Adding Flavor to Baltimoreans’ Lives for Nearly Eight Decades

(File photo)

Many folks in this neck of the woods are intimately familiar with Old Bay, that zesty, iconic seasoning closely associated with Charm City that seems to go best with such treife (non-kosher) delicacies as crabs and other shellfish.

But what many people are often surprised to learn is that Old Bay was invented in the 1940s by Gustav Brunn, a German Jewish refugee who came to Baltimore after spending two weeks in the Buchenwald concentration camp.

Brunn and Old Bay, packaged in its classic yellow, blue and red tin can, revolutionized the way Americans eat crabs. (Of course, you can apply to Old Bay to virtually anything, and Old Bay bagels are popular in several nosheries around town.)

As part of its “Five Minute Histories” video series, the local preservation group Baltimore Heritage recently offered a look into the history of Old Bay.

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