To Rub or Not to Rub?

If you'd rather make your own than buying one that's already prepared, I'd recommend a book called Paul Kirk's Championship Barbecue Sauces. There is a nice section on rubs and even gives some guidelines to follow in getting the proportions right. In addition to dry rubs, it also covers sauces, marinades, wet rubs, mops, and salsas. It is published by the Harvard Common Press in Boston Massachusetts and is available at Amazon.com. It is also a favorite of many of the comp barbecuers and I found it to be very helpful.

Another book you might find helpful is Smoke & Spice by Charyl Alaters Jamison & Bill Jamison, Boston Common Press. It too is available from Amazon.

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Salt,peppers,sugars.

Be careful of rubs with a lot of salt; if you leave them on for too long they can start to cure the meat which really throws the flavor off.

I personally like to shake on an a vinegar-based pepper sauce as a marinade, then finish with them with whatever commercial sauce you like.

For me to really taste a dry rub on ribs it has to be heavy enough that it gets in the way of the meat. I guess if I didn't have smoke I might worry about dry rubs, but if I didn't have smoke I probably wouldn't bother having ribs.

If you want, put your rub up here and we can recommend. It's really hard to just recommend, other than Pork loves Salt and sugar helps the bark.

It might not be a bad idea for me to start off with a commercial rub. Any brand suggestions? I've heard of Bad Byron's Butt Rub and Spice Beautiful, but I have never bought a commercial rub before.

I'll throw out a suggestion for Dizzy Pig's line of rubs.

Smokin'Okie always gives you some insight,and/or a starting point-rather than a lot of stuff that can get you even more confused.

Yes,trying commercial rubs can be entertaining?,and occasionally productive.

I can give you the website by cooks,for cooks,and you can sample a hundred.

Your post starts out talking about your "ribs "having great texture and appearance,but aren't happy with your rub.

The next question is"are dry rubs a good way to season pork"?

Which pork?

The next is what about Butt Rub?

Byron,and many cooks' answer would be yes,and no-depending on what you are trying to accomplish and how it goes with your sauce, overall taste profile,and product you are using it on.

Yes,commercial rubs were often developed by cooks?

Many other cooks find one,or several,and tweak them to their needs.

I often cook beside Byron and he naturally uses some of his own rub,tweaked to product and what he hopes to accomplish.

The probability that you pick the perfect one,for every product,the first purchase,is SLIM to NONE..

Then Smokin' will come back here and ask what are your ingredients,and one of us will ask you what are you trying to accomplish with your existing product?

To answer another question,I personally have never heard of Spice Beautiful,so I can't speculate.

Butt Rub has no sugar,so alone it could seem hot.

Byron may hot cook some whole chickens,or game hens,and no sugar in the rub keeps them from scorching, and he wants no bark .

Hope this helps a little.

Thanks Tom. Your post is very insightful.

Yessir.

Give us a couple specifics,and maybe we can give a little direction.

I plan on competing with a team of my own one day, but for now I will settle for turning out consistent BBQ in my back yard. Ribs are by far my favorite to BBQ. In my rub I use a combination of Paprika, Chili powder, Onion Power, Garlic Powder, Brown Sugar, Sea Salt, Celery Seed, and Cayenne. I notice that a lot of rub recipes call for Cumin, but I have not used it in my rub. When I put on one coating of the rub, the flavor is kind of weak, but when I put on a second coating before placing the ribs on the grill, the rub is overpowering.

Since your rib rub doesn't have alot of salt and you want it to stand out better, try putting it on more liberally one time only, but further ahead of grilling time.

A LOT of rubs will lose their flavor during cooking. Applying more is a good way to add back some of the flavor. The key is when and how much.

Agree with GLH, although me, I'd lose the sea salt. I personally think Salt is Salt and paying more for a fancy name (yes it has trace minerals, but will get lost in a rub).

Also, look at the quality of the ingredients. If you're buying them in a grocery store, you have no idea how long they've been there. Try the same rub, but order the ingredients from a spice house.

Like Paprika. The store bought stuff has not on the many different varieties you can buy on line.

Pepper. I don't see any there but I like some on my pork.

And I'm different than a lot, but I don't like to rub my pork too early, on butts and briskets I do no more than 2 hours, never overnight. But try both methods and see what works for you

I there a particular spice house that you would recommend?

I think a simple rub is best to start with.

1 part kosher salt
1 part turbinado sugar or brown sugar
1 part sweet paprika
1/2 part fresh coarse ground pepper

Start with this recipe. You will be surprised by the flavor simple spices can impart to smoked meat. Use a quarter cup for 1 part to begin with. I find this rub quite good and use it on a lot of meats I smoke. Best of all, my family likes it. If you start with a simple rub, it is easy to identify what you like and don't like and remedy it by adjusting the rub. If you have a rub with lots of flavors, it can be difficult to tell which you like and which you don't.

