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Tips from the pros
Addicted to rub
By Pete and Melissa Cookston
Yazoo’s Delta Q BBQ Team
Dry Rubs, or seasoning blends, are often overlooked by both competition and amateur cooks in favor of the ubiquitous wet sauce. Go to most grocery or even specialty stores and you will see wet sauce outnumbering dry rubs five or even ten to one. Make no mistake, dry rubs put your competition meat into contention or turn your backyard cookout into the toast of the neighborhood. Dry rubs are the base flavor you will give your product and, when used properly, will augment and compliment your sauces.
There are many types of commercially available dry rubs, so if you’re a novice to BBQ you would be well advised to start with some of the more well known brands and experiment. However, for the competition cook, your rub becomes your personal statement about BBQ. Like many of you, I read this publication, the online message boards, and talk with a large number of BBQ cooks. While there is a lot of information about where to buy rubs, there are also a lot of great beginning recipes. For us, competition is not only about creating great food, it’s about creating OUR great food. We want a unique flavor profile, and that begins with us creating our own seasoning blend. There are many recipes out there to give you an idea of a beginning. Try one and start experimenting! A couple of quick notes about recipe scaling: as you increase a recipe, slightly decrease the salt by volume, as it will overpower the larger you scale your recipe; some ingredients, like cinnamon, will stand out even through the cooking process while others, like basil, will soften through the cooking process. You may need to adjust the amounts of these ingredients depending on the profile you are looking to impart. Fresh seasonings and ingredients are of the utmost importance due to the decrease in flavor with aging. Dry rubs should not overpower, or overwhelm with a singular flavor. For example, some dried chilies can add spice and a nice aroma to your rub. Add too much, and you will quickly smother any other sultry flavors.
BBQ rubs can be used for many other meats and dishes as well. Some of our friends have reported eating our rub on chicken, steaks, fish, eggs, and simply with a spoon. I’m pretty sure that’s a compliment….at least I hope so. As there are two members of our team, we each have our own recipe, and guess which one we use for competition? You got it, hers.
BBQ as an Endurance Sport?
We formerly thought Covington TN, the World’s Oldest BBQ Contest, was always the hottest contest we had ever endured back when it was held in the middle of July. One old BBQ’er once told me “You ain’t a real Q’er unless you can cook Covington.” Then we entered the two-day, MBN Championship/ Tennessee Funfest this year. At the MBN Championship on Friday, sanctioned contest champions competed in 98 degree, no shade, 105 heat index weather. Then we turned around and did it again on Saturday! Congratulations to all the teams that earned the right to compete, and toughed out the incredible weekend. It was truly brutal!
Going KC?
We have always been Memphis style competitors. Lately, however, we have been stepping over to the other side and have entered some KCBS contests. While we don’t get the adrenaline rush from doing on-site judging and finals, it is awfully nice to have something different to eat- we are not tired of brisket and chicken…yet. We appreciate meeting all the new people and teams and really like the new cooking challenge. If you see us at an event please stop by and say hello, as we are always eager to talk bbq and enjoy making new bbq friends.
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