The “Hog Heaven”is labeled as competition rub.  Don’t let that designation scare you off.  If you get a chance to try them I think you’ll be happy…even if you’re just cooking in your backyard.  Just an added note to all rub makers:  Drop the “competition” label off your packaging if you want to sell to the wider backyarder market.  It’s just a guess, but I think you’re losing market share with the competition designation.  Lot’s of people win with “non competition” rubs.

The first thing you’ll notice, about “Hog Heaven”, is that for a rub it’s loaded with much more herbs than I normally expect to see in this type of rub.  I love the herbal flavors mixed with the more tradition rub ingredients.  One thing to remember when using this rub!  It comes packaged in a mylar bag type of package (which I prefer) but you’ve got to mix the rub up.  The herbs have a tendency to settle at the top of the package and if you don’t mix them up you’ll get a load of herbs without the other ingredients.  This shouldn’t be much a problem because you should always shake and/or mix your rubs before applying anyway.

I try to test most of the rubs I receive on pork ribs, this gives me a good basis for comparison between the various rubs.  So first up was “Hog Heaven” and since it’s called a rib rub I figured there wasn’t much sense in changing my normal pattern.  I gave a couple racks of pork ribs, trimmed to St. Louis cut a good dose of the rub.

You’ll notice in the picture the nice layer of herbs mixed with the other rub ingredients.  In the end this will give you a nice flavor to your ribs.  Although I did lightly sauce the ribs I think they would be perfectly good with no sauce at all.  I’d give them a try naked to see how you like them before saucing.  And I think a sauce less on the sweet side would match this rub very well.

I also tried “Hog Heaven” on some grilled chicken.  And I let me tell you!  This is an outstanding rub for chicken.  I didn’t smoke the chicken, which would be the more traditional way with a rub.  I grilled it instead.  No sauce…just rub and some heat.  It was fantastic.  I think I actually prefer this on chicken.  And I can already tell, even though I didn’t try it, that it would compliment fish too.

If you are using this rub on any meat and planning to use a direct heat cooking method make sure you monitor your heat.  Different ingredients in different rubs and seasonings burn at different temperatures.  The herbs in this rub will burn quicker than most rub ingredients (because they’re herbs) so just watch you food and keep the temperature in a moderate range and you’ll be just fine.

The “Raging Bull” beef rub is closer to a traditional rub than the “Hog Heaven,” but it has some different flavor profiles than most beef rubs out there.  One main ingredient, which I’m not going to share, is used in some great steak recipes in some of the best steak houses, so you aren’t going to go wrong.  But be warned it isn’t want you might expect.  If you look at the rub to the right you might be able to pick out some of the ingredients that are a little different.

I don’t know for sure what Steve had in mind for this rub, probably brisket, but I used a chuck roast for my test run.  And it worked fantastic.  Nice bark and more importantly a very nice flavor that just made the beef flavor in the roast jump.  I really like this rub.  It will go on my list of rubs I purchase.

Above you can see the rub when it was first applied to the chuck roast (Left) and then after a couple hours in the smoke(right).  The bark started to form almost immediately.  What was fantastic about this was the flavor of the bark really added to the overall flavor of the meat after I pulled it.

We used the pulled beef in some very nice tacos. (which I forgot to take pictures of).

You can purchase both these rubs from Great Lakes BBQ Supply and I suggest you do.

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2011 Larry Gaian

After a exchanging a few tweets the offer was made to send me some product to try out.  And a few days later a bottle of Willie’s Hog Dust appeared in my mailbox.

One of the traits that perplexes me about rub makers is the tendency to sometimes use animals in the title of their product.  Let’s use Willie’s Hog Dust as an example.  If I saw this on the shelf I’d think it was only good for pork.  And that would be a shame because it’s great on beef.