If this rub doesn't give you what you want, ask yourself what you want and add it. Or if you don't like it, ask what you don't like and remove it or reduce it. If you want more spice, red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper is good to add. If you like garlic or onion, add garlic or onion powder. Start with a quarter part or less. If it is too salty, reduce the salt. For poultry: parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme are all good to add. Just like the song.

The kosher salt is good because it is coarse and the grains are of varying sizes so it dissolves at different times and continues to flavor. You don't get a burst of salty flavor all at once like you do with granulated table salt. I like turbinado sugar as it is doesn't burn at low temperatures and has a good taste and interesting texture unlike brown sugar and table sugar. I think it is important to fresh grind pepper. Old ground pepper loses a lot of the volatile oils and ends up being more of an irritant than a flavoring. Grinding enough pepper for a decent size batch of rub can be a daunting task though. I use a coffee grinder to grind it quickly. After I did this once, my wife bought me my own grinder, although coffee with a bit of pepper in it is not all that bad. :^)= I have also taken the handle off a conventional pepper mill and chucked the shaft in an electric drill to quickly grind a lot of pepper. This works fine too, but can evoke smart-alec comments from family and friends. They change their tune when they taste the meat though.

You can look at various rub recipes to get ideas on what to add or subtract. You really need to trust your own instincts. Or your wife's. Experiment. There is no right or wrong; you need to get the flavor you like. - Duffey

Thank you Duffey. I am going to try this exact recipe this weekend. I will let you know how it turns out.

quote:

Originally posted by searchn4q:
I there a particular spice house that you would recommend?

There's quite a few out there, others can jump in, but check out:

Here are the ones in my Favorites section. Sweet Freedom farms is great for chilies. I have ordered three times from her. Great service.

http://www.sweetfreedomfarm.com (This is another great one for chilies)

http://www.penderys.com

http://www.penzeys.com

http://www.myspicer.com

http://spicesamerica.com

http://www.naturesflavors.com

http://www.bulkfoods.com

I tried the basic rub recipe that was offered by Duffey and I must say that it worked very well. I reduced the salt content a little, but kept everything else the same. I was very pleased with the result. I am going to smoke some more ribs next week and I am going to add some cayenne and maybe chili powder to the rub to see how that works out.

On another note, the ribs that came out of the smoker were some of the best that I have cooked, but they were a little "mushy". After 6 hours at 225 they were not done so I wrapped them in foil for an hour. The taste was good, but the mushy texture turned me off a little. Should I have not used foil at all or should I have not left them in the foil for a full hour? Any suggestions?

A lot of good cooks would say to learn to cook with the cooker,first.

Think about the guy that is doing 50-75 slabs today.

Think he is going to want to fool with foiling,unfoiling, recooking,etc?

Foil can be for specific needs,or when you are behind on a cook.

This is where taking notes,and judgement/experience comes into play.

Folks that cook bare,then foil to tenderize,or speed the cook,find it can be "pot roasty"??[ like "boil off the bone" chain restaurants.

They then put it back on the grate ,bare, for 15-60 mins to tighten,and possibly glaze the slabs.

Different circumstances dictate the time of each.

Good notes!

Searchn4q - Glad you liked the rub and are going to mod it to your taste. It is amazing to me how much flavor you can get from just four ingredients. There is a lot of salt in the rub, so reducing it is OK. Using Kosher salt reduces the saltiness, so you don't get the same intense salt effect from kosher salt that you do from table salt. You need some salt in the rub, and more than seems reasonable to many people. The salt carries the flavors from the rub to the inside of the meat, so you can't get rid of it all together. With no salt, the flavors won't penetrate into the meat much. Osmosis is your friend when it comes to flavoring meat.

The changes to the rub sound fine. If you like garlic that makes a great addition.

I use foil when I need to meet a deadline and things are running late, but that is about the only time. They probably would have been OK without the foil. I usually just when things are done, but you can't always do that when company is coming.

It sounds like you have a good handle on things. Keep good records and learn from your experience.

I just pulled a brisket. Film at 11. - Duffey

I don't usually use a rub on ribs, at least in the pile it on manner seen on TV. In my experience it gets gummy in a CS, but YMMV.

I do like Byron's Butt rub. I really like CS Chicken rub (yes, even on ribs). McCormack has a rib seasoning that I can't find anywhere except through restaurant suppliers that is also very good.

For ribs I typically use Lawry's seasoning salt with a little ground celery seed added. For butts, I go with garlic salt and cayenne pepper. I like Lawry's garlic salt the best too. It smells good enough to eat all by itself.

Yep,many folks that use Byron's rub,could find it similar to Cookshack's Chicken Rub.

They neither have sugar,and would be characterized as having a "cajun" feeling of multiple peppers.