Seasoned Salt: What’s in It, How Much Sodium It Has and How to Use It

Seasoned salt looks like a spice blend, but salt is the first ingredient on every label we checked, and gram for gram the regular blends carry roughly four-fifths of the sodium of plain salt. It’s an all-purpose shake-on for meat, potatoes and fries: salt with a little sugar and a savory mix of paprika, onion, garlic and other spices. In cooking it acts mostly like salt, with a warm color and a hint of sweetness. The best-known version is Lawry’s, which the company’s own timeline lists under 1938 and ties to Lawrence Frank’s search for a seasoning to go with prime rib.

At a glance

What’s in it: labels side by side

US labels list ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight,⁶ so salt is the biggest ingredient in each. Lawry’s lists sugar second. Morton lists no sugar but includes maltodextrin. The reduced-sodium Lawry’s lists potassium chloride second.

Divide each label’s sodium by its serving weight and, by our math, both regular seasoned salts come out at about 32% sodium by weight, the reduced-sodium Lawry’s at about 22%, and Morton’s table salt at about 39%. The American Heart Association puts table salt at about 40% sodium.⁷ So gram for gram, regular seasoned salt carries roughly four-fifths of the sodium of plain salt.

Both Lawry’s and Morton call their products “seasoned salt.”

Flavor

Seasoned salt tastes salty first, then mildly sweet and savory, with paprika’s warm color and a background of onion, garlic and celery. Morton’s version adds a little heat from chili and black pepper. Neither label lists MSG.

History: Lawry’s

Lawry’s own timeline tells the story. Brothers-in-law Lawrence Frank and Walter Van de Kamp co-founded a Los Angeles roadhouse in 1922 that became the Tam O’Shanter, and teamed up again in 1938 to open Lawry’s The Prime Rib. The same timeline says Frank spent three months of nightly experiments in his home kitchen working out a combination of 17 herbs and spices to go with prime rib, and it lists Lawry’s Seasoned Salt under 1938. Richard N. Frank built Lawry’s Foods into an international brand before the company was sold in 1979.³

McCormick bought the Lawry’s and Adolph’s brands from Conopco, a Unilever subsidiary, for $604 million in cash, closing the deal on 1 August 2008.⁸

More details get passed around: that the blend was first kept only on the restaurant’s tables, that diners carried the shakers home, that it reached stores in 1938 as the first product of its kind, and that it came to rival table salt in sales. We couldn’t find a source for any of them, so we don’t give them as fact.

How to use it

Morton suggests Season-All for ribs, beef, pork, chicken and potatoes.² Other good spots for it:

• At the table on fries, eggs, corn and baked potatoes.
• On beef before roasting or grilling: prime rib, steaks, roast beef.
• In ground meat for burgers and meatloaf, mixed in or sprinkled on the outside.
• As the base of a dry rub, with extra pepper, garlic or brown sugar.

The one rule that matters: seasoned salt is salt, so count it as part of the dish’s salt, not as a spice on top. If a recipe already calls for salt, cut that salt back when you add seasoned salt.

Buying and storage

Compare labels for sugar, MSG, anticaking agents and sodium per serving. They differ more than the name suggests. No regulator publishes a shelf life for seasoning blends. Keep the container closed and dry so it doesn’t clump, and replace it once the paprika has faded from red to brown.

Health and sodium

Sodium is the health issue here. A teaspoon of Lawry’s Original works out to about 1,520 mg of sodium (4 times the 380 mg label serving, by our math).¹ Compare that with the FDA’s Daily Value of less than 2,300 mg a day⁹ and the World Health Organization’s advice that adults take in less than 2,000 mg a day.¹⁰ The WHO says the main health effect of high-sodium diets is raised blood pressure, which increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, gastric cancer and kidney disease, among others.¹⁰

The reduced-sodium Lawry’s carries 270 mg per serving instead of 380 mg, and lists potassium chloride right after salt. The spices themselves are in there in amounts too small to matter nutritionally, and we make no health claims for them.

Substitutes and related pages

See seasoned salt substitutes for stand-ins. Related blends: garlic salt, onion salt, celery salt and all-purpose seasoning. Key ingredients: table salt, paprika, garlic powder and onion powder. For dishes it suits, see spices for hamburgers, best spices for steak and seasonings for fries. Dish too salty? See too much salt.