Will deleting salt from a rub recipe require a change to other ingredients in the rub


 
MKEvenson

MKEvenson

TVWBB Wizard
I have chosen to not put salt in rub recipes. I realize that most recipes that include salt also use the same amount of sugar. If a food preparation is too salty one can add sugar to cut the salt taste, conversly with a sweet preparation add salt to make it less sweet. So If I decide to follow a published recipe for a rub do I have to reduce the sugar or any other rub ingrdient to compensate for the lack of salt. I will be adding salt to my meat but not to my rubs.
 
Usually, no. It does depend on the relative proportionate levels between the two approaches but in practice this is rarely an issue.

Sugar itself does not cut the salt taste. The bulk (volume) of the sugar does this. It can be done with other things as well - often with far better results.

Too, adding salt to something that is too sweet will only partially make the item less sweet because it's salt that is being added. Mostly it is because the sugar proportion is lessened because of the salt addition. This (less sweetening) can also be accomplished with additions other than salt.
 
Ok Kevin, now that you opened the door. What other things can you add to cut down the salt taste???
 
Yes, Kevin, do tell. And what do you add to lesson sweet. Obviously we are talking about a food preparation that has gone arry, not one that we are building from the start. In other words a mistake has been made. Not that any of us would make mistakes, it still is nice to know how to fix things, should someone else screw up. Ha Ha Ha.
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Mark
 
Well, first, make the rubs without salt. Salt the meat first, separately, allow the meat to become moist from the salt, then apply the rub over the salt.

If using a purchased rub that includes salt, read the label and increase the other ingredients in the rub in what is likely to be their rough proportions (some guessing is involved).

If working off a recipe that includes salt, and if you wish to keep the salt in the rub, increase the proportions of all other ingredients. (Often it is worth increasing the proportion of all other ingredients except sugar. Mix the rub, then adjust sugar only if needed.)
 
I'm new to smoking, but with a fair culinary background, I can say that adding salt to mitigate excess sugar, or vice versa, is not so much a cure as a masking of a mistake, leading to less than ideal results. In other words, you end up with something both too sweet AND too salty.
Kevin's response makes perfect sense, and in my experience spot on. However, once a mistake has been made, the decision is between living with the likely disappointing results when you try to fix it, or chucking the mess and starting over.
 
Hmmm, Thanks Kevin for that. When I was reading your previous post on this thread I was thinking about food products other than rubs or perhaps rubs where one didn't know the ingredients list. So hypothetically say you come upon a sauce or gravy that is too salty or too sweet and you want to calm it down but don't want to substantially change the volume. I was thinking that you were refering to other ingredients one might add to change the saltieness or sweetnes. I understand dilution but was wondering about magic.

Mark
 
Mark, just a thought from a food tinkerer. A sauce that is too sweet and you do not want to significantly change the volume...Add fresh lemon juice...and perhaps some zest.
 
Mark-- Curt is quite right. When making something like a sauce, gravy, soup, dressing, etc., there is virtually nothing you can do to remove excess saltiness, save for increasing the volume of all non-salt (and non-salty) ingredients. Nothing removes or absorbs it. No magic.

Excess sweetness is different. As Steve notes, adding an acid can help. Whether one likes the result mostly depends on what the item is, how cloying it was, and how much acid needed to be added to mitigate the sweetness.
 
I've adopted Kevin's method of salting meat independently of the rub and I can vary the salt for the audience and/or the type of meat or if meat was brined etc. I like that approach.

I am a low sugar guy so I've played with making rubs without sugar and adding sugar at rub time, but run into the "volume" argument.

Kevin would know much better but I don't think salt or sugar either have much curing effect or tenderizing effect if the rub is applied within an hour or less of cooking.

You won't get the crustiest bark on Butt or the dark color on your ribs without sugar but I think they still taste great. I add sugar to butt rub to get better bark because it is small proportion of the meat. I don't use much sugar on ribs for the opposite reason.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K Kruger:
Mark-- Curt is quite right. When making something like a sauce, gravy, soup, dressing, etc., there is virtually nothing you can do to remove excess saltiness </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well in a gravy/soup you can add a potatoe or a carrot to actually absorb some of the salt from the sauce without make any taste differ to the gravy itself,altho this takes some time. But its faster then making a new batch.

Like when im making a pot roast with carrots im always over salting the mix and end up with nice salty carrots and a perfect not salty sauce around the meat.

Just a tip.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Well in a gravy/soup you can add a potatoe or a carrot to actually absorb some of the salt from the sauce without make any taste differ to the gravy itself, </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Imo, this is ineffective. YMMV.
 
Well effective or not it still brings down the salt level if you have the time.

But its not a quick fix,and offcourse it´s not magic so if its way to salty to save just redo it and do it right.

If a gravy is to salty you cant really save it by volume and end up with a good resault.

Iknow this is not a gravy post,and im clue less about the Rub question.

Take care
 
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