. Or perhaps someone has tried, and McCormack has put the kibosh on it?
Why would Wikipedia even have that info? If McCormack bought out the long time loved Baltimore Spice Company ONLY to destroy it's product for the sole purpose of buying the NAME "OLD BAY," so they could sell their OWN crappy version of the seafood seasoning, why would they BROADCAST IT on the internet that is exactly what they did? It don't make sense. And since when is Wikipedia the say all in what's going on in the world? Fact is Baltimore Spice was bought out for one reason. To grab the name. Marylanders were buying Old Bay in the cases for their crabs. Marylanders were NOT purchasing McCormacks crab seasoning because it wasn't good. It never was. It STILL isn't. It's NOT Old Bay! It's in NAME ONLY! They HAD Old Bay under a different name called Chesapeake Bay seasoning. They took it off the market. Taste could tell the difference. I imagine Baltimore Spice must have said, "You can buy it for the hefty price you offer but we want it still available as part of the agree to keep it on under a different name for a specified amount of years." It was discontinued about ten years ago or more. Sadly. It WAS the old OLD BAY original recipe in my opinion and I have very discerning taste buds that can tell the difference.
Now, I mix Jo Spice with other of my own seasonings and get my own flavor of crab seasoning. All this talk of crab seasoning is making me hungry so I'm going out to buy me some Crabs and steam them up today!
Well, you didn't understand what I was saying. Wikipedia is supposed to be written by the people, and we are supposed to have the power to edit it. The fact that Old Bay has been so corrupted should be public knowledge, and Wikipedia should include that controversy in its posting about Old Bay. So the question I ask is, did people try to write about this there and someone (like McCormack's maybe?) edit it out? Unfortunately that is the sort of thing that can happen on Wikipedia, and needs to be countered by the truth.
While Wikipedia can be accurate, assuming that it is always so, or ever free of political or financial finagling, would be a gross miscalculation
Everyone that talks about what McCormack did has absolutely NO proof of it. Even me. It's all speculation based on what we all say is our taste buds and our undeniable usage of Old Bay for years that told us the moment McCormack bought it, they changed the recipe, and it was NOT OLD BAY! Period! It's not. In name only. Baltimore Spice Company had the best seafood seasoning for over 30 years and let it go to profit. So many good things in life are gone due to greed. BS is now gone and McCormack has the name and a good thing is now gone forever. McCormack will NEVER admit to it and NEVER bring back the original Old Bay. And I can bet you that McCormack made them sign a gag order for life to never disclose the original recipe or tell anyone so they can make it again. I'm sure they would suffer massive law suits if they did.
13 years after this post started you can still gear up that big a rant?
That some serious angst.
Don't listen to people dreaming of knowledge. McCormack didn't "Buy a major interest" into Baltimore Spice company. They paid them off completely to buy them out and close their competition down and Baltimore Spice was over. No more. Defunct! McCormack bought Baltimore Spice to shut them down, to end their dominant control over the Maryland Delmarva area that had the corner on Old Bay spice that was used for steaming crabs all over the state and the states next to it. Don't believe what dreamers have to say about it. Take the word of someone that has been around during the original Baltimore Spice Company OLD BAY era. I know. So does EVERYONE that I know who experienced the true real Old Bay. McCormack does not make the original Baltimore Spice Old Bay and anyone that experienced the original would tell you that it's NOT the same blend of spices. It's different. And EVERYONE that I know that had the original would say that McCormack bought Baltimore Spice out to dissolve it and sell their own blend of crab seafood seasoning that they had that no one was buying nowhere near the same amount of sales Baltimore Spice had on their original Old Bay. IF McCormack could have competed with Baltimore Spices Old Spice sales, there would have been NO REASON FOR McCORMACK TO BUY THEM OUT!! So again, don't listen to dreamers that don't know what they are talking about. Listen to people that know, had, and enjoyed the original, because there will be no other blend even close to the original Baltimore Spice Old Bay! PERIOD! And McCormack will never allow it to come back out. If they did, Marylanders would stop buying Old Bay and go back to buying their other blend called, Chesapeake Bay Style Seasoning. It even had the same style OLD BAY metal container with the same red plastic top to it with a shake and spoon out spout only it was white and it had an image of steamed crabs on the cover.
AGAIN! Don't believe people are dreamers in knowing what they are talking about. Believe someone that had it, enjoyed it and misses the original. Someone "in the know!" And someone with incredible sensitive taste buds to know the difference! Someone "who STILL has their original Baltimore Spice Company Old Bay container!" Someone who has been a Maryland resident eating DELICIOUS Maryland steamed crabs for over 54 years! Someone who eats DELICIOUS Maryland Steamed Crabs year round, and in the past, once a week. ;) Someone that knows what they are talking about.
So a multibillion dollar multinational company was so threatened by the regional sales of a single spice blend that the survival of that entire corporation hinged on buying that single small competitor. Good to know.
It's McCormick, by the way, but at least you're consistent.
I have no dog in this fight, so spare me the hysterical accusations about my being paid to say that.
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