Okay, so summer is too quickly coming to a close in Michigan. Sigh. It’s always too quickly. So, you say, what the heck are you doing posting a barbeque dry rub now? Well, I have excuses for that…

First, I have been working on this one off and on through the summer. I’ve tested variations of it on Chicken, burgers, and pork. It’s all been good – just not quite where I wanted it to be. See, I’m a fan of a certain “Famous” person’s rib rub. If you’ve ever bought it, or anything like that, you know it can get pretty pricey. I found a recipe on the internet (actually there were several) that claim to be “it”. Sorry. Not in my book. I found what I thought was the closest one, and mixed it up. OMG – it was SOOO salty, I don’t know how anyone could eat it. I’m pretty sure my tongue started to cure. But it wasn’t just that. The flavor was just not right and the color was all wrong. I started thinking maybe it should have tomato powder or something. Wrong. Well maybe the real thing has it, but I don’t think so. What was plainly and obviously the biggest thing missing was paprika. I mean, it’s one of the main ingredients listed on the jar, but there was none in many of these internet versions. There was something else missing too, but I couldn’t put my finger on it until I bought a little gift for my son.

See, he is one of the biggest bacon fanatics I know (along with my daughter). I happened to run across bacon salt one day, so I picked it up as a token thanks for him putting up with me staying at his house three nights a week at the time. His girlfriend made some homemade potato chips one night and just put that on them instead of plain salt. Whoa.

So, I went back to tweak the rub again….aaaand couldn’t get my hands on any bacon salt. Fine. I went with smoked paprika. I would say you could easily use either one. Or, hey, just use both! Just remember if you use the bacon salt, or any smoked salt, reduce the quantity of your other salt. Remember, this is my version, balanced the way we like it. Your tastes may be different. You can easily add more or less of anything. More chili powder and cayenne would give it more tex-mex flavor, for example. Some might like more salt, some might just like more sugar. Just remember, it’s the sugar that carmelizes (and also burns easier) so be careful! I would make small adjustments first.

My other main reason for doing this now was because I just tried pulled pork from the slow cooker. Not quite the same as slow roasted on the grill, but pretty darned good. And around here, if you can work in a taste of summer in the middle of the winter, it helps keep your sanity, especially during those last 6-8 weeks of winter. That is my next post. It will give you time to mix up this rub. 🙂