Saturday, May 27, 2006

Grill of My Dreams Dry Rubs

Peanut Butter Etouffee is hosting the "Grill of My Dreams Food Challenge" this weekend. Go to http://pbetouffee.blogspot.com for complete info. To get things started, I dug around for some good dry rub blends, and for this challenge, it has got to be outstanding. Most rubs begin with a good amount of salt, ground black pepper, paprika, and granulated garlic powder. Those seem to be the standard rub ingredients. Nearly all dry rub recipes add some chile powder for that extra kick, like ancho chile powder, New Mexico, cayenne, or your basic supermarket "chili" powder. Some go a little further and include a combination of dried herbs and spices like marjoram, oregano, coriander, cinnamon, cumin, celery seed, fennel seed, star anise, five spice powder, allspice, and others. Then we have the rubs that include sugar, both light and dark brown sugar, turbinado or raw sugar, and even palm sugar. The decision to add sugar to your rub recipes depends on how sweet you like your BBQ sauce, and how you cook your BBQ. Sauces with a large amount of molasses, hoisin, ketchup, honey, maple syrup, brown sugar, etc. taste better on meat without a sugary rub. If you've ever tasted a yucky sweet rib, now you know why, too much sugar in the rub. The rubs with sugar go much better with a tangy sauce, rather than a sweet BBQ sauce, and vice versa. For seasonings needed in such large quantities, try the Smart & Final. Costco, if you can stand the herds, is also another choice. If you are in the Los Angeles area, I highly recommend Canton Food on Alameda near 7th street downtown. They are big restaurant supply store open to the public and the choices, including meats, are amazing. So here you are, La Vida Dulce offers two dry rubs, one with sugar and one without. Mops and sauces are coming up next.
Good grillin'!

LA VIDA DULCE SWEET DRY RUB - adapted from Barbecue America
1/4 cup raw sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup paprika
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon granulated garlic powder
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

Mix all ingredients throughly. Store in airtight container.


LA VIDA DULCE DRY RUB - adapted from Weber
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup ground black pepper
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon granulated garlic powder
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon chile powder, dealer's choice
1 teaspoon ground celery seed
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Mix ingredients thoroughly. Store in airtight container.
Each rub makes enough for two big pork butts or 3-4 racks of ribs.
If BBQ-ing pulled pork, sprinkle remaining rub on meat just before serving.

2 comments:

barb said...

hey thanks for participating........sister moon posted the Texas Toothpicks on PBE. If you try them please let us know how and what you did. They are just way too yummy and when you are doing them they get gobbled up pretty fast. So if cooking for a crowd plan on doing several batches.

Anonymous said...

¿Y la tortilla espaƱola de patatas?