Rubs and worthless bbq rituatals

[Soybomb]

As I've beean learning a little more at bbq and, I like to think, learning how to cook it better, I've come to the conclusion there are lots of old customs or rituatials that people have with the cooking that don't necessarily add anything to the finished product. I'm not convinced a mop or baste is worth anything, I still don't understand why some people wash their meat out of the package, etc. A lot of these things seem to be like things that just caught on even if not accurate like the don't rinse mushrooms and "searing locks in the juices." To that end I'm looking at rubs as I'm developing some of my own.

We know that some flavors don't stand up to heat well. For example one of my favorite rubs from a commercial bbq guy says it uses mustard powder, but its also commonly accepted that a mustard slather will be flavorless at the end of the cook. If the mustard loses its flavor during the cook, why are we putting it in our rub? I'd like to start running some experiments of my own but to that end take a look at the wonderful tests done by the guy here http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18492

It seems like most rubs are going to wind up with 25% or most chilli powder, paprika, and other assorted spices that lose most or all of their flavor during a long cook. Many even wind up seeming to leave a burnt or bitter taste. So why bother? I'm starting to think maybe I should be developing a two pronged approach. Work up a nice rub with sugar, salt, black pepper as a base, add additional flavors for the meat in question like rosemary, cumin, thyme if the spice can handle the cook, then have a finishing dust that contains the more delicate flavors like onion, mustard, and chili. I don't know about the rest of you but when I make something like pulled pork, I often don't much additional rub in it after pulling because while a little more spice might be nice, I don't want to change the sugar or salt level.

What do you guys all think?

[killswitch505]

I with you 100% Soybomb but a rituatial is a rituatial and most people wont change there habits. One thing I have learned while I’ve been cooking anything more then 5 ingredients is a waste of time and money.

A little side story. I had been making salsa and it was pretty damn good (about 10-12 ingredients). One day one of the guys here at work brings in some salsa and it was F N great so I asked him what was in it he said guess I started naming off ingredients (about 15 of them) he said yes to only 4 so I asked what else he said nothing just Jalapeños, tomatoes, garlic and salt. “white people mess everything up try and add to much $hit most of us are were raised poor so we didn’t have all the extra $hit”
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Club Disco

[Pit Boss]

[CliffC]

The author of of the link you posted is also a member here-

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1110&sid=0a99458ab5dccd8877a7900d8b7ee459

I am interested in any follow up he may have done, since the post you cite is 5 years old. Perhaps a PM or email?

[Alien BBQ]

To give you the short version of some of the whys......

Mustard Slather: It does loose it flavor during LONG cooks so it is used as a tenderizer and mostly as BBQ glue to hold your spices on and create bark.

Washing your meat: If you have ever been to a processing plant you will understand this one.

Patting it dry: helps in the caramelization of the sugars during braising of meat.

Too many spices: I am with you on this one until we are really talking about layers of flavors and flavor profiles. This practice is a difficult one to master and many chefs haven't got a clue. Think of it this way, as you smell, bite, chew, savor, swallow, and reflect on what you just ate, do you want a trip down a culinary lane or do you just want to mash it all together and inhale it with a cheap beer chaser?

Spicing pulled pork after pulling it: ...... well it depends on what your brownies taste like. Sometimes I will add just a little, sometimes I will add Alien Butt Juice. It all depends what you are looking for.

Filler spices: Just that, filler..... if you don't need them, then why use them.

Sugar or sugary sauces going on during the last 20 minutes of (grilling) Sugar does burn so if you don't want a piece of meat that looks like meteor don't violate this rule. Now when it comes to smoking, things are different. If you know what you are doing and am not using processed table sugar then you can get some great results.

Finally, see if you can get bigabyte to re-post one his and mine experiments from 2005. I will try to find it, but he did some great work when we were both looking for something different.
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