New to this world! Need some suggestions!

[dr k]

I'm a fan of Steven Raichlen and have bought several of his books. Here's one of his most simple dry rub recipes. It's a Kansas City-style sweet and smoky rub which is my go-to for both ribs and beef brisket. 

[h1]Steven Raichlen's Kansas City Sweet and Smoky Rub[/h1]

Ingredients: 

• ⅔ cup packed light brown sugar
  
• ⅔ cup granulated sugar
  
• ½ cup paprika
  
• ¼ cup seasoned salt such as Lawry's
  
• ¼ cup Smoked Salt
  
• ¼ cup onion salt
  
• ¼ cup celery salt
  
• 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
  
• 2 tablespoons pure chili powder
  
• 2 teaspoons mustard powder
  
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  
• ½ teaspoon ground allspice
  
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  

Directions: 

1. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and stir or whisk to mix. Transfer to a large jar, cover, and store away from heat and light.
   
2. Generously shake over your favorite meats. The rub will keep for several months.
   

I make enough of this rub to last me a couple of years. My family loves it. And yes, every one of these ingredients is a staple in my pantry. If you've ever read any Harry Potter books or seen the movies. you know about the Room of Requirement: a room that becomes anything you need it to be. This is an apt description of the Lear Pantry. We make sure we have just about everything we'd need on hand to make just about every recipe in every cuisine. 

Before applying the dry rub, I rub plain yellow mustard (got that tip off SMF) on the meat side of the ribs (both sides of beef brisket) and then shake the dry rub all over it, patting it into the meat a little bit. You could also rub the meat with vegetable oil or apple cider or just plain water instead of yellow mustard. The liquid enables the dry rub to adhere to more to the meat with less dropping off. The mustard doesn't really add any additional flavor that I could pick up from underneath the dry rub, smoke, and roasted meat flavors. 

Sounds good. Seems like a lot of salt. I usually season with kosher salt separately and mix all other ingredients. I'll have to use powders and leave out the salt except for the Lawry's. Search Poison here on SMF. It has Lawry's in it and that's the only salt. It's a savory seasoning that's great on everything from hard boiled eggs to salad and any animal protein. I left out the activated charcoal in the poison recipe that turns the seasoning black. The dill and celery seed etc. I grind to a powder so it easily can be used out of a shaker.
-Kurt

 

[gizzygone]

Nice! I'll have to try some of these recipes!

When it comes to smoking technique though, what are we doing?

225 for 4 hours?

Are we just letting the dry rub sit? Or do you guys take them out and put them in foil?


And any suggestions on what to use in the water bowl?

 

[daricksta]

Sounds good. Seems like a lot of salt. I usually season with kosher salt separately and mix all other ingredients. I'll have to use powders and leave out the salt except for the Lawry's. Search Poison here on SMF. It has Lawry's in it and that's the only salt. It's a savory seasoning that's great on everything from hard boiled eggs to salad and any animal protein. I left out the activated charcoal in the poison recipe that turns the seasoning black. The dill and celery seed etc. I grind to a powder so it easily can be used out of a shaker.
-Kurt

Kurt, I never thought about the amount of salt in the recipe either time I made the rub. Yes, almost half the rub is sodium but it doesn't taste overly salty. For the seasoned salt I've used Johnny's Seasoning Salt (from just south of me in Tacoma, WA) as well as Lawry's, which I grew up on because my folks seasoned just about everything with it. But the rub itself is delicious, perfect with ribs and brisket. 

I should be concerned about the salt content level since I am under treatment for high blood pressure. But I only use the rub a few times a year. And, unfortunately for me, I love salty foods--but not OVERLY salty. 

I did the search for Poison and half the hits on the first page were about food poisoning of different kinds. It then went into rubs of different kinds but nothing about Poison. I don't want to take the time to look at the other pages. Can you link to the post itself? 

 

[dr k]

 
Kurt, I never thought about the amount of salt in the recipe either time I made the rub. Yes, almost half the rub is sodium but it doesn't taste overly salty. For the seasoned salt I've used Johnny's Seasoning Salt (from just south of me in Tacoma, WA) as well as Lawry's, which I grew up on because my folks seasoned just about everything with it. But the rub itself is delicious, perfect with ribs and brisket. 

