Barbecue Rub

A Tasty Barbecue Rub can Make a Perfect Dinner

That special something, that all important ingredient to make any barbecued dish or a rack of ribs, a full chicken or a steakturn out great, is the barbecue rub. A barbecue rub can be nearly anything you want to rub onto the meat you are about to cook.

From spicy to sweet and from hot to savory, the barbecue rub is completely up to your own tastes, and can easily be made from scratch for an even more impressive meal.

People who grill across the country in competitions all use their own unique blend of herbs, spices and other ingredients in the formation of their barbecue rub, and if they can do it – so can you.

Making a barbecue rub to suit your tastes is similar to making your own barbecue sauce. Many will start with a simple 1/4 cup of salt, 1/4 cup of white sugar, and maybe some paprika. Not a bad beginning.There are certain ingredients which you should always add (if you are over twenty five, chances are that you know which spices you prefer over others) and simply mix your favorite flavors together until you come up with something suitable.

There are dozens of basic rub recipes around..

Instead of plain white sugar, many will substitute a brown sugar. That certainly adds a little more flavor, but it can lead to a crusty, scorched exterior. Cook slowly and monitor the meat to prevent that. Then go one step further...

As a natural product, sugar comes in many variations. A delightful form of raw sugar is turbinado. Made from spinning sugar in a centrifuge, it is packed with flavor and makes for a great variation on the standard recipe.

But there are rubs that go well beyond these common ingredients.

Adding a bit of cayenne will bring a southwestern zing to a fine piece of barbecued chicken. The key is not to go overboard. Delicate flavoring enhances the taste of meat. Shaking spices on by the pound will drown a good cut and make the spice the centerpiece. If you have to mask the dull flavor of your cut by dousing it, select another.

A simple black pepper often forms part of a basic rub. But substituting a white pepper will add a bit of visual interest and a slightly unusual taste to a fine steak. Experiment to arrive at the proper taste, but start slow and build up. Those delicate hints will have mouths watering, where a ton of pepper will have them on fire.

Many enjoy the taste of a flavorful onion powder. Here again the backyard chef is fortunate because there are several species of onion that can provide choices. Popular commercial onion powders are fairly bland. Try a dried, ground version of Southport Red for a nice pungent variation.

Even the salt can undergo a transformation in your rub. Instead of ordinary Morton's table salt, try some sea salt. Richer in iodine, with a mixture of sodium and potassium and minerals, they're a healthy addition to the diet while providing a unique flavor.

Tip: For a fine rib rub, Memphis style, combine paprika (4 tsp), cayenne (1 tsp), onion powder (2 tsp), salt (2 tsp) and pepper (2 tsp) all together.