Page 56 - Amazing Ribs - Book

molecules are too large. Spices and herbs tend to draw mois- ture out of the meat so we recommend saving them for just before cooking. This is one of the reasons why we strongly recommend you make your own rubs.
Season it
The rub should fuse onto the meat’s surface and enhance the meat, but not overwhelm it. Meathead’s Memphis Dust was formulated just for pork and is used by many competition teams, caterers, and restaurants. In fact, some commercial rubs are copies of Meathead’s Memphis Dust. The recipe is here.
Beware: Some commercial rubs can be half salt. That’s some expensive salt! But salt and spices should be applied differ- ently. Because salt penetrates the meat, you need to apply it based on the weight of the meat. Because spices sit on the surface you apply them based on the surface area. For exam- ple: A slab of ribs and a hunk of pork shoulder might have the same amount of surface area but the shoulder can weigh 2 to 3 times the ribs and be many times thicker. So you need more salt on the shoulder but the same amount of spices. For this reason (and others) you should make your own rubs sans salt. We have rub recipes on AmazingRibs.com for pork, poultry, beef, lamb, seafood, and more.
Before sprinkling on the rub, many cooks like to coat the ribs with a layer of mustard, ketchup, mayo, or water as a glue to hold onto the rub. These “slathers” have almost zero impact on flavor because they drip off and dry up during the cook. But they do work as a glue. Clint is partial to mayo because it is mostly oil and fat is flavor. Meathead just wets his hands and pats the meat to moisten it.
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