Making Jeff's Rib Rub

[wingrider]

Like others on this forum, I'm a big fan of Jeff's Rib Rub. I'm also not going to give away the recipe, but do have a comment on making it.

Jeff gives very detailed instructions on the process of making the rub, and states that following this process is very important. So, I did so the first few times. Then I had some brown sugar that had quite a few hard pieces in it, and decided I was going to use the food processor to break them up. Well, thinking about doing that anyway, I thought what the heck, why not just throw all the ingredients into the food processor at once and see what happens.

Voila - didn't see any difference between the batch that came out of the food processor, and the batches I'd been painstakingly making by hand. So, it's been the food processor method every since.

Guess while I'm at it, a couple of other comments.

On paprika, I've tried both smoked and Hungarian sweet. Both are great, and honestly couldn't tell much difference between them in the final result on the smoked meat.

I also have problems with the rub clumping. May have something to do with how humid a climate you live in. I live in North Carolina - "nuff said," I like making multiple batches at a time so what I now do is put the rub into wide mouth quart jars, and vacuum seal them using my Foodsaver wide mouth jar attachment. Seems to work so far.

Enjoy the good Q all!

 

[pgsmoker64]

On the clumping issue, I have recently discovered that the addition of a small amount of fine ground corn meal will help with this.  It does slightly change the color of the rub but does not affect the flavor.

Here is how I made this discovery...I got a rub recipe from a friend and in the recipe was corn meal.  I asked, why corn meal?  She could not tell me just said that was the way they always did it! (old family recipe).  I made a batch of her rub and put the left-overs in a metal bowl, which I then completely forgot about until the next evening.  I picked up the bowl to throw away the rub and subsequently wash the bowl and that is when I noticed that the rub was still very loose and had NO clumping.  This rub contained a large amount of brown sugar so I was surprised.  The only difference between this rub and any other I have made was the corn meal.

It's worth a try...let me know what you think.

Bill

 

[kathrynn]

Another trick I use...put the brown sugar on a cookie sheet bake in a 200 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes. Then put thru the food processor. Dries the sugar...doesn't change the taste. No clumps.

 

[pgsmoker64]

Another trick I use...put the brown sugar on a cookie sheet bake in a 200 degree oven for about 20-30 minutes. Then put thru the food processor. Dries the sugar...doesn't change the taste. No clumps.

Nice.  Might have to give that a try as well.

Thanks Kathryn.

 

[wingrider]

On the clumping issue, I have recently discovered that the addition of a small amount of fine ground corn meal will help with this.  It does slightly change the color of the rub but does not affect the flavor.

Hi Bill,

I've been looking into getting food grade silicon dioxide to accomplish this, but that's expensive. I like the sound of this. How much corn meal do you add let's say per one Jeff's recipe?

Thanks,

Bob

 

[pgsmoker64]

Hi Bill,

I've been looking into getting food grade silicon dioxide to accomplish this, but that's expensive. I like the sound of this. How much corn meal do you add let's say per one Jeff's recipe?

Thanks,

Bob

I would add maybe 1-2 tablespoons.  It's a feel thing...

 

[fire in the hole]

When I was in the service in the very humid mid-pacific..........they would place a saltine cracker in the sugar shaker. I never seen hard sugar. Try it. It's easy and cheap easily removable.

 

[smokinhusker]

We used to put white rice in the salt shaker in Hawaii and other humid parts of the country. Doesn't shake out and keeps it from clumping.

 

[kathrynn]

We used to put white rice in the salt shaker in Hawaii and other humid parts of the country. Doesn't shake out and keeps it from clumping.

I still do that.  Habit that I learned from my Grandma.  

 

[thsmormonsmokes]

I handle this problem by living in an insanely arid climate.  

Honestly, I don't know how you folks manage the summers in humid places.  I really don't like humidity.

 

[dward51]

White rice in the salt shaker down south in Georgia also.  Been doing it for decades and still do.

As to how we handle humid summers, it's with lots of cold beer and air conditioning.

 

[mike johnson]

my grandma always had a salteen cracker in her sugar.. That brings back good memories :)

 

[shtrdave]

I use my Ninja Blender to mix my rubs in, bought some shaker jars with the metal lids with the holes in from the local restaurant supply shop, I cut a strip of plastic wrap and double and fold over the top and put the lid on and it seems to keep things from clumping.

I like Jeffs recipe but I changed it up to my tastes. I also use one from a site that is called Mark Down Momma and it is really good also, but it needed tweeked to my liking.

 

[garyt]

It will still get hard, I have been drying mine in the oven forever, makes it easier to use but it still gets hard in the container

 

[old bones]

I always make a double batch of Jeff’s Rub and use my hand mixer to mix it.  I keep ours in two large peanut butter jars.  I always add two of those oxy absorber packets to the one jar and first use the one without.  The truth is, I put that rub on most everything so it don’t have time to get hard on me.  I’ve spent more on different rubs than I care to admit and I always come back to this one.     

 

[wingrider]

I use white rice in my salt shaker. The reason I haven't added it to the rub is that I use so much of the rub, I usually take the lid off to dump it on the meat. In fact, I have another shortcut method of coating the meat that yields a result I'm satisfied with, and is easier and less time consuming.

I don't individually take the pieces and rub mustard on them, and then nicely powder them with rub. Nope, used too, not any more. I rinse and drain the meat if I've brined it, and in all cases pat dry. Then I just put all the pieces in a big steel bowl, dump in a bunch of mustard, and then use my hands to flip and flop the pieces around until they are all evenly coated. Almost like "kneading" them. Then I dump in a bunch of whatever rub I'm using, and repeat the mixing/kneading process. Slap the pieces on a rack, and into the smoker they go. Fast, easy, and YUMMY!!!

Like Old Bones I've tried a lot of different rubs, and end up coming back to Jeff's. I'm slowly using up all the rubs I have, mostly by adding them in with Jeff's.

As to heat and humidity, Raleigh has what I call 95/95 days. 95° and 95% humidity. I'm with Dave, you handle it with lots of air conditioning. In my case I also handle it by getting on the motorcycle, heading to the mountains, and not coming down off the mountain until way after dark.

 

[humdinger]

We have similar dog days in the summer, especially around the 4th of July, where the heat and humidity are unbearable. That's when we're referred to as "Michissippi"!

 

[mcockrell]

We have similar dog days in the summer, especially around the 4th of July, where the heat and humidity are unbearable. That's when we're referred to as "Michissippi"!

Hahaha!! i like this :)

it definitely gets humid here, no question.

 

[paul catt]

I just got done making some rub and my brown sugar was clumped up bad ...the Nija worked great on it ... I live in NC too and all my spices seem to clump

 

[chef jimmyj]

The fine cornmeal sounds interesting, after all they mix 3% Cornstarch into 10X Powdered Sugar to keep it from clumping. If all I have is Brown Sugar, I dry it at 200*F as stated above but I switched over to Turbinado, aka Sugar in the Raw, a year ago and have not looked back. No clumps, no burning and good flavor on the meat...JJ