A beef brisket flat with heavy rub, before (above) and after (below) cooking.
Briners beware of double salt jeopardy!
Rubs are a great way to add flavor to meat. Brines are also a great way to add flavor as well as moisture. Rubs often contain a lot of salt (click here to read about The Zen of Salt). You can use both a rub and a brine, but beware of double salt jeopardy. If you use a brine and then a rub, you should make your own rub mix and leave the salt out of the blend. A salty rub on top of brined meat can make the meat unbearably salty. Never brine meat that is labeled "enhanced" or "flavor enhanced" or "self-basting" or "basted" because they have been injected with a salt solution. Remember, you can always add salt, but there's no taking it away.
Big Bad Beef Rub
In Texas many barbecue joints use just plain old salt and pepper, called Dalmatian rub. But beef brisket can and BBQ beef ribs handle, and benefit from, a more potent mix. The rub creates a rich, flavorful, crunchy crust, called the bark or Mrs. Brown.
Beef rub is different than pork rub. Pork loves sweetness, but beef does not. The best pork rubs have of more sugar in them, like Meathead's Memphis Dust. Black pepper, on the other hand, works great with beef.
You can make this recipe days or weeks in advance. It makes more than you need for even a large brisket, so you can just put it in a clean jar or zipper bag.
Recipe
Makes. About half a cup Preparation time. About 10 minutes
Ingredients
3 tablespoon coarsely ground black pepper
2 tablespoons table salt
2 teaspoons chili or ancho powder
1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 teaspoon cayenne or chipotle powder
2 teaspoons mustard powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
Do this 1) Mix the ingredients together in a bowl.
2) Lightly oil the meat with vegetable oil. Many of the flavors in the rub are oil soluble and the oil helps penetrate the meat. So does the salt, so don't leave it out. Spread the rub generously on beef brisket, not so thick on other, thinner cuts. You can apply it just before cooking or let it marinate on the meet overnight. Heck, I've left meat sit under this stuff for days. Fact is it doesn't penetrate a lot, but every little bit helps.
This page was revised 3/20/2009
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