Beef and steak rub
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Rub
- 40 g coarse salt rounded
- 35 g coarse black pepper rounded
- 25 g sweet paprika rounded
- 20 g coarsely ground coffee, a dark roast, ground for a cafetiere rather than espresso fine rounded
- 15 g cocoa powder, unsweetened, and it will not taste of chocolate rounded
- 12 g dark brown sugar, very little, because beef is usually cooked hot rounded
- 12 g garlic granules rounded
- 8 g onion granules rounded
- 5 g cayenne rounded
Method
Method
- Mix it and keep it coarse. Do not blitz it fine, because the grit is doing structural work in the crust.
- On a steak, apply just before it goes on the heat, not hours ahead. Coffee and cocoa go dusty and stale on a wet surface over time.
- On beef ribs or a chuck roast, apply the night before, which is a long enough cook for the salt to matter more than the freshness of the coffee.
Why coffee and cocoa
Neither is there to taste of itself, and if you can identify them the ratio is wrong. Both bring bitterness and a deep roasted aroma, and on beef those read as the crust being better browned than it actually is. It is the same trick as a dark stock or a splash of soy in a stew.
Cocoa also contributes body. It is roughly a fifth fat, and it clings to a wet steak surface in a way pure spice powder does not.
Notes
- Grind matters more than brand. Espresso-fine coffee packs into a bitter mud on the surface. Cafetiere grind stays as distinct grit.
- Keep the sugar low. Steak is cooked as hot as the pan will go, and this is not the place for a sweet rub.
- It is excellent on mushrooms and aubergine, which take to the same bitter roasted register.
- It keeps three months. Ground coffee goes stale faster than any spice in the jar, and that is the limiting ingredient.
Ingredient substitutions
- Dutch process cocoa is less acidic and darker and is the better choice here. Natural cocoa is sharper and slightly fruity.
- Instant espresso powder at half the weight works and dissolves rather than sitting as grit, which some people prefer and which loses the texture.