Spice Mixes by Maya Corrigan Potluck Monday

I recently ran across an article about spice mixes by Noah Charney on the Fine Dining Lovers site. The article covered nine spice mixes used in countries across the globe, from China and India, to Saudi Arabia and Eritrea. I was surprised to find among these spice mixes, one that comes from the Mid-Atlantic region, where I live—Baltimore’s Old Bay Seasoning. 

Old Bay is popular in the Chesapeake Bay area as a seasoning on hard-shell crabs, steamed shrimp, chicken, and even fries. What goes into Old Bay Seasoning? It’s a secret recipe. The article on spice mixes lists mustard, celery salt, bay, black pepper, red pepper, clove, mace, allspice, nutmeg, cardamom, paprika and ginger. But as a secret recipe, the quantities of each ingredient are not public. Some restaurants make their own version of what they call Chesapeake Bay seasoning, but IMHO none can compare with original Old Bay. It's now marketed by McCormick, making the mix more available in other parts of the country. I shared a recipe for steamed shrimp using Old Bay.

The article on spices also mentioned the first spice mix I used, Chinese Five Spice Powder, which contains fennel, Sichuan pepper, Chinese cinnamon, clove, and star anise. My brother introduced me to it decades ago, after he took a Chinese cooking class. 

Two more spice mixes from that article that you'll find in recipes on Mystery Lovers' Kitchen are adobo and harissa.

Adobo is a spice mix I’ve just tried in the last year. It’s an all-purpose seasoning that contains garlic, oregano, pepper, and other spices; used in Mexican and other Latin American cuisines. Cleo shared a recipe using adobo for pernil, Slow-Roasted Puerto Rican-Style Pork Shoulder.

Harissa is another increasingly popular spice mix described in the article by Charney. It's popular along Africa's Mediterranean coast and the countries that border the Mediterranean on the east. Made from chili peppers, garlic, coriander, and caraway, harissa can be in dried, powdered or paste form. Leslie Budewitz shared a recipe for harissa grilled chicken.

Do you use any spice mixes? If so, what’s your favorite?

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Maya Corrigan writes the Five-Ingredient Mysteries featuring café manger Val and her live-wire grandfather solving murders in a Chesapeake Bay town. Maya lives in a Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C. Before writing crime fiction, she taught American literature, writing, and detective fiction at Northern Virginia Community College and Georgetown University. When not reading and writing, she enjoys theater, travel, trivia, cooking, and crosswords.

Visit my website for easy recipes, mystery history and trivia, and a free culinary mystery story.

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