I checked out Willie’s website and it mentioned using it on steaks.  So I thought let’s give it a good test and I smoked up a rack of center cut, beef back ribs.  And let me tell you, those were some fine beef ribs.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the “hog dust” was how fine the rub had been ground.  It may be the finest grind I’ve ever seen in a BBQ rub.  I wasn’t quite sure what this would mean when it actually came to using the rub, but I soon learned.

It’s hard to tell from the picture, because there is no frame of reference, but Willie’s Hog Dust makes rubbin down your meat easier.  I never thought I would consider that to be an andvantage when buying a rub, but I think it is.

The reason it’s called “rub” is because the expectation is you’re going to rub the seasoning into the meat.  With a lot of rubs it takes some effort and maybe extra rub to get all the meat covered and the seasonings worked into the meat.  With Willie’s Hog Dust it really did require less effort to get good coverage on the meat.  When you’re only doing one or two racks of ribs or pork butts this might not seem like a big deal, but if you’re prepping large amounts of meat this is a huge benefit.

The flavor of this rub is fantastic.  It has a slight “peppery” overall flavor that compliments the meat without covering the “meat” taste.  I really like this rub and can see how it would be great on a variety of meats, not just pork and beef.

Willie’s Hog Dust is all natural.  While it’s not sodium free it does contain less salt than most rubs.  It’s also MSG and Gluten free, both of which  are rare in the BBQ rub industry.

The beef ribs tasted amazing and I ate them without any sauce at all. Finding a rub that allows you to eat your ribs without sauce is a good thing.

Visit their website for more information and where to purchase it.

Yesterday a package of goodies arrived from them for me to test and review. One of the items in the box was a “Get Your Butt In Shape” seasoning and sauce kit. The box includes everything you need to crank out a first rate smoked pork butt.

This kit was one of the best products I saw at the show. It contains a jar of rub, a bottle of sauce and an injector for injecting your butt before you put it on the smoker. For those who don’t know how to cook a smoked pork butt this kit will give you a great basis for a start into the work pulled pork.

I’ll be testing and reviewing a variety of rubs and sauces from Papaw Tom’s over the next month or so. But in the mean time I thought it might be a great idea to have a little contest. Would you like a chance to win the “Get Your Butt In Shape” kit?

Here’s how it’s going to work. Leave a comment here, leave a comment on Facebook and you’ll get an entry in the drawing. You can also get an entry by becoming a Twitter follower and for each Re-Tweet of one of my Tweets about this blog post. On February 15th I’ll draw a name and they’ll get the kit.

Click here to follow The BBQ Grail on Twitter.

Click here to become a Fan of The BBQ Grail.

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.

Let me get the negative out of the way first.  The packaging stinks.  The rub comes in a sealed mylar bag.  The bag is a pain to deal with when trying to rub the ribs and doesn’t fit well on a shelf with all the other rubs.  They need to use good old, regular bottles.  I’ve already put the remainder of mine in a leftover bottle I have.

The rub has a nice combination of sugar and paprika. That along with the garlic gives the rub a really nice aroma when the back is first opened.

I really liked how as the ribs smoked the rub gave the ribs a nice deep red color. This may not seem important, but many times rubs just seem to fade into the meat and having an appealing color to your finished meat is important.

You can really see the color in this picture after about five hours of cooking. As the meat started to pull back from bones the bark just intensified.

I glazed the ribs with a sweeter BBQ sauce thinned with a little apple juice. I didn't want to cover up the rub flavor. The flavor of the ribs was fantastic. The rub flavor is some what mild. For those who enjoy a spicy rib rub this one might provde to be a little to mild, but should please the tastebuds of many. You can order RSS Rib Rub from www.greatlakesbbqsupply.com

If you are not familiar with “Santa Maria” style tri-tips you are missing a treat.  There are variety of excellent histories on the internet.  One of the best can be found at: http://www.lospadrescounty.net/et/smbbq.html

My first impression upon opening the bottle for the first time was that it was loaded with garlic.  Maybe too much.  I love garlic, as much as the next guy, but the garlic smell was a little overpowering.  I ventured forth and seasoned my tri-tip with a good dose of the seasoning.  In the end my fear of  to much garlic was unfounded.  It was perfect

As you can see there are a variety of other seasoning in addition to the garlic, salt and pepper you would normally expect to see.  Once it was on the meat and had sat there for a while it because to take on a nice little “crust” for lack of a better term.

