Normally you don't really need a sticky agent. You dry rub the night before and wrap, sit overnight. Its not going anywhere.
I always save the salt and brown sugar to rub till just before I throw it on the pit. If you use the salt or sugar the night before when you rub, it will dehydrate the meat besides the sugar liquifies and is messy. I want the moisture in my meat. Thats why I use brown sugar, it caramelizes and makes a hard candy shell like a M&M to hold that moisture in. It melts on your mouth and not in your hand!
I rub with oil for skin. Fowl especially, its thin and if overcooked slightly cracks and lets all the juice out, so I rub it down. Pop always called it the suntan lotion. Any oil works for me, my palette is not that discriminating. Besides the smoke is going to accumulate on top of it. If you use oil be careful of the meat placement, it can cause flare-ups if you use too much and it dripps down on coals, fires or heating elements.
You'll try loads of different things. Its about getting each meat the exact profile you want it. Then when you do, you have to keep trying to see if you can't make it even better, Its the nature of the beast! We are adictted!
The fun is in all the smokes, good food, and the later laughs at those stupid mistakes you'll make, just like ever one else does.
