Metamorphosis Rub (originally titled "Need a new rub for this year")


 
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Last year, most of my bbq was done with the rub below. This year, I want to try something different... maybe a little less spicy and some more deep flavors if that makes sense. What can you suggest? Rub will be used for ribs and butt. Thanks!

First Stage Dry Rub:
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup paprika
1/3 cup garlic salt
2 tablespoons onion salt
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons white pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
 
My two cents:

First, I'd lose the paprika as its flavor is not only subtle, it also doesn't stand up to long cooking. I'd replace it with more flavorful ground chilies, a blend of 2 or, ditching the chili powder as well, a blend of 3. Much more depth.

I'd replace the garlic and onion salts with granulated garlic and onion and change the ratios.

Cayenne has heat but little flavor so I'd drop that and use a flavorful hotter chile in the chile blend above.

I'd alter the black-white pepper ratio.

I'd use thyme as the primary herb, marjoram and perhaps bay in secondary roles.

I'd cut the cumin a little and add a couple or three 'sweet' spices--allspice, ginger and cinnamon--in small quantities.

Salting the meat first, separately, and keeping salt out of the rub, allows you to use as much or as little rub as you wish without affecting salt levels.

Thus:

1/2 c sugar--consider light brown or turbinado

Chile blend:

3 T ancho, 2 T guajillo, 1 T aji amarillo

or

3 T ancho, 2 T guajillo, 1 T cascabel

or

2 T ancho, 1.5 T guajillo, 1 T aji amarillo, .5 T cascabel

1/3 c granulated onion

1/4 c granulated garlic

3 T thyme (a Mediterranean or Spanish thyme--if French is all that is available, cut to 1 T)

1 t marjoram

1 t powdered bay leaf

1.5 t white pepper

1.5 t black pepper

1.5 t allspice

1 t ginger

.5 t cumin

.5 t cinnamon

T=tablespoon t=teaspoon

For best flavor buy quality ingredients!

You'd likely find whole anchos, and cascabels in area markets (you can toast them and grind them yourself) but not the powdered form and not aji amarillos. All are available in ground form from here. (They are also available whole from the same site.)

Penzeys carries the other spices and herbs and has excellent quality. They only carry French thyme though now for some reason (I need to write and complain). I like it, but not as much as Spanish or 'Mediterranean' for pork and beef. Thyme I get here. (They carry lemon thyme too, a worthwhile addition to your stash--great on poultry, in dressings and dips, on fish, etc.)

Salt: Place your ribs in front of you. Imagine that they are cooked already, but with no salt. Sprinkle salt on the ribs (both sides) in the amount you would had they been served to you this way. Allow them to sit for several minutes to allow the salt to draw moisture to the surface; apply the rub over the salt. For butt, do the same but apply a larger quantity of salt to compensate for its thickness. Apply the rub after the salt draws moisture then, if desired, wait several more minutes as the moisture moistens the rub and apply more rub.

Hope this helps.
 
Your suggestions are very good! Thanks as that is exactly the type of suggestions I was looking for. Now I just need to find the recommended ingredients.
 
This sounds like a great general-purpose rub, plus or minus the optional "sweet" spices. I'm saving this under the title of "Metamorphosis Rub for Pork, Kruger."

Rita
 
Something tells me that I will be ordering from Penzeys tomorrow. I have ancho, arbol, and chipolte powder on hand but can always use something else. Besides, I just received my first catalog from Penzeys and haven't used it yet.
 
I just toasted and ground the chiles for a version of this rub. How careful are you to remove all or most of the seeds?

Rita
 
Unless color depth is essential (for rubs it isn't to me) I'm not. After toasting I just split the chile with my fingersand shake out any loose seeds. Any remaing get ground.
 
Metamorphosis Rub Chicken Variation:

CHICKEN VARIATION (Makes 1/3 cup rub): I used more herbs and less sweet spices; increased the marjoram, decreased the allspice, and deleted the cinnamon.

