from a roadside truck to take to NY over the Labor Day holiday. I got a few huge trash bags and some ice and put them and the bushel in the trunk, then went to a local supermarket.
I was in the aisle with all of the various spices and seafood boil mixes, examining them to see what I wanted to bring home with me. A much older Black woman came down the aisle, saw my confusion. and asked what I was looking for. When I explained about the bushel of crabs and my search for a proper seasoning she looked at me like I had 3 heads and I immediately *knew* she was thinking something along the lines of 'Oh, you poor thing!'.
She reached up and picked a can of Old Bay off the shelf, and when she handed it to me she looked me straight in the eye and confidently said, "They ain't but ONE, Sugar!"
That sage advice has stuck with me for the past 40+ years, and that's been my go-to seasoning for blue crab since. It turns out that Old Bay is also one of the best things you can ever put on French Fries. I've been forever grateful to that helpful woman.
I didn't know anything about the background and history of this blend - thank you for posting the link to the New Yorker article!
(Background - when I had decided to drive to my folks house for that long Labor Day weekend I asked my mother if she wanted me to bring anything, and she mentioned crabs. I asked how many and she said, "Oh, I don't know...maybe 5 or 6 dozen." When I stopped at the roadside truck I asked for 6 dozen, and the guy told me that the whole bushel would only cost a couple of bucks more. Turns out that a bushel is about 12 dozen, so I spent the bulk of the day when I got there cooking pot after pot until I was done with the full gross of crabs. By the time I was done pretty much every surface in the kitchen was full of crab, and my mother had me take platters of crabs to a few of the neighbors, since we were totally out of refrigerator and freezer space. Good times!)
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