I should be concerned about the salt content level since I am under treatment for high blood pressure. But I only use the rub a few times a year. And, unfortunately for me, I love salty foods--but not OVERLY salty. 

I did the search for Poison and half the hits on the first page were about food poisoning of different kinds. It then went into rubs of different kinds but nothing about Poison. I don't want to take the time to look at the other pages. Can you link to the post itself? 

Here's the link DaRicksta http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/137114/poison-or-how-to-kill-them-all-with-the-grill

-Kurt

 

[dr k]

Nice! I'll have to try some of these recipes!

When it comes to smoking technique though, what are we doing?

225 for 4 hours?

Are we just letting the dry rub sit? Or do you guys take them out and put them in foil?


And any suggestions on what to use in the water bowl?

My empty Gen 1 40 smoker gets to 273*F max when tested with accurate digital therms when I max the smoker setting at 275*F.  So it averages in the upper 260's*F at this setting.  On Facebook there's a My Masterbuilt Electric Smoker page that has people doing the Team 275 method, getting great results without wrapping ribs etc.  I did this method with one slab of St. Louis cut spare ribs in almost five hours unrapped. They were awesome.  Team 275 is more like a declaration of the temp you used and can be foiled at the stalling point of the meat or not.  It's that simple.  It seems great for bark development and depending on how loaded your smoker is the temp may average in the 250's*F area until the meat starts absorbing more heat and the average increases.  Now that I have even heating throughout the smoker per my therms I am not as concerned about 225*F to 275*F.  It will be somewhere in between those fifty degrees.  With cased sausage I do the 150*F the first hour then 160*F the second hour then 170*F the third hour and leave it there till the IT hits 160*F so the fat doesn't render and the casing shrivels when cool and is tougher to bite through.

-Kurt

 

[daricksta]

Nice! I'll have to try some of these recipes!

When it comes to smoking technique though, what are we doing?

225 for 4 hours?

Are we just letting the dry rub sit? Or do you guys take them out and put them in foil?


And any suggestions on what to use in the water bowl?

Gizzygone, you're going to find out that most smoking books AND most smokers have their favorite cooking temps. 225° is very popular but you'll need to plan on a longer cooking time. Ray "Dr. BBQ" Lampe prefers 235°, other guys and pros swear by 250° or 275° for electric smokers (Myron Mixon loves it at 275 or 325). I've tried cooking at 225° but I didn't like the long smoke times. With my MES 30 Gen 1, I'll put the temp setpoint at 235 but it will swing up to 250 and down again. I don't cook at 275 because I feel it's like redlining a tach on a car. In my Hyundai I wouldn't want to be speeding around with my engine running at 7000-10,000 RPM. It might be wrong about how an electric smoker heating element and electronics work but smoking is considered low and slow cooking. 

As for the dry rub, there are recipes that call for you to spread it on, then wrap the meat in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Other recipes have you apply the dry rub  and then stick the meat in the smoker right away. The thing with smoking, is there are guidelines and techniques and recipes that have been proven to work, but you learn by doing what style and techniques best suit you. Try different recipes and try cooking at different temps and cooking times to see how things turn out. 

Now, if you're talking babyback ribs, 225 for 4 hours might be the minimum time to cook them, depending on how many racks and how large they are. For me, b-backs are done in about 4 hours if I'm smoking them at 235-250. St. Louis Ribs need about 5-6 hours to cook at 235-250 from my experience with my smoker. A 6-7 lib. beef brisket flat typically finishes off at a 201-203° internal temp (IT) in about 10-11 hours if I cook it at 235-250°. I've used the Texas Crutch (foil) on both ribs and briskets. I'm now choosing not to foil ribs and continue to see how that turns out. For briskets, I bought butcher paper which gives a better result than foil, but then not all guys wrap or foil briskets. Again, it's individual choice and style, based on experimenting to find out what works best for you. 

I keep the water bowl empty and foiled over. I use it as another grease catcher. In the MES 30 Gen 1, the amount of water that the bowl can hold is too large for interior of the smoker. It steams the food as it cooks, when what you want is a low heat and low humidity environment. The MES is so well-insulated you don't have to worry about meat drying out unless you overcook it by at least 30 minutes, and even then there are fatty meats where are pretty forgiving.