Good cooks use more than salt and pepper in their culinary creations. They have a spice cabinet or spice rack where tidy bottles of pungent, dried herbs and exotically named spices reside, patiently waiting to be used in a simmering pot on the stove or a dish destined for the oven.

Mix a large collection of those spices and take a big whiff of the amazing odor, and you might understand how the air smells at One Spice Road--the home of McClancy Seasoning Co.

The company was started in 1947 by George McClancy in Charlotte, N.C. Forrest Wilkerson, the father of the current president, Reid, bought the company in 1968, and they moved to the Indian Land area in 1986.

McClancy imports, cleans and grinds spices from all over the world and is one of the last privately-owned spice and seasoning companies in the United States. And, like salt and pepper in the kitchen, spices are just a part of what McClancy makes.

Co-packing is a primary McClancy business. That means they prepare and package foods for major national brands and restaurant chains.

Noodle mixes, soup blends, shakes, pie crusts, bakery goods, gravy and sauce mixes, dry salad dressings and cake mixes are some of the foods prepared and packaged at McClancy. If it is a dry food or mix in a package, McClancy can probably manufacture it.

Restaurant chains want customers to have the same eating experience, no matter what location they dine at. If you eat in Fort Mill or Los Angeles, the soups and foods should hit the palate the same way. That might not happen if each restaurant measures every spice by hand, so chains use a co-packer such as McClancy to ensure consistent quality.

And many national food brands no longer manufacture the foods they sell. They have companies such as McClancy prepare the foods, and the national company simply distributes the foods in their name to grocery stores across the country.

As Reid Wilkerson says, "The company is well past being just a seasoning company. We are a food development company. We develop ideas for new products and help restaurants maintain consistency. We deal on reputation, personal relationships, quality and service."

A co-packed food is easily recognized by turning the package over and reading the fine print. If a phrase like "Distributed by..." is printed on the package, a co-packer such as McClancy was involved.

But you may never know if you are eating a McClancy food product. The work McClancy does is highly confidential--in most cases, they cannot even mention the products they make, much less the names of the companies they work with.

A recent and notable exception to the confidentiality rule was this summer's announcement that McClancy had become the exclusive supplier of Texas Pete Dry Flavor. Texas Pete Hot Sauce is well-known in the Carolinas, and you can taste the dry version on snack foods produced by Lance.

McClancy's Indian Land location also has impressive test kitchen facilities for food research and development, where they mix spices and fine-tune the flavor. The work is challenging, and detailed. One national customer visited the facility with an idea for a new product. Nineteen flavor changes later, he left with a recipe that worked, McClancy could produce, and people would buy and eat.

McClancy is also developing a line of bottled spices--called Spice Trader--that will be marketed directly to restaurants over the Internet.

The spices produced at McClancy--right here in Indian Land--make the foods you eat every day that much better. Wilkerson is quick to say, "Spices can make almost anything taste good."

Sure beats just salt and pepper.

Bill Henson is a technical writer and marketing copywriter living in Rock Hill. You can reach him by e-mail at writer@cetlink.net.