Homemade Old Bay Seasoning

Let me start off by saying sorry that I’ve been MIA for almost a month. We went on vacation and ended up sick at the very end. I also didn’t cook anything because I didn’t want to spread my germs everywhere. But, now I’m back and the posts continue!

I purchased Old Bay seasoning a while ago, used it maybe a handful of times, then forgot about it. I never found a use for it really. It ended up expiring in my pantry after being hardly used. A few months ago, I stumbled upon a site that had various recipes for different spices mixes with ingredients I actually had in my pantry. I was originally looking for something else (I forget what now), and saw this recipe for bay seafood seasoning. I think it’s supposed to be similar to Old Bay Seasoning. I could be wrong. It could be something all together. I think this is a better bet for me than buying a jar of it. I can actually make small batches at a time instead of letting an entire jar go to waste again.

Now, I normally don’t have most of these spices on hand. I usually don’t have a use for celery salt and dry mustard. However, when I purchased my spice rack, there were some of those spices included. This was the perfect way to use up some of these (otherwise, it will end up going to waste in my pantry).

Bay Seafood Seasoning
adapted from: recipe-recipes.net

1 tablespoon ground bay leaves
2 1/2 teaspoons celery salt
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard (I ground up some mustard seed for this)
1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon red pepper (I didn’t have, so I used crushed red pepper flakes…I know it’s not the same)
1/4 teaspoon ground mace (optional) (I omitted)
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom (optional) (I omitted)

Combine all ingredients; store in an airtight container. Use with seafood or chicken.

Yields 1/4 cup.

Since I didn’t have dry mustard, but I did have mustard seed, I ground it up with my mortar and pestle. I should have ground it up BEFORE adding it to the mix. At first, I thought my mini food chopper would grind everything up, but the seed were too small and slippery for the grinder to do anything to it. If you have a spice grinder or a coffee grinder, giving it a good whiz would be fine.