The Spice of Life

by A.M. Foley

In the wider world, the first of April may be April Fools’ Day, but around the Chesapeake Bay, it means the opening of crab season. Alas, crabs are usually slow to get the word, remaining scarce until reliably warmer weather. It’s not too early, though, to ponder the question: J. O. or Old Bay seasoning?

Tangier Island, probably Virginia’s most isolated community, seems an unlikely birthplace for a multi-faceted spice company, but island waterman James Ozzle Strigle founded J.O. Spice Company in 1945. Mr. Strigle had migrated from Tangier to Baltimore and begun marketing a seafood seasoning derived from traditional island mixtures. He and his wife, Dot, first blended spices commercially from Pratt Street in a porcelain basin, selling to a nearby seafood market. The Strigle venture thrived, despite Old Bay’s six-year head start.

Old Bay’s creator, Gustav Brunn, reached Baltimore in 1938 by a more circuitous route: from Nazi Germany via Buchenwald concentration camp. Legend says he bribed his way to freedom with 10,000 Deutsche Marks. When he fled to America, he brought along his spice grinder. In Baltimore, a one-week stint with McCormick & Company ended when he was fired, reputedly for lack

Spice of Life

Hand-cranking spices to flavor wursts, Brunn could look down on a busy fish market across the street. At the time, home cooks generally seasoned shellfish with their own, old family recipes. The spice meister saw the need for a handy, ready-made blend, which led to a specific product he dubbed Old Bay, an homage to the beloved Chesapeake steamboat line that ran from Baltimore to Norfolk.

of language skills. Out of a job, Brunn set up his own Baltimore Spice Company in a second-floor space. His fluency in Yiddish and German proved a marketing asset among Baltimore’s butchers.

With minimal promotion, annual Old Bay sales soared to millions of pounds as word spread around Baltimore and beyond. For instance, a somewhat-typical letter arrived from North Carolina asking that Old Bay be made available in Carolina groceries. “We use it for soaking deer,” wrote a man from Brevard, “and coon and sometimes for bear, when we can get some bear meat. It takes out the bad smell when a deer or bear is killed on the run. My brother says it makes French River hog suckers taste like sea fish. I don’t eat them but his family does.”

When J.O. and Dot Strigle arrived in Baltimore six years after Brunn, they, too, identified a niche in the spice market. They created two versions of a distinctively flavored blend, J.O. #1 and J.O. #2, which include salt in a form that adheres to crab shells throughout the steaming process. This stickto-itiveness made J.O. #2 the preferred spice where crabs or shrimp