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Santé offers the finest cast iron finish with a beautiful enamel coating to create a perfect cooking surface that will last for generations. It cooks as well as it looks!
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Home Pro Staff Joe Archer Rub It In, Rub It In

Rub It In, Rub It In
 
Rub It In, Rub It In

Back in the 60's, they said that a little dab of Brylcreem rubbed into your hair would make all the difference in your social life. A nice Brylcreem rub (they said) would "make you debonair" and the "gals would all pursue ya." Well, I don't have much need for Brylcreem these days and quite some time ago Kathy not only pursued, but caught, me; but I did learn in my youth that a nice little rub could be a good thing.

We just smoked some of our best ribs ever, and I think the rub we used was a big part of our success. A good rub put on a good piece of meat before it's placed in the smoker can season the meat perfectly and will help to seal in the juices. Most rubs will not burn (like a sauce will), and I'm now convinced that smoked pork rib perfection will most likely result from a good rub to start with and a good sauce at the end.

Kathy just made our favorite rub ever. She likes to season pork with a sugar-based rub and beef with a salt-based rub. Here's what we used for the pork:

Kathy's Rib Rub

1/2 cup Durkee's Grill Sensations "Citrus Rub"
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/4 cup salt
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
2 teaspoons coarse (or freshly ground) black pepper

The ingredients in the Grill Sensations product include salt, pepper, garlic, red pepper, lemon rind, etc., and you could certainly put together your own, but we like to simplify where we can.

I rubbed this mixture on three racks of baby back ribs after they had been out of the package for about an hour. After rubbing it in, I placed them in a 350 degree smoker for an hour, making sure the smoker was up to temperature and smoking well before placing the ribs into it. After an hour, we reduced the heat to about 250 degrees and smoked the baby backs for about three more hours. We served Big Joe's BBQ Sauce on the side - about half of the people just ate them plain.

Have I ever had better? Perhaps a few times in my life, but certainly not recently. I knew the ribs were a success when I watched my 12 year-old nephew, Josh, eating ribs as fast as he could and making a noise somewhere between a growl and a hum. As you can tell from Josh's photo, with this great rub, we had really put out a heck of a rib. I hope you'll give it a try.

Big Joe

Josh
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