I recently attended the “Fancy Food Show” in San Francisco and had an opportunity of meet lots of great BBQ people. One of my favorites were the guys at Jake’s. And I came away with a sample of Jake’s Steak, Rib & Tri-Tip Rub.
Tri-Tip is one of my favorite cuts of beef to cook outdoors. There are a variety of different “tri-tip” rubs on the market today. Some good, some bad. Most of these tri-tip rubs are a Santa Maria type seasonings of some form or another. Now there’s nothing wrong with Santa Maria style seasonings but there are only so many things you can do with salt, pepper, parsley and garlic. It does get a little boring after awhile.
On their website Jake’s calls their rub a “Santa Maria” style rub, but they’ve added a little twist that allows the rub to work on ribs and steak as well. My preferred method of cooking tri-tip is to sear and smoke the meat. Normally, I’ll sear the tri-tip and then move the meat to a “low & slow” method with some wood smoke. The high heat from the sear part of the process sometimes causes a bitter aftertaste. You don’t get that with Jake’s.
In addition to the normal salt, pepper, garlic and parsley you’ll find in traditional Santa Maria rubs you can see other herbs and spices in Jake’s. The tarragon and oregano gives the rub a nice additional flavor level. The rub has an excellent balance between the salt and pepper in the rub. What’s nice is that you can’t really taste any one flavor. They blend together into a unique flavor that compliments the “beef” flavor that tri-tip is well known for.
I really loved the color it gave the tri-tip after the sear and a couple hours of 225 degree heat and smoke. The marbling color and meat color gave the meat a fantastic appearance.
I decided the best way to try out the overall flavor of the meat was a tri-tip sandwich. I nice heaping pile of thinly sliced meat on top of toasted bun with a large dollop of bbq sauce. The flavor was fantastic. Without a doubt Jake’s has a winner here. Jake’s recommends this rub for just about anything including vegetables. I for one can’t wait to try it on ribs.
This rub is also gluten and msg free.
You can order Jake’s online directly from Jake’s . It’s also available at select retail outlets. You can find a listing on the website also.
