Add Old Bay To Your Flour Dredges And Taste The Magic

Frying food wouldn't be the same without using the technique known as dredging. This method requires placing your food in a bowl of a dry ingredient, like all-purpose flour, and rolling it around until it is evenly coated. Dredging helps to produce a golden, delicious exterior and juicy interior, particularly when you are pan-frying. But you can also add a pop of flavor to your flour and, in turn, whatever protein or veggie you are tossing in it by adding a little Old Bay Seasoning to the mix. Trust us when we say the taste will be nothing short of magical.

McCormick, the maker of Old Bay Seasoning, describes it as "a versatile savory seasoning blend consisting of mixed spices, herbs, and pepper" that includes celery seed, mustard flour, black pepper, cayenne, and paprika, among others. It is a seasoning that has existed for nearly 85 years and is a must-have ingredient when making Baltimore-style crab cakes. This seasoning is a firework of flavors for the taste buds that offers a balance between spicy, sweet, salty, and smoky. This balance comes from cardamon, mustard, cinnamon, and nutmeg, which are all part of the Old Bay seasoning flavor profile — and is perfect for seasoning your flour dredge, whatever you intend to fry.

Dredging ingredients like cornmeal, flour, and breadcrumbs can be kind of meh without any seasoning, resulting in a tasteless coating. Fortunately, it doesn't take much to achieve a level of tastiness, and even better, you get to control the amount of Old Bay seasoning you use to transform the flavor of your dredge. Starting with a ratio of four tablespoons per cup of flour, or whatever you dry ingredient you are using, is a good practice to get all the flavor benefits Old Bay can bring to your fried foods without overwhelming your tastebuds. That said, because this seasoning already contains sodium, you want to take care to adjust the amount of salt you would normally add to your recipe, otherwise you might be grabbing for a glass of water.

What foods taste good when coated with this seasoning? Use flour or other ingredients seasoned with Old Bay when making the perfect fried chicken, flour-coated pork chops, fish, and even when you dredge cube steak for chicken fried steak. It also tastes delicious on vegetables like fried zucchini and onion rings.