Old Bay Seasoning: What’s in It, Where It Came From, and How Hot and Salty It Is

When Gustav Brunn fled Nazi Germany, he brought very little with him but insisted on taking his hand-crank spice grinder. In Baltimore in 1939 he created Old Bay for the city’s crab steamers, and McCormick has owned it since 1990.¹ The label names celery salt, paprika, and red and black pepper, and McCormick doesn’t publish the rest of the spices.² Celery salt comes first, so go easy on other salt when you use it. Dave DeWitt’s heat scale rates it mild, in the same Scoville band as ancho and pasilla chiles.

At a glance

What is in it

McCormick’s label lists just three items: celery salt (salt and celery seed), “spices (including red pepper and black pepper)”, and paprika. The company describes the blend as celery salt, 18 herbs and spices, and paprika,² but doesn’t name the other spices. You’ll find plenty of lists of Old Bay’s ingredients online, with bay leaf, cardamom, mustard, cloves, mace and ginger. The label doesn’t confirm any of them. It names only celery seed, red pepper, black pepper and paprika.

One hint comes from Brunn’s son, who told Baltimore Heritage that his father added small amounts of “the most unlikely things, including cinnamon and nutmeg and cloves.”¹ That’s a family memory of the original, not a published recipe.

The reduced-sodium version lists its ingredients differently, as spices (including paprika, celery seed, red pepper and black pepper) and salt. McCormick says it tastes the same as the classic.⁴

History

Gustav Brunn was a spice merchant in Germany. Under the Nazis he was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald camp. His family got him released by paying 10,000 marks to a lawyer, and he left for the United States with his children. He brought very little with him but insisted on taking his hand-crank spice grinder. The family arrived in Baltimore in 1939.¹

In Baltimore, Brunn worked at McCormick until he was fired, which Baltimore Heritage puts down to his being Jewish.¹ He then opened the Baltimore Spice Company, with a shop at 26 Market Place, right across from the wholesale fish market. The company developed a seasoning for crabs, and Brunn named it after the Old Bay steamship line.

It was slow to sell at first. Business picked up after Brunn handed out samples to the crab steamers. In 1990 the company sold the rights to the original recipe to McCormick.

Dates. Baltimore Heritage says Brunn created Old Bay in 1939, and elsewhere in the same article that his company started developing a crab seasoning around 1940.¹ McCormick calls Old Bay a kitchen staple since 1939.² We go with 1939.

We found no source for the story that Brunn’s wife bribed camp guards, for the claim that McCormick fired him because he spoke no English, or for McCormick’s recipe being unchanged since 1939.

Flavor

Old Bay tastes salty and savory first, with celery seed’s green, slightly bitter note, a gentle pepper heat, and warmth in the background from the unnamed spices. Of the named ingredients:

• Paprika gives the red-orange color. Capsanthin and capsorubin are the main red pigments, per the FAO/WHO expert committee’s assessment of paprika extract.⁷
• Black pepper’s signature flavor comes mainly from piperine.
• Red pepper is, going by the label, most likely the main source of heat.

How hot is it? Dave DeWitt’s heat scale puts Old Bay in the 1,000 to 1,500 Scoville band, alongside ancho and pasilla chiles.⁵ That’s a general rating, not a lab test of any particular tin, but it puts Old Bay at the mild end of chile heat.

How it is used

McCormick sells Old Bay as a seafood seasoning and suggests it on fries and roasted vegetables, and on pizza, popcorn and burgers. It started out on the crabs sold by Baltimore’s crab steamers. It turns up in chowders too: chef Ryan Hardy’s New England clam chowder for the James Beard Foundation adds Old Bay along with the thyme, bay leaf and cayenne.⁸

People also rim Bloody Mary glasses with it, shake it on potato chips and corn on the cob, and work it into barbecue rubs. The first ingredient is celery salt, so Old Bay seasons as well as flavors. When you add it, cut back on other salt.

Sodium and allergens

Sodium. A 1/4 teaspoon serving (0.6 g) of the classic blend carries 125 mg of sodium, 5% of the Daily Value, per its Nutrition Facts.³ The 30% less sodium version has 85 mg per serving.⁴ The WHO recommends adults stay below 2,000 mg of sodium a day.⁹

Celery allergy. Celery seed is in the blend. Celery is one of the allergens listed in Annex II of the EU food information regulation.⁶ In the United States celery isn’t one of the major food allergens the FDA lists, so US labels don’t have to flag it.¹⁰ If you’re allergic to celery, avoid Old Bay.

Nutrition and health claims

At a quarter teaspoon, Old Bay gives you salt and flavor and almost nothing else. Claims that it supplies meaningful vitamins, minerals or antioxidants, or that its ingredients help with arthritis, digestive problems or depression, aren’t supported by any source we reviewed, and we’re not making any health claims for it.

Storage

Store it like any other ground seasoning, tightly closed and away from heat and light. We didn’t find a shelf-life figure from a regulator or standards body.

Substitutes and comparisons

• Old Bay vs. Creole seasoning
• Creole seasoning and Cajun seasoning
• The named ingredients: celery salt, celery seeds, paprika, black pepper, cayenne pepper
• Spices often guessed to be in it: bay leaves, mustard powder, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon
• Dishes: clam chowder spices and hash brown spices