Perfect Pairings & Recipes for
Old Bay Seasoning

Top flavour pairings and Old Bay seasoning recipes, revealed through the hidden methmatics of flavour.

Old Bay seasoning immediately conjures the embrace of bay leaf and the kiss of mustard. But look beneath its obvious bitterness and you'll discover a captivating symphony of softer notes, a whisper of celery, a hint of brine, and subtle accents reminiscent of black pepper, giving it remarkable depth. And the culinary wizardry begins when we seek out pairings that allow these notes to truly sing.

To map these harmonies, we analysed thousands of ingredients, breaking each one down across 150 flavour dimensions, identifying which notes complement and contrast. Our exploration reveals, for instance, how the grassy, fatty hexanal in pork shoulder can enrich Old Bay seasoning, and how bacon's adipose notes forge a beautiful synergy with its pungent herbiness.

An ingredient's flavour stems from its core characteristics, such as spice, herbal, or vegetal, combined with layers of subtle flavour notes (outer bars). For a balanced dish, pair ingredients with a variety of core flavours, and choose complementary aroma notes for harmony.

The Secret Language of Flavour

To understand how flavour notes harmonise, we analysed more than 50,000 popular ingredient combinations. By exploring these pairings, we identified specific flavour notes that frequently occur together, indicating they share a harmonious relationship.

The Flavours That Harmonise With Bay leaf Notes

Our analysis reveals a strong connection between bay leaf and animal fat flavours. Since Old Bay seasoning has a distinct bay leaf flavour, try pairing it with the fatty flavours of bacon.

The recipes below provide inspiration for pairing Old Bay seasoning with bacon.

Harmonious Flavours Of Old Bay Seasoning

Just as our analysis revealed that bay leaf and gamey flavour notes are harmonious, we can identify the full profile of flavours that harmonise with each of the flavour notes present in Old Bay seasoning. For instance, the celery-like notes of Old Bay seasoning are strongly associated with porcini and pea-ish notes.

The notes complementing the various aroma accents of Old Bay seasoning can be seen highlighted in the pink bars below.

Matching Flavour Profiles

The flavour profile of pork shoulder offers many of the notes complementary to Old Bay seasoning, including porcine and fatty aromas. Because the flavour profile of pork shoulder has many of the of the features that are complementary to Old Bay seasoning, they are likely to pair very well together.

The chart above shows the unique profile of pork shoulder across 150 dimensions of flavour, while the recipes below offer inspiration for bringing these flavours together with Old Bay seasoning.

Recipes That Pair Old Bay Seasoning With Pork Shoulder

Linked Flavour Notes

Looking at the notes that are most strongly associated with the various flavours of Old Bay seasoning, we can identify other ingredients that are likely to pair well.

The left side of the chart above highlights the aroma notes of Old Bay seasoning, along with the complementary aromas associated with each note. While the right side shows some of the ingredients that share many of the notes complementary to Old Bay seasoning.

What To Drink With Old Bay Seasoning

The hay notes in savoie make it a perfect pairing with old bay seasoning. Likewise, the leafy flavours in carrot juice create a match made in heaven. Explore a variety of ingredients below that beautifully complement the unique character of old bay seasoning below.

Which Vegetables Go With Old Bay Seasoning?

Choose vegetables that ground its turpentiness or lift its salty character. Pea and green bean offer vibrant, clean counterpoints, their verdant freshness lifting the palate. Carrot add a gentle, oniony brightness, while iceberg lettuce introduces a sophisticated, anise-tinged elegance.

Alternatively, embrace vegetables that harmonise with Old Bay seasoning's pungency. The addition of tomato, with its subtle malic notes, can complement the clove beautifully, while lettuce lends a savoury richness.

How Flavonomics Works

We've pioneered a unique, data-driven approach to decode the intricate art of flavour pairing. Our goal is to move beyond intuition and uncover the science of why certain ingredients harmonise beautifully. This rigorous methodology allows us to provide you with insightful and reliable pairing recommendations.

Our analysis begins with over 50,000 carefully selected recipes from acclaimed chefs like Galton Blackiston, Marcello Tully, and Pierre Lambinon. This premium dataset ensures our model distils genuine culinary excellence and creativity.

Each ingredient from these recipes is deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, creating a unique numerical "flavour fingerprint." This quantification allows us to apply advanced analytical methods to identify complex patterns between flavour notes.

We identify popular ingredient combinations that frequently appear in our recipe database. Regression analysis is then performed on these pairings to statistically validate and pinpoint truly harmonious flavours.

These insights drive our predictive model, which allows us to take any ingredient (e.g., Old Bay seasoning), analyse its detailed flavour profile, and accurately reveal its complementary flavours and perfect ingredient partners.