I used by new 26 inch Weber kettle with a full chimney of hot coals on one end to give the tri-tip a good sear. I think the sear is vital to pulling out the full range of flavors from both the meat and the seasoning.  The “Santa Maria Style” seasoning gave the crisp (burnt) edges a wonderful flavor that screamed grilled perfection.

After searing both sides for about four minutes each I shifted the meat to the far end of the grate and added a couple chunks of almond, if  I had oak I would have used it, but I didn’t, where I cooked it indirect until it reach 140 degrees.

I normally like to baste my tri-tips with a little butter during the indrect cooking time so I took a stick of butter and melted it with a heaping tablespoon of the seasoning.  What a wonderful flavor this gave the meat.

Once the meat was to the desired temp I stuck it over the hot coals for a minute or so on each side to “crisp” up the butter and then let it rest for 15 minutes.

This was a wonderful way to cook a tri-tip.  The new seasoning from The Rub Co., is a welcome addition to an already fully stocked seasoning shelf in the pantry.

If you want to really bring out the flavor your beef products and give it the Santa Maria style treatment then give it a try.

You can purchase all their products direct from www.therubco.com

Started with a nice sized whole chicken:

Seasoned it up with Steph’s new rub and tossed it on the WSM. The rub has some nice flavors. Not just spices, there’s some herbs in there too:

What also made this a special cook was the wood I got to used. I got a care package from Roy (keale) last week. Loaded with seasoned guava. Let me tell you, this wood is great. Has a nice sweet aroma while smoking and it complimented Steph’s rub very well.

Here’s the bird half way through:

Glazed the bird with a little of BBS’s new BBQ sauce:

It looked so good I gave it another coating just before serving:

Toss it on a plate with some rice pilaf and salad:

Steph’s sauce and Poultry Rub is first rate. Awesome stuff. They both compliment each other very nicely. I’m thinking of smoking a whole turkey and will be giving the rub another good testing.

If you’d like to purchase some of these great new products send an email to: simplymarvelousbbq@yahoo.com

I’ve got a huge problem with Plowboy BBQ’s Yardbird Rub.

It’s too good.

I am a charter member of the BBQ Brethren Forum and, due to some family circumstances, I recently took a two year sabbatical from the website. During the time away I started collecting various spices and rubs to use in satisfying my BBQ cravings. Upon my return to activity on the forum I kept reading about this fantastic new rub produced by Plowboys BBQ. I had to try it and after ordering it I’ve come to the conclusion that it was a huge mistake.

After using Yardbird on a beer can chicken and a batch of smoked chicken thighs my family won’t eat chicken with anything else on it. Now I’ve got a pantry full of rubs that rarely get used. I’ve tried to sneak something else past their taste buds, but for the most part the results have not been met with any success.

If that wasn’t enough i tried Plowboy’s Yardbird Rub on my pork ribs once and now not only do I get to do chicken with this magic powdered dust it’s normally requested on my ribs. I’ve got a fresh salmon filet in the fridge and I’m afraid to use Plowboy on it out of fear it’s that good on fish also.

Plowboy’s Yardbird rub was developed for competition bbq but for those of us that are just backyard bbq geeks it gives us the opportunity to produce award winning bbq without the competition. The savory rub, with a touch of sweetness is followed on the back of the tongue with just a little heat.

I don’t know if there is a perfect bbq rub, but if Plowboy’s Yardbird rub isn’t it, I can’t imagine anything else better.

Plowboy’s Yardbird Rub: The Official Rub of the Gaian Family

Yardbird Rub is available at Hawkeyes BBQ.