Grilling Game-Changer: Conquer New Dry Rubs for the Ultimate Game Time Feast in 2024

What Is a Dry Rub?

For those unfamiliar with dry rubs, they’re a blend of peppers, spices, salt and flavorings used to enhance the taste of foods as they cook. Coating meat with dry rub spices then working the seasoning into the raw surface of the cuts infuses the meat with flavor as you grill.

You can buy a wide variety of popular flavor combinations and styles at your local grocery store to suit your individual taste and to complement whatever you’re cooking. Some rubs are simple such as plain Cajun seasoning. Other commercial rubs are complex combinations of ingredients with familiar names such as “Montreal” steak seasoning.

You can also formulate your own rub using your favorite set of ingredients. Experimentation can lead to genius grilling results.

Why Use New Dry Rubs?

Just as your favorite team sticks with their star quarterback, you’re likely accustomed to sticking with your tried and true grilling routines. You may already use dry rubs or marinades to grill awesome foods. If this is you, then using new dry rubs will be a bold new move to change things up for the new season.

If you haven’t been using dry rubs when barbequing, then you can enter a whole new world of grilling awesomeness.

Once you start using tasty rubs as part of your grilling routine, you’ll find yourself wanting to use them more and more. They offer strong advantages that can instantly upgrade and vary your grilling results without much time or trouble.

Here are some advantages of using dry rubs:

• Good dry rubs will enhance the original taste of grilled meats, poultry and fish, complementing their natural flavors instead of covering them up.
• Unlike wet marinades, you don’t have to apply a dry rub to your meat several hours in advance or even overnight. You can use them to season foods just before grilling if you want, or one to four hours beforehand to let the flavors sink in a little.
• Once the dry-rubbed meat hits the preheated grill, it immediately starts to sear on the outside, helping to lock in the juicy, meaty flavor. Wet-marinated foods tend not to sear quite as well because of their moisture content.
• Once the meat has cooked for a while, it will release its juices which will start to blend with the rub, making its own delicious sauce.

Don’t Let Your Grilling Get Boring

Don’t kid yourself, grilling is an art. Surprising your family and guests with new and different flavors will spice up your pre-game cooking routine. You can even think about changing up your rubs based on the location of your team’s opponent.

Although Montreal doesn’t have a football team, New Orleans does. Get it? Cajun rub. St. Louis style ribs use a specific rub and they do have a football team. Texas has lots of rubs and football teams.

Use your imagination and creativity to pick or create a different rub for each game to spice up your weekend game experience. Variety is the spice of life.

How to Make Your Own Dry Rub

Creativity reaches its climax when you create your own dry rub. When a store-bought rub isn’t going to fit the bill for your awesome grilling goals, you can formulate your own dry rub.

Common rub ingredients include:

• Salt – including seasoned salt, pink salt, sea salt and garlic salt.
• Black pepper – fresh ground gives the best and boldest flavor.
• Dried pepper – such as cayenne, chili powder and crushed red pepper.
• Paprika.
• Garlic power and onion powder.
• Mustard powder.
• Brown sugar or other types of sugar.
• Cumin.
• Oregano.
• Sage.

The list of potential ingredients is endless. These are just some of the most commonly used ones.

Be careful when adding salt to your recipe. Too much salt can ruin the taste of meat. You typically won’t want to use more than about 2 teaspoons of salt per pound of meat.

Once you pick the ingredients to use, decide on the right proportions to fit your taste. When starting out, we recommend that you mimic dry rub recipes that you can find online and alter them to your own preference and taste.

Here’s a basic recipe that you can begin with when creating your own dry rub:

• 3 tablespoons sea salt
• 3 tablespoons smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon chili powder

*1 tablespoon onion powder

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix well, making sure to break up any clumps of brown sugar. Store any unused rub in an air-tight container to preserve freshness.

Different Rubs for Different Dishes

You often won’t want to use a steak rub on vegetables. Fish often needs its own unique rub to bring out the flavor that kills.

Research and experiment to find what works best for each type of food. The combinations and varieties are endless.

How To Apply Dry Rub

Follow these simple steps to apply dry rub and you’ll be ready to grill.

1. Remove the meat from its packaging and use a paper towel to pat it dry on both sides to help ensure a nice sear.
2. Brush on a small amount of oil (olive oil works great). This will help bind the rub to the meat and allow the flavor to penetrate.
3. Pour on the dry rub, using enough to cover all sides generously. Don’t be shy! The more rub you use, the more flavor you’ll add.
4. Rub the spice mix into the meat using your fingers.

You can let the meat rest in the refrigerator for an hour or more and let it absorb some extra flavor, but there’s nothing wrong with grilling it right away, either. So fire up the grill and get it nicely preheated, and you’re ready to cook!

Why is Sears Talking About Barbeque?

We’re not just DIY experts for appliance and gas grill repair, we’re also experts at giving you practical advice for your entire home. From home improvement to top-notch grilling techniques, we love to help you enjoy everything in your home.

If your grill does break down, we’re there to help you fix it or replace it so you can continue enjoying your weekends with family and friends. Our DIY gas grill repair help can help you avoid a weekend disaster. When you need to replace your grill, we have all the help you need consolidated into one helpful webpage. Go to our Sears.com Upgrade page to see instant discounts and offers to help you keep your grilling routine going all season long.

We here for you and your family for every home repair and home improvement need. Continue to count on Sears to help keep you happy.