These 7 Spice Mixes Taste Better Than Everything-Bagel Seasoning
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My spice cabinet is bursting at the seams, even as I clean it out regularly. There are my most-used players up front and tons of others as you go deeper. I have jars of standard stuff: cumin, onion and garlic powder, paprika, and quite a few chile powders and chile flakes. I keep dried herbs like oregano, blends like herbes de Provence, classic mixes such as Old Bay and celery salt as well as countless smoky grill rubs, curry blends, and shawarma seasonings. You get the idea.
Despite all this, there was one category that felt a bit lacking to me. Up until working on this article, I had a couple of different everything-but-the-bagel spice jars, but aside from that, no truly innovative toppers — the kinds that you want to sprinkle over a myriad of foods and that hit on both flavor and texture, no cooking required.
And so I decided to call some in from my favorite spice companies and test them out. To start, I culledmanyretailers. There were certain misses just based on inventory, like Diaspora Co., for example, whose offerings didn’t include this particular niche. For those that did, the process was naturally a bit unscientific and inexhaustive, but I basically ordered what spoke to me and ended with over 30 bottles from Burlap & Barrel, Oaktown Spice Shop, the Spice House, Curio Spice Co., Penzeys, and Spicewalla, plus a few other random one-off jars specifically recommended by co-workers. My only real criteria was to avoid the most common sprinkle blends, like the aforementioned everything-but-the-bagel, as well as varieties like za’atar and furikake.
In the end, there were a couple I actively didn’t like. Most were decidedly tasty, though for varying reasons didn’t make the best-of list below — either because they didn’t come across as truly special or else they weresoparticular I could only imagine them in one or two applications before they’d inevitably disappear and expire in the back of the cabinet. For quite a few, the issue was that I imagined they’d be best in a different preparation, like rubbed on a chicken and baked in the oven or poured into a seafood marinade. But among the many toppers I tried, there were a number of standouts I’m thrilled to have discovered.
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Senior editorWinnie Yangtipped me off to Hat Trick, which in a Slack message she described as “SOOOO GOOD” (and is what motivated this whole article).Indeed, it really is — a mix of Aleppo chile, sea salt, sesame seeds, orange zest, crystallized lime, citric acid, onion, and nori. There’s a lot going on, but the ingredients work cohesively together, giving you hits of tang, sweet, spice, and umami that sort of dance around your mouth. Indeed, I tried several other blends that included orange:Oaktown’s Bombay Orange,Curio’s Chile Crisp Dust, andSpicewalla’s Citrus and Sesame Everything Seasoning(which writerAmelia Jerdenloves) — but Hat Trick was far and away my favorite of the bunch. Orange is particular and strong, though here it felt like more of a back note than a main player, which I think makes the spice much more versatile and allows the other components to shine through just as much. The texture is also excellent: There are big-enough pieces so that it feels somewhat crunchy, which I love.
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I know, I know: I said no furikake, but this one’s makeup is different than the traditional kind, made with toasted sesame, black sesame, pickled shiso powder, red miso, umeboshi, nori, and dulse. It’s vibrant and deep at the same time, again achieving a balance that just really works. There’s nuttiness from the sesame seeds, salinity from the seaweeds, brightness from the ume, and savoriness from the miso that rounds the whole thing out. I’d sprinkle it on rice, soups, soba noodles, and jammy eggs and into salad dressing. It’s really special.
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The final gem from Oaktown is this Eastern Mediterranean Spice, drawing on flavors from Turkey, according to the brand. It includes cumin, garlic, black pepper, sumac, Urfa biber chile flakes, dill weed, spearmint, lemon zest, and salt. You’ll be shocked to learn that once again, Oaktown nailed each of the many ingredients coming together into something harmonious — a little salty, a little sour, with a satisfying underlying heat. Dill weed and spearmint can both be intense, or at least very distinct, but neither overpowers here. The lemon zest is zingy in a delightful way. Though it’s a bit less chunky than Hat Trick, the texture is still quite nice. It feels versatile, but I imagine it would be especially delicious on top of a yogurt or bean-based dip or even simply sprinkled on olive oil for bread dipping.
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I’ve used a lot of Burlap & Barrel spices for years, but this is my favorite for sprinkling. (In fact, I also love itsEverything Bagel Crunch, which is an especially good, though standard, version.) The backbone of Pizza Party!, which was developed in collaboration with Sohla and Ham El-Waylly, is the brand’sSun-Dried Tomato Powder, which they also sell separately, and which I think is a genius seasoning. It’s richly tomato-y (they source a special tomato variety grown across Turkey’s Aegean Sea coastline), which gives it umami, and a bit tangy. Here, it’s mixed with purple stripe garlic, Cobanero chile, flowering hyssop thyme, oregano flower buds, and sea salt to create the true essence of pizza. It’s amazing sprinkled on cheesy toast for obvious reasons (worth a buy just for that, in my opinion), but I also like it on scrambled eggs and think the brand’s suggestion to add it to popcorn is a smart one.
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Most of the allium-forward spice mixes I tried —Penzeys Paris Seasoning,the Spice House Lakeshore Shallot & Herb,Burlap & Barrel Herbs and Garlic— were genuinely good, but the moment I tasted Justice, it rose to the top. Here said alliums include shallots, garlic, onion, chives, and green onion, which come across strong and fresh. Unsurprisingly, I can’t actually taste the difference in all of those, but I have to imagine the variety is what gives it such a layered flavor. Otherwise, there are green peppercorns, which add a distinct brightness you don’t find in standard ground garlic powder or onion powder. Along with Pizza Party!, the consistency is on the finer side than that of the others on this list, but it doesn’t bother me. In the days since I first tasted it, I’ve sprinkled it on cut tomatoes and roasted potatoes — both delicious. It’s also the only jar on this list that is salt-free, if that’s important to you (though you can always add salt, of course).
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Curio says this is its ode to classic Canadian steak seasoning — which I was unfamiliar with, but to me tastes a bit Mediterranean, with black pepper, Urfa chile flakes, coriander, onion, garlic, mustard seed, caraway, wild pepper, smoked sea salt, and dill seed. In fact, this isn’t wildly dissimilar fromOaktown’s Eastern Mediterranean Spicebut a bit less zingy, as I described that one above, and with a more pronounced note of pepper, which I loved. There’s also subtle but noticeable smoked sea salt in the mix.
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Not only did I like the mild smokiness of Monsieur Montréal, but I liked its more forward expression in this Campfire Salt, created in collaboration with the Alaskan fish company Salmon Sisters. I surprised myself here: I’m not generally someone who is enthusiastic about that flavor profile (even when it comes to smoked paprika, I’m picky, and will really only buyBurlap & Barrel’s version, which I find much more nuanced than standard grocery-store versions). But it just works well here. I also appreciated that while it’s called a salt — and I was trying to avoid flavored salts, as that feels like a different category than what I was after here — there was enough else going on that it became something different. There’s also Urfa chile, maras chile, and, crucially, for some umami to tether it all together, black garlic.
More spices I love
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For popcorn, homemade cheese crackers, better mac and cheese, and more.
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This one almost made the cut (though it felt too much like a flavored salt). That said, delicious.
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Another favorite, though I’d use as a rub more than a sprinkling.
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If you do want everything-bagel seasoning, this one is great.
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