Home made rubs. Taking flavor by the horns.
As summer is warming up and grills are being dusted off,
grill masters all over are preparing for grilling season.
Dry rubs are a common way to season meat, among other
things, especially in the south.
Here at Knox's Spice Company we strive to make sure that
the most flavor possible comes from your grilling experience
and this starts with how you prepare your dry rubs at
home.
If you decide to create a dry rub at home there are a
couple of tips to get the most from your home made seasoning
blends. The most important tip is to use the freshest
herbs and spices you can find.
FYI: Herbs are leaves, Spices are seeds, basically.
Try not to ever use dry herbs over 1 year old. The flavor
is probably reduced or gone completely depending on how
you store them. Use fresh herbs whenever possible .
Your spices should be whole, not ground. This allows
you to do what we almost always do with our spices before
using them, toast them. Toasting is easy and it really
brings out the entire depth of flavor you want from spices.
To toast spices place them in a hot skillet and constantly
move until you can smell them. You may even see a little,
tiny bit of smoke. Be careful not to burn as they may
become bitter.
If preparing a wet rub use olive oil or butter not vegetable
oil. Vegetable oil is fine but lacks the sweetness and
flavor of olive oil and butter.
Below are recipe utilizing these practices. Please use
them, enjoy them and make them your own.
Rub for steak
2 Tablespoons whole black peppercorns
2 teaspoons mustard seed
2 tablespoons paprika
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon fresh sweet basil
1 or more cayenne peppers
2 tablespoons fresh garlic
1 teaspoon salt
Place the peppercorns and mustard seed In a dry, medium
hot skillet and stir for about a minute. When done lightly
toasted, grind together in a coffee grinder or mortar
and pestle. Chop all your fresh ingredients very fine.
Mix everything together with the salt.
Pre rub your steaks with olive oil or butter and then
rub the spice blend you just prepared into steaks before
grilling. the olive oil or butter aids in bonding the
oils from the rub and infusing it into your steak. Grill
as you normally would and remember to let the steak stand
before cutting. Standing or resting meat allows the succulent
liquids to evenly redistribute. Cutting into meat directly
off the grill will allow the liquids to run out, and they
will, draining your perfect steak, making it dry and less
tasty.
Cuban Pork Rub
1 fresh Habanero pepper
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 Tablespoon Fresh cilantro, minced
1 lime
Orange Juice
Cut the Habanero pepper in half and remove the seeds
and stem. Place in a hot dry skillet and toast until outside
begins to turn black. Hold the pepper so you can do this
as evenly as possible. Remove the pepper and lay skin
side up and gently scrap off the charred skin. Mince and
place in a bowl. Place the cumin and black peppercorns
in the pan and stir until fragrant. Grind and add to minced
Habanero along with the fresh cilantro.
Zest the lime. For those unaware of zesting, the zest
is the very outside skin of citrus. You can zest a lime
with a zester or a cheese grater. So, zest the lime and
place the zest in the bowl then juice the lime into the
bowl as well. At this point if you want a marinade add
about a cup of orange juice or concentrate if you like.
Rub pork chops with this seasoning blend or marinate them
if you like.
Knox's BBQ Rubs are
made from the highest quality herbs and spices we can
find and we blend them using whole or 'Fancy' cuts when
available. We do this so when you rub Knox's
BBQ Rubs into your meat the herbs are broken releasing
the flavor. Dry rubs that are already ground fine have
a tendency to loose their flavor faster and nobody wants
that to happen.
So take the information we have given you and go make
rubs at home that are excellent. Just remember use fresh
ingredients and toast your spices to get all the wonderful
flavor you can.
