You mentioned Raley's and Food 4 Less so I had to check out where you live. Do the Raiders still train there? When we lived in Santa Rosa, the two stores we shopped were Raley's and Food 4 Less. We miss them both but Winco "borrowed" their business plan from F4L, in my opinion. The meats at Winco look like they were butchered by trainees. Winco's produce can be as good or better than Safeway (and a lot cheaper) or on bad days some areas can be embarrassingly bad. But there are many food and dairy items we only buy at Winco because of the better prices.
So interesting. The meat and veggies I can get at Winco are SOOO much better than ANY of the grocery chains around me (Safeway, Raley's, Bel Air, Food 4 Less, Smart n Final, Grocery Outlet, and Sprouts), saving me a bundle in the process. Their veggies come pretty close to our farmer's market for flavor.
Favorite rub? I've tried a bunch. Here is my current favorite I'm using on pork and chicken these days. I found the foundation on the Internet and changed it a little to what I like. I'd only ever used Old Bay for fish. Read the ingredients for Old Bay, it is PERFECT for pork and chicken. You could add up to a Tbs of cayenne pepper if you wanted to kick it up a notch.
Pork Rub with Old Bay Seasoning
Ingredients
2 Tbs Dark brown sugar
2 Tbs Paprika, sweet or smoked, your preference
1 Tbs Old Bay seasoning
1 Tbs Kosher salt
1 Tbs chili powder
1 Tbs dry mustard
1/2 Tbs Fresh-ground black pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
Directions
1. Mix all ingredients in the order shown. Stir with a spoon, breaking up any clumps. Store in an airtight container.
We never shopped Safeway in those days but in the county where we live now they consistently have the best quality meats outside of Costco, and I've become buddies with the meat dept. and produce dept. managers. We have a Grocery Outlet and a Cash & Carry but shopping two stores in one day is enough for us. There's also Fred Meyer up here which is owned by Kroger. They have very good meats and produce but we still prefer Safeway.
And do you know what you've just done for me? We bought Old Bay a while ago because I wanted to cook up some shellfish Cajun-style but have yet to do it. Thanks to do, I've got a dry rub recipe where I get to use it. The meat guy at the Safeway in town is able to get me fresh farmed catfish out of South Carolina--unless Irma has mucked around there. I think this rub will taste great on it. When I finally smoke this 12 lb. turkey I've got in the freezer I'll try it then. Do you use it also on all cuts of pork? Just looking at the recipe I'm not sure about ribs but pork shoulder and pork loin are definitely in play.
Just re-read the recipe. One-half tablespoon of freshly-ground black pepper? That seems like a lot of pepper. But at any rate, we have a manual pepper mill but if it's anything over an 1/8 tsp I have to use store-bought ground black pepper.
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