Barbecue dry rubs, by ratio

Method

1. Mix the sugar in last and break the lumps. Brown sugar clumps, and a lump on the meat becomes a burnt spot.
2. Store airtight and dark. Anything with sugar in it draws moisture and will set solid in a humid cupboard. A bay leaf in the jar helps.
3. Apply generously and early. For anything over 2 kg, rub it the night before and leave it uncovered in the fridge, which dries the surface and gives better bark.

The table

Parts are by weight, relative to 3 parts salt.

For	Sugar	Paprika	Add	Leave out	Cook below
Beef brisket	0	0 to 1	nothing; salt and pepper is the whole rub	sugar entirely	any temperature
Beef ribs, steak	0.5	2	1 part ground coffee, 1 part cocoa	most of the sugar	160°C
Pork shoulder	2	3	1 part mustard powder	nothing	150°C
Pork ribs	3	3	1 part celery salt	nothing	135°C
Chicken	1	3	1 part dried thyme, 1 part lemon zest	most of the sugar	180°C
Salmon and firm fish	1	1	2 parts dried dill, 2 parts lemon zest, 1 part fennel	cayenne, paprika mostly	200°C
Jerk, dry version	1	1	4 parts allspice, 2 parts thyme, 1 part cinnamon, 2 parts cayenne	nothing	160°C

The same idea, in other countries

American barbecue rubs are one branch of a much older habit. Nearly every cuisine has a dry blend rubbed onto meat before fire, and most of them are built on the same four slots: salt, something red, something warm, something aromatic. What changes is which.

Blend	From	Built on	Rub it on
Baharat	Levant and Gulf	black pepper, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, clove, paprika	lamb, chicken, mince, roast vegetables
Ras el hanout	Morocco	thirty-plus spices; warm, floral, a little bitter	lamb, chicken, carrots, couscous
Berbere	Ethiopia and Eritrea	chilli, fenugreek, ajwain, warm spices	chicken, lentils, beef, butter
Shichimi togarashi	Japan	chilli, sesame, nori, sanshō, dried citrus peel	chicken skin, salmon, eggs, noodles
Chinese five-spice	China	star anise, fennel, clove, cinnamon, Sichuan pepper	pork belly, duck, ribs
Tandoori masala	North India	paprika, cumin, coriander, garam masala, often with yogurt	chicken, paneer, lamb
Montreal steak spice	Canada	coarse pepper, coriander seed, dill seed, garlic, salt	steak, and it is the coarsest of all of them
Herbes de Provence	France	thyme, rosemary, savory, oregano, sometimes lavender	chicken, lamb, roast vegetables
Suya	West Africa	ground peanut, chilli, ginger, onion powder	beef skewers
Dukkah	Egypt	hazelnut or almond, sesame, cumin, coriander	bread and oil, roast vegetables, lamb

Not all rubs are powder

The two at the bottom of that table break the rule the rest of this page assumes. Suya and dukkah are built on ground nuts and seeds rather than dried spices, and that changes how they behave.

• They burn much faster, because nut oil scorches well below where paprika does. Treat a nut rub like a sugar rub: hot and fast, or added near the end.
• They go rancid rather than stale. A spice blend fades over a year; a nut blend turns bitter in about six weeks. Make them small and keep them cold.
• They are also a dip. Dukkah with olive oil and bread is the usual way it is eaten, and the rub is the secondary use.
• They add texture, not just flavour. This is the thing a powder cannot do, and it is why they go on at the end of a cook rather than the start.

Sugar is the only decision that really matters

Sugar begins to burn at about 160°C. Everything else in the table follows from that one fact.

• Brisket takes no sugar because it cooks for fourteen hours and there is nowhere to hide.
• Ribs take the most because they cook low and slow at 135°C and the sugar caramelises into the glaze rather than burning.
• Chicken takes very little because it is cooked hot enough to render the skin, which is well past where sugar goes bitter.
• Fish takes almost none and cooks hot and fast, so the rub is really a herb and citrus mix with a little salt.

Notes

• Salt is the only ingredient doing chemistry. It draws moisture out, dissolves in it and carries the seasoning back into the meat. Everything else sits on the surface and becomes crust, which is why a rub is a seasoning and not a marinade.
• Coarse over fine, everywhere. Fine powders cake into a paste in the fridge and burn faster. Coarse salt and 16-mesh pepper are what make Texas bark look like Texas bark.
• A binder is optional and does nothing for flavour. Mustard, oil or mayonnaise just help the rub stick. You will not taste any of them afterwards.
• Make small batches. Paprika loses colour and cayenne loses heat within a few months, and this is cheap to remake.

Ingredient substitutions

• Smoked paprika in place of some of the sweet is the honest way to get a smoke note when cooking indoors. Do not use all smoked, which turns acrid over a long cook.
• Coarse salt matters by volume, not weight. If you swap kosher for fine sea salt, weigh it rather than measuring by spoon, or it will be twice as salty.

Sources consulted

• Serious Eats: barbecue dry rub