How hot is Renowned Mr. Brown?


 
M

Matt M.

New member
Doing a pork butt for my 2nd smoke this weekend and have family coming over. Was gonna do the Renowned Mr. Brown since I've heard lots of rave reviews and already have all of the ingredients. However, my mother and my wife aren't huge fans of very spicy foods. So I ask: how hot/spicy is the Mr. Brown recipe? Is it "just enough" to give it some flavor, or is it a very noticeable spicy flavor? If it might be a bit much, should I alter it by just laying off the cayenne or use a different one altogether? In the past I've used a basic rub of equal parts brown sugar, kosher salt, paprika, and chili powder and that's been decent without being overpowering. Wondering if I should go Mr. Brown or just keep it basic on this one and maybe add a mustard slather and/or an apple juice baste.

I know everybody's tastes are different, but am curious of your thoughts. Love this site!
 
Agreed that it is very peppery. I like spicy hot, but if I did Mr. Brown again, I would cut back on the black pepper - there was way too much there for my tastes.

But that's just me. YMMV.

Pat
 
Two things. First, given any rub recipe you can add or delete anything you want - it's your rub, the recipe is only a guide. Secondly, it's always easy to add heat but impossible to remove it. I often cook when grandkids are involved, so things need to be modest wrt heat. The hot sauce is always on the table.
 
This recipe is quite peppery as mentioned but we all thought it was very good. Plus you can always just allow them to choose how much bark to take for themselves as that is where most of the pepper will be.
 
I also found it too peppery - not hot, just peppery. I probably won't use it again. I plan on using the "SYD All Purpose Rub" from Harry Soo's post/website on my next one. The link from Harry's post is: slapyodaddybbq.com/Recipes.html
 
I use this recipe almost exclusively for butts with the following modifications:

For the rub, I use about 1/3 of the prescribed black pepper per the recipe......and I use a little more sugar.

For the mop, I use about 1/2 of the prescribed pepper per the recipe.......I also do not use water per the recipe; my liquid additions are ONE cup of AC vinegar and TWO cups of Apple Cider.

I pretty much follow the receipe as far as turning/mopping, etc. After everything's done, I add brown sugar and kethup to the left over mop sauce and the result is a thin/deelish BBQ sauce imho.......I can't say how much I add; I do it by feel and taste.
 
Thanks for all the input - I know the women aren't big pepper fans, so looks like I'll be modding it a bit.

One more question: for the mop it says to use the leftover rub, and then it lists some of the same ingredients again underneath. Does this mean to take the leftover rub and then add these to it again, or were they re-listing the original ingredients to have everything in one place?

Dwayne - your mods sound right up my alley. May have to give it a shot!
 
Nevermind that mop question - since all rub ingredients aren't listed and some new ones are, it looks like this is to be added to the previous rub to make the mop. Wow, that IS a lot of pepper!
 
If you make it "by the book":

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 6
(I like creep-up heat, but not burning-hot stuff, so I may be a bit of a "wimp" from a heat-freaks perspective.)

The bark is about an 8 - quite spicy / peppery / hot.
Meat from the inside - not a lot of heat
When you pull it, unless you make a sandwich with all bark or all inside, it blends together nicely.

Overall, I think it depends what kind of sauce, if any, you like to serve / try with it.

When I made one for a family cook-out, about half of the crowd (mostly the women) thought it was too hot, but it was a hit with the guys.

If you're cooking for a crowd - do one Mr. Brown and try something a bit less hot, and give your guests a choice.

Hope this helps to shed a little perspective on this....
 
I personally think it gets a bad rap for the pepper.. but I like pepper. I also think that was is always important to remember with rubs is the bark to meat ratio. You could coat a 4 lb butt with a rub and find it overpowering... but on a 10 lb butt find it just right. I certainly don't use my brisket rub in the same quantity if I'm using it on a steak.

It's all about proportion. Mix the bark well and things tend to even out.

That said, it i was pointing someone to this rub for the first time I would say cut the pepper in half and work up if you want.
 
Hey Dwayne - I decided to take your advice and went with your modified rub and mop. HUGE SUCCESS!! Was a big hit with all and I thought the seasoning was just right. Didn't even need to make the sauce with the leftovers - meat was plenty juicy, tender, and flavorful as it was. Thanks to all for the tips!
 
Sweet!!!.......so far, PP is the biggest hit with my family. I keep getting requests for it. I'm glad, because with the warm weather coming, I can prop my feet up, smoke some cigars and tend to the smoker!
 
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