A “supreme” pasta salad featuring a medley of fresh vegetables seasoned with Salad Supreme and tossed with spaghetti noodles bathed in zesty Italian dressing.
When I came across a recipe for Spaghetti Salad in one of my thrifted recipe boxes, I thought it sounded like the perfect summer salad, but there was one ingredient that left me a bit intrigued. The recipe calls for a jar of Schilling salad seasoning to use to marinate the vegetables. First off, an entire jar?! Also, what the heck is Schilling?
Salad Supreme
In a quick spin around the Internet, I learned Schilling was a seasoning company founded in the late 1800s that brought a variety of spices in little tin cans and small glass jars to market. In fact, I now remember this brand and as I inherited some vintage spice tins with this brand from my grandma! Schilling was eventually purchased by McCormick (the well-known spices that are on grocery store shelves everywhere) in 1947 and, up until the ’90s, the company marketed its spices under the name McCormick/Schilling. Somewhere along the line, the salad seasoning from Schilling became known as Perfect Pinch Salad Supreme under the McCormick brand.
After sharing a post about this Spaghetti Salad on Instagram, I learned that Salad Supreme actually has a huge fan base with some folks even using a recipe to make their own version. The ingredients include a blend of paprika, poppy seed, celery seed, salt, black pepper, red pepper, garlic, sesame seed and Romano cheese and more. It is touted as a great seasoning to add flavor to salads, pasta, potatoes and more.
So far, I’ve only used Salad Supreme for making Spaghetti Salad, adding three tablespoons of seasoning (which seemed to be plenty) to give the tomatoes, cucumber, green pepper and onion in this salad a major flavor blast of tangy goodness. I can’t wait to try it on other dishes as well!
What is Spaghetti Salad?
We’ve all probably seen versions of this pasta salad at potlucks and family gatherings at one time or another! I know I’ve eaten it with other types of vegetables, olives, pepperoni, cubes of cheese and different pasta shapes. The point is that you can really customize it to your preference or based on what vegetables or pasta you have on hand! For instance, I personally like the taste and look of cherry tomatoes versus regular tomatoes. I also used an English cucumber as it seems to be less watery than a traditional cucumber. And, last I’ve tried this recipe with regular and gluten-free spaghetti. Whatever floats your boat!
In closing, Spaghetti Salad is a versatile dish with vintage vibes that would be equally great to make-ahead and bring to a party as it would be to simply serve as a standalone meal at home, complete with leftovers for weekday lunches. This is not your ordinary pasta salad…the addition of the special seasoning on the vegetables makes it truly “supreme!”
2 Comments
Karen Mondry
February 20, 2026 at 9:30 pm
First time having this salad was with
co-workers at Univac in the 70s. Salad Supreme seasoning, red cap was used in the salad.
Cheryl Shuff
March 8, 2026 at 3:51 pm
When I make pasta salad we do garden rotini pasta mostly for the color. Mini pepperoni, I cube colby jack and pepper jack cheese, cucumber, onion, halved grape tomatoes, ( sometimes halved black olives and very small broccoli florets ) zesty ital. Dressing and a must have salad supreme seasoning. So good great side to take to a potluck BBQ. Have never had any left overs. Made a triple batch for July 4th Church picnic with fireworks to end the day. I served it up in a large throw away pan, and took an extra pan that i put a bag of ice in to keep it as cold as I could, it was close to 100 degrees that year. The church made hamburgers and hotdogs, I also made the layered dip with refried beans ( the 7 layer recipe). Tons of food over 100 people. I had nothing left to bring home. And no empty bowls to worry about the empty pans just went in the trash. But the ice keeps everything nice and cold (safe).