Bell’s Seasoning
Some things are around an awfully long time and you’re just not quite sure why because you just don’t think they’re that good. Green Bean Casserole. Turnips. Coldplay.
Bell’s Seasoning is one of those for me. It’s evidently been around for 152 years now. To be honest, I’ve never tried it before. Never even really heard of it before — I tend to make my own mixes rather than buy pre-mixed seasonings like this or, say, Bay Seasoning.
This is evidently a “New England Thanksgiving Tradition,” which may be why I’d never heard of it before — I’m from the west coast and think traditional Thanksgiving meals are pretty awful. I wish Ben Franklin had got his way and the turkey would’ve been the national bird — then we wouldn’t be allowed to eat it.
Anyway, I was in the store the other day and saw this on sale when I was looking for something else (dried lemon peel if you must know). It contains “rosemary, oregano, sage, ginger, marjoram, thyme, and pepper.” I like most of those — what could go wrong?!?
So I decided to use this as a dry rub on some chicken tenderloins I was going to grill.
First of all, as you can maybe tell by the picture above, the packaging leaves much to be desired — you must destroy it to get into it. I wish horrible things involving uncontrollable bodily emanations upon people who make packaging like that.
Secondly, no secondary bag inside to keep the contents fresh, which may be why the box is sealed tighter than a duck’s ass. If you don’t use it all, you’ll need another container.1
Thirdly, it’s ground to the point where it has the consistency of talcum powder, so plan on getting it everywhere when trying to coat anything. Perhaps mixing it with a little olive oil to make a paste would’ve been a better idea.
I know the ingredients are supposed to be in order of percentage. For my money the sage could’ve been knocked down a couple of places. It’s very sage-y. Very sage-forward. Very sage-alicious. My wife often describes things as tasting “dusty” and that’s what I got from this, too.
On the plus side, my dog likes it a lot and we need to get some antibiotics into him for the next couple of days, so this chicken won’t go to waste.
Some people must love this — Bell’s has been around for 152 years, so they must be doing something right. I’m just not one of them.