Most expert grillers have a patented barbeque rub recipe or two up their sleeves, but for the average person, a barbeque rub may seem like a mysterious secret grilling society ritual. In reality, a barbeque rub is simply a way or adding extra flavor to meat before you grill to enhance the finished product. Here are the basics.
Instructions
1. Prepare the meat. Before you begin, select the cuts of meat. Use whatever you like and trim the excess fat before you apply the rub. Start with a room temperature cut of meat and then prepare the rub. A barbeque rub can be dry or wet, depending on what you use.
2. Make the rub. For a dry rub, choose a mixture of spices that you like, or find a recipe if you aren't sure or aren't a culinary expert. Do the same for a wet rub, adding vinegar, mustard, marmalade, molasses, steak sauce or even the more obvious barbeque sauce to the mix. If it smells great, it's ready to go.
3. Buy a rub if you're not keen on kitchen alchemy. There's a whole section in the grocery store. Choose based on the meat you're using, the side dishes you plan to prepare and sweetness versus spiciness. There's no single right rub that is the best choice, so follow your nose.
4. Lay the meat out on a large plate or in a wide bowl. Add your spices by rubbing them into the meat with your hands. Mash them in and then add wet ingredients or baste them on.
5. Wrap the meat loosely and let the spices sink in, or toss into a plastic baggie and keep it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight. The more time it has to soak, the more flavor you'll get in the meat.
6. Keep any extra barbeque rub that hasn't touched the meat in the fridge for future use, or use the remaining wet rub while grilling to add extra flavor and double as extra barbeque sauce.
Tags: barbeque sauce, extra barbeque, extra flavor, flavor meat
