Old Bay Seasoning has come out with a new way to spice up shrimp. It’s called Old Bay Seafood Steamers, which is essentially a package of seasonings and a special steaming bag to cook shrimp in the microwave. If you aren’t familiar with Old Bay Seasoning, it’s been the standard for flavoring seafood for years. As the story goes, it originated in 1939 when a man named Gustav Brunn from Germany developed the spice for steamed crab in the Chesapeake Bay area. It became very popular with all the locals. You can just picture everyone gathered on the shore for a big clambake, juices running down their arms as they savor the spicy crab claws and tender shrimp.

Putting your shrimp in the microwave takes a little romance out of the whole thing, but it sure is fast. Using the bag, it takes around three minutes. With no water to boil, this really turns shrimp into a fast food. It doesn’t take that long to clean shrimp with one of those plastic shrimp deveiners (make sure to use uncooked shrimp), but if you are wanting this to truly be a fast food for after work, clean the shrimp the night before or the morning of. To turn it all into a meal, I threw some corn on the cob in the bag and served it with cocktail sauce and some steamed asparagus. Everything was ready to eat in about 10 minutes.

The bottom line: When using the microwave, you need to be careful not to overcook the shrimp. One minute too long, and it will be dinner for the cat. And as far as the steamer package goes, this really is one of those products like cake mix where you have to add the oil, eggs and water. It would be less expensive and almost as easy to just put the seasonings in your own plastic bag or cook the shrimp with the seasonings in a steamer. But there is comfort in having the little package waiting for you on the shelf ready to go, especially at the end of a long day when it’s hard to remember your name. Old Bay Seafood Steamers retail for $2.89 and can be found in the seafood section of grocery stores nationwide.

Lifestyles reporter Sylvia Anderson may be reached at sylviaanderson@npgco.com.