Brine and rub butts together?

[Aceman]

Step 2- "Rinse and thoroughly dry the meat. Salt it. If you have the time salt it 12 to 24 hours in advance. Called*dry brining, this gives the salt a chance to start penetrating. The rub will not penetrate, but the salt will. Just before cooking, wet the surface with water to help the rub dissolve and adhere. Water dissolves the rub better than oil."

My question- is he putting the brine and rub on together, or is he saying to dry brine, rinse off with water and then apply rub? I thought you'd dry brine, rinse off the *brine and then apply the rub. I know there's 100's of ways to do this, but help me on THIS one specifically please!

Thanks, Aceman

 

[thesemicullen]

Not having a link to your source, I'm not sure exactly what you're completely talking about, but what you should do, if you're going to "dry brine," is this:

1 - Rub well with salt only. The salt will penetrate. Other spices won't, so it doesn't make any sense to put them on at this point.

2 - Rinse off excess salt after X amount of time. Most of it will probably have dissolved anyway. I don't find this step to be all that necessary when you've salted a large piece of meat for an extended period of time.

3 - Apply your rub (which should probably be salt free since you went an applied all that salt in advance).

The guy's comment, "Water dissolves the rub better than oil" is utter nonsense. Most spices are far more fat soluble than water soluble, but it really doesn't matter. All you need is a moist surface to which the rub will adhere. That's the important thing.

 

[Bludawg]

Why not get a ham instead

 

[quamdar]

Sounds to me like a salt only dry brine followed by a salt free rub right before cooking.