CHILE BLEND #1:
2 1/4 teaspoons ground dried ancho chile
1 1/2 teaspoons ground dried guajillo chile
1 tablespoon ground dried aji amarillo

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
4 teaspoons granulated onion
1 tablespoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon dried thyme leaves
1 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram leaves
3/4 teaspoon powdered bay leaf (about 4 large dried leaves)
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
3/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cumin
No ground cinnamon

I EZ-Qued a 4-4 1/2 pound chicken on my Genesis grill. I dry-brined it and used 1 tablespoon of my Chicken Variation (I'll use a little more the next time, but the rub really enhanced the chicken and the chicken flavor came through beautifully.

I cooked the chicken over indirect/high heat for 10 minutes, then turned down the heat to indirect medium-high and basted with some melted butter. The chicken was done after about 1 hour on the lower heat. One of the best I've ever done.

My Tel-Tru thermometer (on the right-front of the lid) registered 540°F for indirect/high heat and 485°F for indirect/medium-high. It seems the readings are quite high. Position of the thermometer?

This is a great rub and I'm anxious to try it as written on pork.

Rita
 
Kevin,
How much rub will your recipe make?

For my old rub, I would make enough for about 4 - 5 cups worth and then save the rest.
 
Kevin (or anybody else who is familiar with Ajis)--

I recently bought a pound of ajis and want to make this rub. I got them whole from this place. The problem is, they're still quite moist...there's no way I can powerderize them. Don't think toasting would work, either. I'm thinking of maybe putting them in a very low oven to dehydrate further. Tried it once at 250 and burned all 10 of them...guess I'll have to go lower? Any other ways?
 
I get them from Sweet Freedom too. (They are one of my very favorite peppers.)

You can toast them or you can oven-dry. The trick with either method: Don't take them to the bone dry stage--they'll burn, as you've discovered. You want to make them drier period. Then, dump them onto a plate or sheetpan on the counter, separate them (so they're not bunched up), and let them cool. Leave them alone till they feel dry enough to grind.

The oven method you know (250 is correct). To toast on the stove (my preference): Remove the stems and finger-split the peppers. Using a dry pan over med-high heat, toast the peppers for a minute or two, pressing them flat to the pan--periodically but briefly--with a spatula. Immediately flip, allow to toast unmolested several seconds, press again briefly, flip. You might get one more press/flip out of them--maybe--then remove to the plate. A they cool and as they sit on the counter they should dry further and harden enough to grind well.

(Aji amarillos are wonderful in smoke/braises, especially with fruit--they can be left whole. I love them, ground, in rubs, because they have a full fruity chile flavor that, to me, lasts nicely even with low/slow cooks. Whole or ground, they are great in sauces. Terrifc made into a condiment as well.)
 
Kevin,

Thanks for that. I think i'm going to try the oven again...watching more carefully this time. I have relatives visiting from Holland and am planning to serve PP with the rub...will be their first time eating it so I want to make a good impression!

-EDIT-

Toasted in the oven (split open) on tinfoil for about 30 mins at 200...I'm running low and was scared to burn them again. Took them out and felt them, they were still pliable. But, after letting them sit out for a while, they got nice and crispy. Took the seeds out and ground in my spice grinder...worked perfectly!
 
Just rubbed 2 butts with Kevin's rub above, using ancho, guajillo and cascabel. Man it smells CRAZY delicious! Can't wait for tomorrow to try it!!
 
Metamorphosis Rub Chicken Variation

Rita, made the Met rub this weekend and it came out great! Altered the chile proportions somewhat based on what I had in stock, but the 2 birds I roasted were fantastic. Thanks for the recipe. Also, aren't you a user of Mastercook? I just got my CD and this was one of the 1st recipes I loaded into it. Still playing around with the features.
 
Paul, it's a great rub, isn't it? Actually, the rub is Kevin Kruger's. I just named it that because it can morph into a myriad of flavors depending on the variations that Kevin suggests.

Have fun with your MasterCook! Be sure that you turned off your virus/security protections before installing it. Here is the MC help site. Two gals named Pam have run it for years and are amazingly helpful:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MastercookDiscussion/

For in-depth information about Mastercook,a web site is available with lots of goodies and good advice at:

http://mastercook_cupboard.tripod.com/

Rita
 
Rita,

I'll check out the 2 links, thanks!

Kevin,

Is this really yours? The reason I ask is that I don't see aleppo chiles in the mix...
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Great recipe, I really enjoyed it.

Paul
 

 

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