Trying 8 different rubs

[Q_Egg]

The Spice House Bronzeville rub sounds very interesting as I keep searching for the 'perfect' rib rub.
Now using Jay's (Spicewine) recommended salt mixture, then John Henry's Pecan Rub / Sugar Maple Rub combo. Results this weekend (also using CYM _ Worcestershire slather) were darn good but still needing something ????? :heh:

Thanks for the neat test ....

 

[Scottie]

Probably some, maybe not others. The rib tips or country style ribs suggestions are probably good for an alternate for ground pork. Ground pork is just cheap and easy to work with. I thought it was a good place to start. I wanted to mostly taste the rub and not the meat. Maybe I'll use ribs when I get a good handle on what I like.... Its going to be a long process. Luckily no looser so far.

Oh, and I did do it mostly blind. I typically looked up the color coding for each after I took 1/2 bite. I need to take more detailed notes and act like those wine tasters I see on TV swishing it around in my mouth. But, there was only so much dorkyness I was willing to display in front of my wife.

Try country style ribs. I've tried to sample on ground pork and I believe that it took the salt too much and I wasn't getting a good read on flavors. So I started using countrystule rib and rib tips. Rib tips are cheap in Chicagoland, so that is my new method for sampling.

 

[darthtrader]

I'm with MikeTRON. A group of people and one meat rather than simulating with ground pork. Fat content, cook time and such may be not be ideal for each rub. It's an interesting thing about rubs. I know that Big Bob Gibson's rub, for instance, tastes completely different on a low and slow butt than it does on spareribs. Great thread! It's good to see this done from an analytical approach. I don't know if I misread or not, but did you happen to make a patty with just salt and pepper for a 'control'? I'm totally going to do this too now.

 

[bigabyte]

That's the reason I used to use either parted out butts or country style ribs. At 250 they took up to 6 hours to cook, which for the purpose of my experiments was as close to a long low and slow cook that I could reproduce without actually cooking a crazy number of butts to to sample a taste of each. Granted, the experiments I were doing was to see if they burnt or lost flavor...but still...it's possible the rubs might taste different after being on a piece of meat in your cooker at 250 for 6 hours until the meat hits an internal temp of 200 as opposed to making pork patties in (I'm guessing) an hour or less with an internal temp of maybe 160.

 

[Gowan]

Try country style ribs. I've tried to sample on ground pork and I believe that it took the salt too much and I wasn't getting a good read on flavors. So I started using countrystule rib and rib tips. Rib tips are cheap in Chicagoland, so that is my new method for sampling.

Agreed - that's what I use for pork tests. CSR are usually nothing more than cut-up butts anyway, so they make for a convenient, inexpensive test medium.

 

[---k---]

Q-Egg. Try the Bronzeville. It was tasty; a little pricey compared to some of the others out there. But, they'll tell you that you're paying for the freshness. I'm running out, but I'll definitely pick-up some more. And at Christmas, I'm going to make sure I'm home home on a day the grocery store is open so I can buy all things Rasta Joe.



Everyone else, Okay Okay, I'll try country style ribs next time! You've convinced me! I'll try and do 4 rubs this weekend on some country style ribs.

Then, I need to use up some of the rubs I have so that I can order some more kinds to play with!