How much of each ingrediant?


 
C

Chris Derum

TVWBB Member
Ever since I got my WSM a year of so ago, I've been really getting to cooking in general along with queing. So my knowledge is limited but growing all the time, thanks to this site and others.

My question or scenario is this. I recently purchased a bunch of spices from Penseys to restock the spice cabinet. As usual they put in a sample bottle of spice. This time it was their Southwest seasoning. Turns out its pretty decent. With many commercial rubs the first ingrediant is salt. I would like to try and re-create this rub minus the salt. I like to control the amount of salt on my own.

Anyone have a technique or rule of thumb when figuring out the volume of each ingrediant when creating rubs? I understand the further up the ingrediant list the more there is, but I'm just not sure how much of each ingrediant to use. I've been making my own rubs lately, but mainly from existing recipes from this site and BBQ cookbooks.

Here's the ingrediant list from the bottle:

Salt (Which I would like to take out)
Ancho Pepper (Ironically, just made some Ancho powder last weekend from dried Ancho Peppers.)
Onion
Garlic
Black Pepper
Mexican Oregano
Cayenne
Cumin
Chipotle
Cilantro

Any ideas are appreciated.
 
If you are trying to clone (sans salt) then you first pour a little out onto a white piece of paper and look at the colors. You know what the color of the chile is so you'd look at that specifically, and you'd look at it in realtion to the non-chile ingredients. That gives you a sense of the starting point.

Generally, for a rub like this, you'd be looking at (guessing, as I have never seen it) 1 part ancho, 1/2-3/4 part onion, probably around 1/2 part garlic (could be as high as the onion, 1/3 part oregano, 1/4 part pepper, 1/16-1/8 part cayenne, cumin chipotle and cilantro (the cilantro would be highest of the bunch. (I am not sure that I would bother with the cilantro as it doesn't dry well and hold flavor, imo, but if you already have it give it a shot.)

One mixes in small quantities and then tastes (add a little salt first) to make the comparison between the two both visually and flavor-wise, then go from there.
 
I have never seen dried cilantro before (not saying it doesn't exist). I wonder if they're referring to coriander. Chris, do you see actual dried up leaves or something like this in the rub?

Erik
 
Thanks for the responses. I'll work with Kevin's suggestions. I just wanted to get an idea before I started using all my spices on an "experiment."

Regarding the cilantro, I too thought it was odd. Looking at the rub you can see some small green particles in the rub, but I just assumed it was the Oregano.
 
Penzey's does sell dried cilantro--dried parsley too. Neither of them are herbs that I think dry at all well.

If actually 'green' I'd think that would be the cilantro; oregano would be more brown, greenish-brown, or greenish-gray.
 
Chris; good thread.
Kevin; great idea on visually breaking down the individual ingredients. That sounds like it would get you in the ball park faster than just winging it (like I would have done).
 
What may be there is dried cilantro (i.e. "fresh coriander" in some places) STEMS. These dry somewhat better than the leaves and it's a way for a company to use something they'd normally have to throw away.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Anyone have a technique or rule of thumb when figuring out the volume of each ingrediant when creating rubs? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

paul kirk has a book about rubs and sauces that gives some good rules of thumb when creating your own rubs. It's a interesting book to read, if you're one to make you're rubs. I kind of got away from it for awhile but just re-read it and learned some new stuff.
 
What not many people are not aware of is that cilantro stems are perfectly edible and have just as much if not more flavor than the leaves. In fact, even the roots are full of flavor, but it is on the fibrous side. So one would need to either finely mince it or just use to steep and flavor and discard.
 
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