4 Pepper Rub w/ fennel

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup salt
3 T paprika
2 T black pepper
1 T garlic granulated
1 T onion granulated
1 t cayenne
1 t chipotle
1 t ancho
1 T fennel
1 t coriander
1 t celery seed

All are powdered.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Steve Petrone,

I must confess-I have not made another rub since I first tried this one!

I welcome any suggestions or constructive comments or otherwise. The key to this is fennel. It really seems to work well. My last batch had a little extra fennel and a little extra heat.

I keep a shaker jar of your 4-Pepper Rub close at hand. It's the one I reach for, for last-minute, kick-it-up-a-notch seasoning. It is outstanding on grilled vegetables, and enhances a wide variety of foods. Sometimes I substitute Spanish smoked paprika (thanks to JL for that!). When I use it in moist cooking, I'll sometimes add some ground dried porcini mushrooms, my 'secret weapon.'

Rita

Dried 'rooms, I have not tried them yet in a rub. Good idea. It sure is nice having some trained chefs to keep the rest of us on track and learning.

Tonight, just to be different, I added cumin to the mix. I'll know by tomorrow at this time if that change works well.

I have recommended this rub to several people all of whom have liked it as well.

Comments: If you have not tried this yet--there are flavor elements that fennel and molasses share. Consider replacing some of the sugar with brown sugar. (Brown is 'deeper'; you may want to lessen sugar quantity a bit in this case.)

White pepper and fennel have a nice interplay.

Try a little thyme in there sometime on beef or pork.

Try a little sage in there sometime on pork or turkey thigh. A side relish (served hot) of diced apples and diced onions sauteed in butter with a little rubbed sage, S and P, till the onions are soft, then splashed with fresh orange juice (let the o.j. get syrupy). The bit of sage will tie the relish to the sage in the rub and the orange in the relish and fennel in the rub--well, orange and fennel are killer together. Thinking of this makes me think of uing the rub with duck--as a rub for grilled duck breast (I'd cut the sugar way back) with orange in the sauce or, with additional salt and a few bay leaves I'm thinking it might be great as the cure for confit. Yowza!

Kevin thanks for your insights-just what I was looking for.

How do you dry brown sugar for use in a rub that will be stored? I have switched to granulated sugar to eliminate the hassel but I can see benefit of the brown sugar with fennel.

Do you sense there are any unecessary ingredients that could be eliminated in this mix? As always I appreciate your constructive comments.

Steve,

Thanks - I printed this and will make up some of this soon.

Ray

Steve, to dry brown sugar, please see the BRITU recipe in the Cooking Section:

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/rib1.html

Or use Turbinado.

Unnecessary? Not really. I'd be inclined to replace the paprika, cayenne and ancho with a blend of guajillo, cascabel and ancho. I'd probably toast and grind 2-3 cascabel, 2 guajillo and 1 ancho, mix, mix the rub, then adjust heat, if needed, with more cayenne. Paprika's subtlety doesn't hold up with long cooking, imo. Were the chilies' flavors more than what I was looking for I'd cut their amounts my 1/3 and replace it with paprika so the bulk would be the same.

You are always coming up with those spices not in my cabinet nor have I tried them before...cascabel and guajillo. Off to do more research!

Penzey's has both of them.

But Penzeys did not have ancho powder so I just ordered some from Amazon (from Dean & Deluca). When it arrives. I can make this mixture.

Ray

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Ray Crick,

If you're purchasing whole peppers to grind the proportions above are roughly the equivalent of 1 part cascabel, 1 part guajillo, 2-3 parts ancho. To that you might wish to add cayenne and of course the chipotle. There are all kinds of flavors happening in these chilies that I think you'll agree complement the other ingredients in your rub, smoky meats, and the vinegar sauce you like.

For short-cooked items and moist-cooked as Rita mentions, you might want to downplay the chilies--this woould depend on what you're using it with/for. Your original might be better or a mix of the two.

Anyway, see what you think.

Another source for chilies is Sweet Freedom. This link takes you to their whole chile page. There is a link on tip for their powders. Like most chile vendors, their powder varieties are limited.

Ray,
I get my anchos from Penzeys?
http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeysancho.html

Pat,

You are correct. I erred when I looked under the index for Ancho. The peppers are listed under "Chili Peppers: and even there they are not listed as "Ancho" but are listed as "Ground Ancho Powder".

Anyway - I'll buy more when I place my next order. I really like Penzeys and wish I had found the Ancho there.

As for Dean and DeLuca, well this was my first order with them and will probably be my last. They sent me a Cajun Rub instead of the Ancho Powder. I called them and they appologized and are sending me the correct stuff (and I get to keep the Cajun Rub). Somehow they screwed up the first order and Penzey's has never made a mistake with my orders. I would stay away from Dean and DeLuca.

Thanks again Pat,

Ray

Hi Steve, i making this rub but the fennel & celery are both seed do i just smash the seed to a powder?


Thanks, Mike

Mike I use a coffee grinder-you can use a mortar and pestle or whatever works for you. I hope you enjoy this.

Steve,

My ancho powder came today and I made up a batch of your rub. Really smells and tastes great. Looking forward to using it soon. I am doing a tri-tip tonight and already had another rub on it when the ancho came, so will have to wait. Thanks for the post!

Ray

How was the tri tip? I bought a bag of dried anchos and guajillos today. This is the first time I have bought whole dried peppers.

Steve,

Tri-tip was very good. I fixed it like "speissbraten" I used to eat in Germany. I put slits in the meat and inserted small slivers of shallotts into the slits. Then I rubbed it well with seasoniongs (this tiem I used Penzey's Chicago Steak Rub - excellent). Grilled it to rare / med rare. Very tasty.

Are you staying busy with your kids ball games?

Take care,

Ray