The 2 Essential Ingredients That Give Maryland Crab Soup Its Signature Flavor

If you've ever been to the Maryland area, you've hopefully had the chance to enjoy a cup of Maryland crab soup. There are plenty crab-based soups out there — she crab soup, crab bisque, and the Maryland version, to name a few — but that last one has some key differences. Maryland crab soup is tomato based, full of vegetables, and has two essential ingredients that make it what it is: Maryland blue crab and some Old Bay seasoning.

Old Bay is a spice blend that was born in Baltimore after a man named Gustav Brunn immigrated to the United States from Germany and developed the iconic seasoning, which quickly grew into a business of its own. Eventually, the brand was sold to McCormick, but the seasoning has remained a Maryland staple because it pairs perfectly with blue crab, which is the state's signature seafood. Putting the two together in soup just makes sense and sets this cozy meal apart from others.

Maryland blue crab is found at almost any restaurant in Maryland when the crabs are in season. If you want fresh crab meat, you'll have to visit between April and November, with the best crab meat available in the fall. The trick to preparing this soup is to cook the tomatoes and crab shells in broth, which provides a ton of flavor. After a while, vegetables like celery, corn, and peas — plus a little bacon — are added to the broth, as well as some heaping tablespoons of Old Bay. Then, everything simmers even longer to build flavor.

The crab isn't added until the very end. It's already been cooked (hence how the crab shells ended up in the broth), so it doesn't need to simmer with the rest of the ingredients. It's hard to say exactly who came up with the first version of Maryland crab soup, but its origins might trace all the way back to Indigenous people. While today's Maryland area restaurants all prepare the soup a little differently, the baseline recipe has certainly stood the test of time.