Store bought rubs - worth it?


 
Mark Foreman

Mark Foreman

TVWBB All-Star
Looking to get educated here….

I have been making my own rubs for many, many years. I virtually have never bought dry rubs. I see lots of posts here for commercial rubs. Are they worth it? Too much salt? Too costly? After looking on-line, I have found more rubs available than I can count. How do I find good ones?
 
There are so many decent craft rubs available these days, in store and mail order, half the fun is trying all of them. I used to make my own then stopped about 10 years ago, it was too easy to get decent stuff without the hassle. Most of the local groceries stores carry a good selection and I’ll hit up the occasional flea market or spice festival and pick up some that look good.
 
Some are just fine but MANY are way too salty for my taste.
I try to get small ones to test then, if I like one, I’ll get a large one.
Lately, I’ve been blending some Weber “Kickin’ chicken“ with McKormick “Brown sugar Bourbon” for chicken and it’s been a pretty good hit for my family. Thighs and drumsticks with that for tonight’s family dinner.
 
I make a lot of my own rubs and seasonings. I've been making the same rub for my baby back cooks since 1999, it's a simple rub but brings a nice balance between the rub and the taste of the pork.
In the last few years, I've bought a lot of commercial rubs and seasonings. I try to find rubs that are salt free or low in sodium. I also blend some of my homemade stuff which is salt free or very low in salt with the commercial blends. Have to say I enjoy experimenting and have created some very interesting concoctions and some I'm sure should never be recreated again.
 
Rich, I have been meaning to ask you this. Is your rub recipe for the ribs a secret or have you shared it here and I missed it?
 
I forgot to mention that Trader Joe's has a massive Rub offering and some really good marinades too. Start there if you have one. Another place is Old World Market, but that store has gotten weird about membership. I don't want to be a member, I just want to buy something
 
I would make my own rubs but by the time I source the ingredients I've spent twice as much money as the store bought rub.
 
Timothy F. Lewis said:
Lately, I’ve been blending some Weber “Kickin’ chicken“ with McKormick “Brown sugar Bourbon” for chicken and it’s been a pretty good hit for my family. Thighs and drumsticks with that for tonight’s family dinner.
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Think I'm going to try this the next time I do a chicken on the rotisserie. Thanks for the idea.
 
Moving this thread from the Rubs forum to the Barbecuing forum as it does not start with a recipe.

I have not used many of the big corporate rubs, e.g. McCormick's (except for their Montreal Steak rub), Weber, etc. I have tended towards the ones like Slap Yo' Daddy, Big Poppa Smokers, Bad Byron's Butt Rub, and more recently Meat Church. All of these tend to center around one guy trying to make the best rubs he can.

Most are probably too salty for people sensitive to salt. I don't have that problem, so they work fine for me.

I used to make many of my own rubs, but it costs a lot to buy good quality, fresh spices, using a little bit of each, and then tossing most of them after a couple of years. It's easy to buy a $9.95 shaker of someone's rub and use it up over a couple of years. Shipping can be expensive, so buying at a store can help avoid that. I recently picked up a shaker of one of the Meat Church rubs while visiting Buc-ee's in Texas.
 
"I used to make many of my own rubs, but it costs a lot to buy good quality, fresh spices, using a little bit of each, and then tossing most of them after a couple of years."

Chris, there is not a spice that you could buy to make your own rubs that I could not help you use up. You know I have recipes galore cooking with just about every spice there is. :ROFLMAO: So, there goes your excuse for not making your own rubs. And that goes for the rest of you all. :love:
 
Chris Allingham said:
I have not used many of the big corporate rubs, e.g. McCormick's (except for their Montreal Steak rub), Weber, etc. I have tended towards the ones like Slap Yo' Daddy, Big Poppa Smokers, Bad Byron's Butt Rub, and more recently Meat Church. All of these tend to center around one guy trying to make the best rubs he can.

Most are probably too salty for people sensitive to salt. I don't have that problem, so they work fine for me.

I used to make many of my own rubs, but it costs a lot to buy good quality, fresh spices, using a little bit of each, and then tossing most of them after a couple of years. It's easy to buy a $9.95 shaker of someone's rub and use it up over a couple of years. Shipping can be expensive, so buying at a store can help avoid that. I recently picked up a shaker of one of the Meat Church rubs while visiting Buc-ee's in Texas.
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Here is where I differ from the Boss, the “Slap yo Daddy” I got was head and shoulders too salty for me, as were several others. I have not by any means done a huge sampling but, the Stubbs was similar salt and overly cayenne, for me.
I do agree that buying a bucket of spices (my cupboard is pretty well stocked most of the time) can get very costly. The McKormick maple is pretty good too, there is a Costco one that is pretty good too. Some are good some are not to my taste.
one simply must bite the bullet and experiment.
time to check on tonight’s peach/blackberry cobbler!
 
I love me some rubs, I do also make my own and honestly a little salt, pepper and cayenne on a steak can be amazing.

I have plenty of Oakridge, Kozmos, Spiceology and just bit on the meat church ocho pack. 🤔
I do keep them vac sealed so they last a while.
I’m currently out of town at my brothers cabin, going to grill 4 pork tenderloins tonight and I did bring a nice variety for the kids to choose four different rubs, they loved the idea.
 
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Joan said:
Rich, I have been meaning to ask you this. Is your rub recipe for the ribs a secret or have you shared it here and I missed it?
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Joan, it's no secret I've given it to a lot of folks and even some forum members. Like I said it's a simple rub that doesn't overpower the flavor of the pork.
You can double it or even triple it and it seems to have a long shelf life. The basic recipe will do about 2-3 racks of Baby Backs.

So here ya go.


Rich’s Simple Baby Back Rub

​

¾ cup packed golden brown sugar
¼ cup Paprika
2 ½ TBLS Course salt
2 ½ TBLS Ground black pepper
1 TBLS Onion powder
½ tsp Cayenne pepper



A very simple rub that doesn’t overpower the taste of the pork
 
Totally agree Chris ! We've gone the 'make your own' route decades ago when there was little to no competition type rubs available. And no internet to go looking for them either. Byron's was our first commercially available rub we used back then. Since then, we too stick to those made by the likes of Steph Franklin and Sterling Ball.

We buy all of our rubs from Big Poppa Smokers online store. While we have tried others competition team rubs, we always come back to both Steph Franklin's Simply Marvelous and Sterling Ball's Big Poppa Smokers rubs.

Amongst our favorites are, in no particular order...

Big Poppa Smokers -
Sweet Money
Desert Gold
Cash Cow

Simply Marvelous BBQ -
Spicy Apple
Sweet & Spicy
Sweet Seduction
Pecan

Bob
 
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There are literally thousands of good rubs out there. Ok, maybe hundreds. I use mostly commercial but homemade is tough to beat, like my roast rub. It’s pretty solid
 
I’ll need to read labels. i do not like my rubs with too much salt and prefer no salt at all as I salt ahead to time a lot.
 
Here's Trader Joe's rub/spice section
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Marinades & Oils
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I have made my own rub for years and I found I like to use the brownulated brown sugar , its dried out and wont clump up if you don't use it all when you make it. Most time I get store bought rubs as I don't cook as much, Suckle busters has some great rubs , 1886 and campfire steak are 2 of my favorites I use all the time, also SPG . I have a brisket on now that has SPG on it, will pull soon .
 
TJs has good stuff. My daughter just retired from working at TJs for 25 years. Every time they got a new spice or rub, she would get me one and tell me to try it and let her know what I thought of it.
 
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