It’s in every spice cabinet you’ve ever opened, it’s the go-to option when you don’t know how to season a dish, and it’s the only blend you really need to take camping: It’s the omnipresent Montreal steak seasoning. The blend, a combo of dill seed, onion powder, paprika, kosher salt, black pepper, garlic powder, red pepper flakes, and coriander, has secured a spot on any number of “spices you need in your cabinet” lists for a reason — the lively seasoning is good on steaks, good on salmon, and has even transcended its original meat-centric purpose to be beloved by many as a seasoning for roasted vegetables. But a quick search for the history of the Canada-produced blend can lead you down quite the rabbit hole: mentions of pastrami, a tie to the Ottoman Empire, and something about a man named The Shadow?
Fascinating and convoluted, this is one piece of food history that deserves to be unearthed, even if it takes a little work to get to the bottom of this steak seasoning’s origin. So first things first — it wasn’t originally used as a steak seasoning at all. Rather, broilerman Morris Sherman (a.k.a. The Shadow, a nickname he earned by way of his very slight figure) got creative with the pre-existing spice blend when he added some to the meat he was preparing for his lunch. It was typically used for smoked meat like pastrami or brisket, but Sherman’s idea to sprinkle it on grilled or broiled meats quickly spread at the restaurant where he worked as customers of Schwartz’ began requesting the blend as a flavorful steak dry rub.
Spreading through Canada and beyond
The blend may have been popular with Sherman’s customers, but one restaurant’s trends don’t automatically become equivalent to those of the rest of the country. So how did Montreal steak seasoning spread beyond Schwartz’ doors? Sherman was more than happy to share the seasoning after its popularity among locals surged, selling small packets of the seasoning to customers who wanted to use it for their home cooking. The restaurant still sells their version of the spice, but it’s grown to much more than a back-door transaction system: In a 2019 article by CBC, Schwartz’ reported sales of 100 cases (with 12 seasoning bottles each) per week.
And they’re certainly not the only sellers — when other delis and restaurants began to pick up on the idea and use it to season their own meat, various spice producers followed, developing and market their own blends. Arguably the most successful is American company McCormick, whose Montreal steak seasoning currently holds the number three spot on Amazon for best sellers in meat seasoning.
Tracing the spice blend back through history
Although “The Shadow” may have been the man who made steak seasoning synonymous with Montreal, there’s a whole world of history that came before Sherman was seasoning steaks in the land of maple syrup. In fact, the seasoning blend used at the shop was used to spice meat because it was how Romanian Jew and founder of the restaurant Reuben Schwartz learned before immigrating to Canada in the 1920s. The deli’s website says they “prepare smoked meat the old-fashioned way,” referring to the way “pastramă,” or cured, smoked, and spiced beef now called pastrami, was historically preserved and flavored. In fact, the heavy seasoning is one of the things that separates pastrami from corned beef, or ham, turkey, and other deli meats. And in some ways, the tradition of cured and spiced meat goes back even further, often attributed to the drying and curing process for beef, goat, and lamb that the Ottoman Turks pioneered.
Today, the same seasoning techniques are used to create deli meat like pastrami in many countries, including a classic New York pastrami-on-rye sandwich. The seasoning is, of course, also used to elevate steak. But the blend has also continued in the tradition of being used in new and creative ways — some people swear by the spice blend for mashed potatoes, hash browns, sprinkled on fried eggs in the morning, or just used to season other cuts of meat and fish.
