Lets face it, rubs are important. Almost as important as not screwing up the fire. I am a rub user, as are most of the pit masters out there. For the new recruits, a rub is exactly what it says. Rubbing the meat with spices in order to get a good flavor into it! I am going to share with you, some of my techniques, and a couple secrets, to help get you started.
We need to think about flavors that will work for you. Most rubs usually include a sugar, salt, some form of pepper, paprika, and whatever else you decide you want to put in it. The salt is used to help maintain the moisture in the meat, and the sugars (aside from being yummy) give it a nice bark as well.
Talking to a few Texans I managed to learn a few things. One, true "Texas" BBQ is not sauced during cooking, if at all. Some places only serve sauce on teh side, and the reason for that is people from other parts of the country complain there is no sauce. I agree with part of this, I never sauce while cooking, only when served. Heck, I spent time getting the rub just right, why go and ruin it with a sauce?
In Memphis, ribs get no sauce. Hell, they don't need sauce, their rub makes up for it. They use a brown sugar, paprika, salt, pepper, chili powder, and garlic powder base. This is the style of most of my rubs as well. I like the flavor the brown sugar gives, and it helps add a nice bark to the meat. The bark will help hold some of the juice in and make the meat that much more tender.
So, here goes the way I do it, and I will explain each step along the way, just so you can get a grasp of whats going on.
First, select your piece of meat. Whether it be a pork shoulder or a brisket, the explanation here will help for both. If you are using a brisket, I believe the best cut to use is a full packer brisket, which means it has the flat and the point. The flat is the part for sliced brisket, the point is where your burnt ends comes from. Make sure you have something with a nice fat flap on the back, and some decent marbling of fat throughout. You need the fat to breakdown and help maintain the moisture as well as flavor.
Now that we have our cur of meat, make sure it is dry from the blood in the package (dab it with a paper towel if need be). On the fatty back part, score the fat in a lattice design. This will allow the rub to get down in there a bit more and the fat will disperse more. Here comes the weird part for those not up on BBQ standards. With both hands, rub a nice smooth coat of yellow mustard over the whole brisket. Trust me on this, you will not taste it, the flavor cooks out. This will help glue the rub to the meat. After it is covered with a nice coat of yellow mustard, give it a nice covering of your favorite rub. Which ever you prefer. It can be store bought that's fine as well.
Get your smoker up to the desired temperature ( I prefer about 240º), make sure the grate is clean and place your meat on it, fat side up. You want the fat side up so that it can drip down through the meat and around the sides. I recommend using a drip pan right under your meat so that you can save some of those drippings if possible. Especially if you are going to slice your meat, and need to keep some moisture in it( we will go over that another day though).
Make sure your cook area stays at 240º. Remember, figure 1-1.5 hours for each pound of meat. Make sure your wood is in the firebox for the added flavor. When the internal reaches about 185º I take mine out, wrap it up and let it finish cooking on its own for the next hour. This will also allow the meat to reabsorb the juice so it is tender.
Try this out and let me know what you think.
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