Spice question

[wes w]

Hello friends!

As I become more addicted to this site and the art of smoking  I quickly realized I need to broaden my cooking skills.

I know we have several Chefs here that are a wealth of knowledge.   My question is how do you come up the the spice combinations to create awesome dishes?   I understand it takes years of schooling and experience, but is there a trick to combining spices that you'd care to share?   Not just the Chefs here but anyone.

I have tried several pork rubs from here, but haven't found that perfect one for me.   I've researched a lot of different spices for there flavor.  

I enjoy cooking, but have never had the opportunity to "create" something for my own.   I've always used store bought spice mixes that are really good, but also expensive.  

Jeremy (Smoking B) and Bill (PGSmoker64)  Chef JimmyJ  have been a awesome help to me.   From sausage info to  tips on how-to.

Thanks for anyone that can help me prefect what I'm looking for.   Everyone has different taste.   Knowing how to combine spices is an art that I don't have

Thanks in advance!

Wes

Wasn't sure where to put this, if it needs moved, please do so. 

 

[pgsmoker64]

Hi Wes,

Thanks for the shout out!

From your post I am guessing you want to focus on a pork rub, is that right?  A lot of what goes into spice combinations depends on what you are trying to flavor.

It would help to know what types of rubs you have tried and didn't care for...you can PM these to me - I don't want anyone to take offense.

...and what type of flavor profile you are looking for - sweet, spicy, salty, sweet & spicy...what do you like to taste on your pork?  It could be that you don't use a rub other than S&P but inject or brine your pork - that's cool too.

If you can answer my questions above that would be helpful to me and maybe a few others who are willing to help out!

Bill

 

[linguica]

I am by no means a chef, but I will wager their spice choices and fantastic flavors come 50% from education and inspiration  and 50% luck. If a recipe works well it goes on the menu and if not the kitchen crew has free food. IMHO    

[h2]Ingredients[/h2][h3]Quick and Easy BBQ Rub:[/h3]

• 1 cup turbinado sugar, ground
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 6 tablespoons Spanish paprika
• 4 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons granulated garlic
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground mustard
• 1 1/2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, coarse ground

 

[pgsmoker64]

I am by no means a chef, but I will wager their spice choices and fantastic flavors come 50% from education and inspiration  and 50% luck. If a recipe works well it goes on the menu and if not the kitchen crew has free food. IMHO    

Not so much luck as experimentation!!!!  I try out recipes on friends and family so when I fail they suffer too!  

I have amateur status as well but cooking is "what I do"...I just do it a lot!!!

Bill

 

[wes w]

For years I have used the McCormick's  Pork Rub.  To me, this is awesome rub!   Only spicy if you really lay it on.   Now that I'm smoking something almost every week-end, it has gotten more  expensive.  If ask, there rub is what I'm trying to duplicate.  

I have and used Jeff's rub.  Again, to me, its to spicy.  I have used it on wings for friends and they begged for the recipe.  Sorry guys, had to buy that one.  :-)     

Is there a book or info about blending spices somewhere that would help me understand them, or is it just  a guessing game.

Sometimes it just sucks being a dumb country boy!  LOL! 

 

[pgsmoker64]

Wes,

Just leave out the cayenne pepper and cut the black pepper in half on Jeff's rub.  I had to do that to keep the wife happy!!!

Bill

 

[linguica]

Experiment to find a rub that comes close to your taste and tweak it out.  Then you'll have Wes W's secret rub.

 

[wes w]

Wes,

Just leave out the cayenne pepper and cut the black pepper in half on Jeff's rub.  I had to do that to keep the wife happy!!!

Bill

That sounds like a good plan.  Thanks Bill

Experiment to find a rub that comes close to your taste and tweak it out.  Then you'll have Wes W's secret rub.

LOL   Ya'll make it sound simple.   Thanks for the encouragement.

 

[capndonkey]

My friend was a trained chef and amateur hot sauce maker, so I got lucky when I started my BBQ team with him, as he had a lot of experience crafting sauces and rubs.  I have 20 years of restaurant experience under my belt in various jobs, so I'm no slouch either.  What I found worked best for us was broad experimentation.  Start with flavors you like, and make sure you write down EVERYTHING.  Measurements, pinches, dashes, I mean everything.  Then you can just smoke away and the best part is, you get to eat all your experiments.  Too hot?  Remove some pepper and spices. Flat?  Add some more aromatics and some salt.  Sweet/Bitter?  Modify the amount or even the kind of sugars you use.  When you get that magic rub or sauce made, you'll have the written recipe so you can replicate it every time.  Consistency is key.

We have our favorite rub that we make called "JG's Hot Shot Rub" (J and G are our initials) that is spicy, and we like it spicy, so it's our signature.  But for competitions, we knew that the judges don't want a ton of heat.  So we took our original recipe and tweaked it to make it milder and sweeter, creating our competition rub, JG's Sure Shot Rub.  From there, we just went nuts messing with the recipes until we had a good line of rubs for various dishes, all with silly name variations on the original.  Examples include:

JG's Hot Shot 

JG's Sure Shot

JG's Hook Shot

JG's Trick Shot

JG's Bank Shot

We're actually mulling over the idea of bottling and selling them, but we're still adjusting some, and we want to have concrete recipes first.  Maybe someday you'll see us on store shelves!  For now, though, we just try to cook something every weekend, and we keep writing down everything we do, including our wives' and friends' reaction to our flavors.  Feedback is key.  If you've got some trusted people you can get honest feedback from, that's worth its weight in gold, man.

Good luck and just keep tweakin!

 

[pgsmoker64]

 Start with flavors you like, and make sure you write down EVERYTHING.  

Now that is good advice...right along with other advice you've received....what a great bunch of folks we have here!!!!

 

[wes w]

Thanks Capn,

None of the rubs I've gotten here or anywhere else were what you would call bad.  Its just not what I'm looking for.

Got something new mixed up now that I'm going to try on some warmed over pork from the week-end.    I think this will be really close to what I'm looking for.

I'll let you know how it turns out.  

Thanks to everyone!

 

[damon555]

No formal training here unless you want to count many years of helping mom in the kitchen while growing up. Good spice combinations are definitely something that comes with experience. It may sound strange but I can kind of taste what a certain spice will do to a dish in my imagination. After a time I'd be willing to bet that's something that most people who cook can do too.

 

[wes w]

Mom always let us cook too.  Mess and all.   Her spice was salt and pepper.  LOL     I'm starting to learn spices, maybe in time.