DIY Old Bay Seasoning

Hi everyone!  Today, I'm sharing with you a type of recipe I've never done before:  DIY spice mix!

If you have perused social media and/or cooking websites at all, you've probably come across homemade spice mixes before, such as DIY taco seasoning or pumpkin pie spice.  You might never have come across a recipe for how to concoct your own Old Bay seasoning.

If you're a Californian like me, you might not be familiar with Old Bay seasoning.  It's a popular seasoning in parts of New England (Wikipedia to the rescue) that has a distinctive but likable flavor.

I hadn't given much thought to this seasoning until my family and I were getting the ingredients to make crab cakes ( stay tuned for a recipe for those on Friday!).  We're not the kind of family to be eating crab much, but we were set on making crab cakes because my parents brought back fresh crab from when they went crabbing in Oregon.  With a clear goal, my family and I headed out to a couple of local supermarkets to purchase the needed ingredients for the crab cakes.  One of  said ingredients was Old Bay seasoning.  The first grocery store my family and I stopped at did not carry Old Bay seasoning.  Our hopes were not jaded, however, because the store did carry one of the crucial ingredients of Old Bay seasoning:  celery salt.  We purchased the celery salt and headed to another supermarket in quest of the rest of the needed ingredients from the crab cakes.

Still hoping to find pre-mixed Old Bay seasoning, I searched the next supermarket for it.  Sure enough, I found it!  There was one major problem though:  the Old Bay seasoning was excessively expensive.  Disappointed but intent on continuing Operation Crab Cake, my family and I decided that we would make the Old Bay seasoning from scratch.

Upon arriving home, a quick internet query yielded an easy recipe for Old Bay seasoning.  With the celery salt, we had all the needed ingredients to prepare this spice blend.  The result:  a savory, slightly spicy seasoning with warm spice notes. 

So if you need this quintessential seasoning, don't worry about frantically running to the store to buy it; make it from scratch- you won't be disappointed 😉.

I used this recipe to bring you today's recipe.

That's all for now.  Don't forget to follow me on Instagram!  I look forward to posting again on Friday 😊.

DIY Old Bay Seasoning

• 1 T. celery salt
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• 1/8 tsp. black pepper
• 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1 pinch ground dry mustard
• 1 pinch ground nutmeg
• 1 pinch ground cinnamon
• 1 pinch ground cardamom
• 1 pinch ground allspice
• 1 pinch ground cloves
• 1 pinch ground ginger

1.  Stir all the ingredients together until well-combined.

2.  Enjoy, storing in an airtight container.