Honey or maple syrup on ribs

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steves8860

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Original poster
Jun 17, 2021
71
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One of my daughters will be around and I am going to do some ribs.

She's always watching what she eats. I asked her for alternatives for brown sugar in the rub. She mentioned maple syrup or honey.

I figure putting that straight on the meat in a rub might lessen the smoke flavor.

Thinking about smoking with my rub minus the b sugar and then foiling it with honey and more rub on it.

Any thoughts?
 
Try making a glaze with your sugarless rub, butter and honey. Just brush it on the last part of the cook like you would BBQ sauce, but use your rub directly on the meat like you normally would.
Also keep in mind that some folks don't use sugar in their rub.
 
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I don't wrap my ribs . I do squeeze honey on them at the end . I stopped using brown sugar and started using turbinado sugar . That way it doesn't cake up .
 
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One of my daughters will be around and I am going to do some ribs.

She's always watching what she eats. I asked her for alternatives for brown sugar in the rub. She mentioned maple syrup or honey.

I figure putting that straight on the meat in a rub might lessen the smoke flavor.

Thinking about smoking with my rub minus the b sugar and then foiling it with honey and more rub on it.

Any thoughts?
Probably not and answer, directly, but I was poking around the site I buy my Prague curing from (Hoosier Hill Farms)
and they had a container of Honey Powder. Haven't used it much, but every time i go thru the pantry looking for honey it's always sugared up.
 
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She's always watching what she eats. I asked her for alternatives for brown sugar in the rub. She mentioned maple syrup or honey.
Go with whatever gives the taste profile you prefer. If she's worried about calories, brown sugar has slightly fewer than maple syrup and significantly fewer than honey, though the latter two have lower glycemic indices and contain small amounts of a few vitamins and minerals.

You're cooking ribs, after all. You can't transform them into health food by altering what you put on the outside.
 
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I use honey and butter mixed together and the last 15 mins or so of the cook I brush it on the ribs, But you have to watch because it will "burn" pretty quick.
I am trying to watch my sugar intake since I am diabetic.
 
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I'm fond of a 50/50-ish mix of pure maple syrup and pure cane syrup if I'm making a glaze. You can sorta think of cane syrup as a sort of liquid brown sugar. Steen's is a widely available brand of cane syrup, there are others. I can purchase this locally at a much lower price than through Amazon but here's a link for reference.


Steen's home page


You could purchase maple sugar to substitute 1:1 for brown sugar, as IMO the simplest alternative. One example from Amazon.


You can look at solid granulated honey for another solid, instead of liquid, substitute for brown sugar. One example of this from Amazon.


Shelf life of all these items is high IME.
 
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