Maryland has a long and enduring history in conjunction with the catching and consumption of crabs and other water-based fare. This has led residents and those in states surrounding the Chesapeake Bay region to concoct countless recipes utilizing their abundance of seafood selections. While all are uniquely different in their own right, one constant has always proven popular with most maritime meals—the addition of blended seasoning to spice things up.
There is no set rule that dictates crabs need to be eaten seasoned. But most Mid-Atlantic seafood lovers would consider the act of consuming unseasoned crabs to be almost sacrilegious. For them, two time-tested go-to blends rule regional seafood fare of many sorts (and crabs in particular). They are none other than Old Bay and J.O.
For this Flashback Friday Feature, and in consideration of upcoming National Herbs and Spices Day on June 10, I’m taking a detailed look into the history and development of these two iconic seasoning blends, both of which are now necessary mainstays to traditional riparian regional specialties of all kinds.
Home Base History of Spice
They say that variety is the spice of life. So, it’s perfectly fitting that a state like Maryland, known for such versatility, would be home to several iconic spice companies of such great acclaim. This is, after all, where you will find the world-renowned McCormick Spice Company, which started operations in Baltimore back in 1889 and is now headquartered in Hunt Valley. Many other spice companies, some better known than others, have since emerged on the local scene as well.
Some names you may recognize today include Chesapeake Spice Company, Vanns Spices, Harbor Spice Company, and Yorktowne Spice, among many others. There’s also the former Baltimore Spice Company (later formed into Fuchs North America), which was started by none other than Old Bay’s founder Gustav Brunn. Then there’s the J.O. Spice Company. I will delve deeper into both of the latter companies as I recount the historic development of each one’s pioneering seasoning blends.
The Old Bay Backstory
Long before Old Bay or J.O. folks in Maryland had already been coming up with various compilations of blended spices to help season their seafood. Commonly infused spices often included salt, pepper, nutmeg, cloves, cayenne pepper, allspice, and mace. So that made getting into the line of creating an innovative new seasoning blend appear even more alluring for a newly arrived immigrant experienced in the spice trade.
The year was 1938. Gustav Brunn, a Jewish expat from Nazi Germany, took his family and fled to the United States to begin anew. It was in Baltimore City, Maryland where they settled. Brunn already had previous experience running a successful fur and rawhide business and selling spices on the side back in Europe. This is what eventually led him to work briefly at making spices for a sausage factory on Lombard Street and later for the McCormick Spice Company. After he was let go, he went on to establish the Baltimore Spice Company in 1939.
Brunn opened his Market Place shop across from the Wholesale Fish Market. Given the regional popularity of seafood, he took special notice of the various spices that crab steamers came into his shop frequently seeking—celery salt, peppers, paprika, and other spices. This inspired him to do a bit of experimental blending and to concoct his own unique blend utilizing the aforementioned along with his own trade secret flavors. The result was what Brunn originally coined the “Delicious Brand Shrimp and Crab Seasoning,” before later renaming it “Old Bay Seasoning” after a passenger ship from the 1900s that used to make rounds along the Chesapeake between Maryland and Virginia.
Old Bay proved phenomenally popular where crabs and seafood were concerned. Over time it eventually made its way throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond.
Brunn’s son Ralph eventually took over the Baltimore Spice Company and it remained a family-owned operation up until the mid-1980s. McCormick & Company eventually bought the signature Old Bay brand. The rest of the Baltimore Spice Company was acquired by Fuchs North America in 1990.
Old Bay is now even available internationally. Furthermore, the brand’s continued popularity is forever increasing, now soaring at an all-time high and even producing limited-edition products or teaming up with noted chip and cracker companies like Herr’s, Pepperidge Farm, and others for Old Bay flavored goods.
J.O.’s Own Spicy Story
J.O. Spice Company, Inc. may not be as commercially renowned as Baltimore Spice’s/McCormick’s Old Bay, but its prominence in the local crab industry is just as big if not arguably bigger. The story behind the company’s founding begins on similar grounds as Old Bay’s own story, in this case with husband and wife team, James Ozzle “J.O.” and Dot Strigle, back in 1945. Born and raised on Tangier Island, in Virginia, J.O. literally grew up around the seafood industry. Therefore, he knew a thing or two about the different spices most often favored by the Island’s Shoremen in various recipes involving crabs, clams, oysters, and various types of fish. The most often requested picks included black and red pepper, celery salt, paprika, and others. J.O.’s family applied their working knowledge to the art of custom-crafting original seafood blends, infusing the above ingredients with their own specialty-guarded “secret” inclusions.
Deciding to go into the business of marketing these blends started by their family, J.O. and his wife Dot opened a small store on the city scene in Downtown Baltimore. They blended their ingredients together directly in-house, using a porcelain basin, and would deliver them fresh to surrounding whole fish distributors and seafood markets.
It wasn’t long before J.O. seasonings grew to be the sought-after specialty seafood pairing of choice by wholesale industries and restaurants all around the region. Crab houses especially came to rely on J.O.’s unique blend, favoring not only its flavor but also its texture, which could withstand the steaming process far better than Old Bay. While the common misconception remains intact that those seasoned crabs you see are always plied heavily with Old Bay, the reality is they’re most likely covered in either the J.O. Spice Company’s Crab Seasoning No. 2 or some restaurant’s original in-house custom blend.
The J.O. Spice Company continues to be a family-owned operation. While somewhat humble, modest, and unassuming—living in the shadow of the arguably more popular Old Bay—J.O. boasts many acclaimed credits. Its vast and versatile product line even boasts more profuse spice blends than the competition. These include J.O. No. 1 Brand Seafood Seasoning, J.O. No. 1 Extra Hot, J.O. No. 2 “Crab House Spice”, J.O. No. 2 Extra Hot, J.O. Black Crab Spice, J.O. Barbecue Crab Spice, J.O. Garlic Crab Spice, J.O. No. 1 50% Less Salt, J.O. Lemony Seasoning, J.O. Cajun Seasoning, J.O. Maryland Seafood Seasoning, J.O. Bay Country Seasoning, J.O. Lumberjack Meat / Poultry Seasoning, J.O. Rib / Chicken Seasoning, J.O. Rotisserie Seasoning, J.O. Steak Seasoning, and more. Click here for the full line of land and sea offerings alike.
Crab Contender Final Rankings
Can we really rank these contested crab-contending seasoning blends against each other? Both have acclaimed accolades to their credits, but being “best” is subjective upon usage. Old Bay can be counted as “best-known” for instance, given its universal availability and the fact that it can be added to a broad range of recipes that aren’t necessarily specific to seafood. But J.O. (No. 2 “Crab House Spice” in particular) is the ultimate go-to as a hardy seasoning that can withstand the crab steaming process, whereas Old Bay is more refined and powdery making it more susceptible to melting off. J.O. also has more spice variations in its permanent product line, including additives that are similarly used in the way Old Bay is. But traditional Old Bay rules in popularity just the same, and sometimes even steals attribution that should rightfully be directed to J.O.
The final result in the standing concludes that both Old Bay and J.O. remain locally loved mainstays that embrace the same foundational fandom regarding crab consumption throughout the greater Mid-Atlantic region.