How to Make a Great Tasting Rub For Brisket
Everyone uses store bought rubs. From your average backyard BBQ guy to professional Competition Pit Masters. Nothing wrong with that at all. There are some very good rubs out there. My buddy Bob makes some of the best over at Bob’s Best Quality.
Some folks use the rub as is, others “spice” it up a bit to meet their taste preferences. For example, Bob’s Black & Tan is smoked sea salt and course ground pepper. What its missing for me when I cook Brisket or Steak is Garlic!!
Key Ingredients for Brisket
So the other day, I realized I ran out of Bob’s Black & Tan, so I took equal parts of Smoked Sea Salt, Course Ground Black Pepper and Granulated Garlic and make my own rub.
Fairly simple and not very involved.
Years ago, when the competition bug hit with our local block party holding a rib competition, I got a hold of a rub that turned out to be amazing and won me first place in that competition.
My daughter’s grandmother’s husband Fred was TX BBQ guy, he loved to cook and did so at every opportunity for friends, family and small work events.
He also made his own rub! Well Fred found out through the grapevine that I had a rib competition coming up and one day in the mail a Ziploc bag showed up with his rub in it! As I said, I went on to win the block party competition using this rub.
I used that rub for years, very sparingly and only for special occasions. Fred was always an inspiration for me and my style of Brisket.
Unfortunately, Fred passed a few years later and I was sure that rub was lost forever.
On my next trip to TX to visit my daughter, my favorite former mother in-law pulls me aside and hands me a piece of paper saying “Fred wanted you to have this”
Turns out, it was the “BBQ rub recipe” hand written on a scrap piece of paper. I promised to never share this recipe, and I am not about to start now.
BUT I have made it and while I don’t think its as good as the original, it was still very good, nonetheless.
For this post, I will be making the “Fred Rub” and sending samples to Bettie and family for their “evaluation”
The Best Rub Recipe for Brisket
First, I have attempted to make this recipe my own by adding a couple of twists. All the ingredients are the same, in the basic same ratios.
But I do play with my ingredients. A lot of times I will swap out the Paprika for Spanish Paprika. Or even the Kosher Salt with Smoked Sea Salt.
Second, my goal is to show how simple it is to make your own rub, no matter how complicated the recipe may be.
Step One
Get all your ingredients together and pre-measure them out. Some of the ingredients for this rub required that I grind them up first.
Step Two
I took the original Fred recipe and converted it to weights. It came to me in ounces, pinches and shakes 😊 So I got out my trusty scale and weighed out what an ounce, pinch or shake of each of the ingredients. This will allow me to scale it up for larger batches as needed.
Step Three
Combine them all together. For this I use a big bowl with a lid and plenty of extra room so I can flip, flop, shake and mix the ingredients well.
You want a good mix of the ingredients so that you don’t have clumps.
Once all your spices are blended, they become a new thing and not just a bits of their parts.
Step Four
Use them!! I am reusing some shakers from Bob and some new ones I bought online to share samples out. But you can put it in any container you like. Something airtight though.
How to Play with the Spices in Your Recipes
Always get creative with the recipes you come across. Even mine. Everyone has a slightly different palate and are going to have different preferences on what they want out of their dish.
Taste each ingredient individually so you have an idea of the flavors you are putting together. You can then adjust your recipe to your taste. If its not sweet enough, add some form of sugar (I prefer turbinado),
Not spicy enough, add red Pepper, Cayenne, chipotle or any other spice you like to kick it up.
And the one thing I learned the hard way… keep good measurement records. You don’t want to make the ultimate spice and then not be able to recreate it later!