Summer’s Secret Ingredient: Old Bay Seasoning
TRUTH: OLD BAY Seasoning is my anti-depressant. If I’m feeling blue, unfocused, blah, I pop open that iconic yellow tin and taste a pinch straight up—a piquant mix of salt, celery seed, paprika and a few secret ingredients. And there it is, the rush of neurotransmitters resetting.
For me, Old Bay, best known for adding zip and a pleasing orangey hue to seafood, evokes childhood memories of happily hammering steamed crabs strewn over newspapers on Rehoboth Bay, Delaware—a stronghold of the Old Bay fan base known collectively as “Baytriots.”