Smoker Dry Rub..I want your recipe....
 

This week we got our first smoker and bought a slab of ribs to try on the smoker. So I need your help. Who has a great dry rub recipe?

I have never had a smoker before, have always wanted one, so we started small. We have a charcoal burning smoker w/2 shelves.

I am a Sweet Baby Ray's bbq sauce fan. I like a little sweet in my sauce. But I am thinking if I can find the right rub then I won't really need a sauce.

So any help would be appreciated. Maybe something sweet and a little spicy, got kids who wouldn't like them too spicy.

Thanks...

The best rub...

1/2c Dark Brown Sugar
3 T coarse salt
1/2 T fresh ground pepper
1 T chili powder
1/2 t cayenne (omit for "mild")
1 t old bay seasoning
1/2 t ground thyme
1 T onion powder
1/2 T garlic powder

Feel free to adjust this to your liking, I like the rub to complement the meat, not overpower it. This might not be as LOUD as some of the rubs out there.

Ribs should be completely dry when applied, and left to set until they reach room temp WITH the rub on...then smoke slow and low. Then right before they're done, slap on that sweet baby rays and put a little more heat on them. I'd go on my gas grill, and sprinkle a little extra brown sugar on at this time too. :ntwrthy:

Sounds yummy. Cannot wait for her to make em :)

Sounds good Jake. Old bay seasoning? I have never bought this, don't know if I have ever seen it. I will look in the grocery store.

In researching doing ribs on the smoker, I ran across a suggestion that says to take the membrane off the ribs. Do you do this? Any suggestions?

Yeah, that is a good idea. Makes eating them a little less sloppy.

You could brine the ribs first if you have a few days...

Apple juice
Onion chunks
Peppercorns
Salt
Water
Splash of vinegar
Etc

Thanks Jake,
I have tried the apple juice and was not a fan. Grumpy is not an onion fan.

Someone suggested apricot or peach juice.

I guess I will just be "smokin" alot of meat this summer, til I get it right. I'm sure Grumpy won't mind.

We've tried different sauces over the years. Found Sweet Baby Rays 3 maybe 4 years ago. That's all we use and don't even bother looking at all the other ones.

You will find at least 2 varieties of sweet baby ray's in my fridge at all times. :D

I am a huge Rays fan. Just tried the smoke chipolte version the other day. Its not bad.

OK back to the smoker thread. We used it today for the first time. Did a combination of brown sugar and seasonings, for the ribs. Then we decided that we were gonna cook a couple of chickens at the same time. David made the rub for the Chicken. Put them in the smoker around noon.

OH MAN....was it great !!!

The "smoked" taste was good. The ribs were sooooo good. The kids loved the chicken. I think that we would try adjusting what we made the rub out of, definately adding less salt, using brown sugar was a great idea. All in all it was a great meal.

I still want more suggestions on different rub ideas. And no, I am not giving up my Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce, it is a staple in my fridge, actually didn't even use any tonight on the ribs they were that good.

So as I was navigating through I found this section. Now this is where I shine the most I am comp cooker by hobby and passion I just have a Chevelle Dark side. Lol.

Here's some food porn as we call it on the BBQ Forums I'm a member of as well.
Ribs Glazed and finishing up
http://img.tapatalk.com/4ac2eefb-2796-d0f2.jpg
Smoked Meatloaf
http://img.tapatalk.com/4ac2eefb-27f2-22df.jpg
Briskets on the Traeger
http://img.tapatalk.com/4ac2eefb-282c-ee10.jpg
Briskets on the Backwoods
http://img.tapatalk.com/4ac2eefb-285b-415e.jpg
Sliced and ready
http://img.tapatalk.com/4ac2eefb-2883-fcef.jpg
Some chickens
http://img.tapatalk.com/4ac2eefb-28d9-d1d0.jpg

I wish you hadn't posted that, didn't have lunch today and now I'm really hungry. It all looks delicious.

Bull, don't tell grumpy, but I love you !!!

Two years ago grumpy purchased a torpedo smoker for me. And I fell in love with smoking.

Let me back up a minute. For as long as I can remember I have love to cook on the grill. And up until 10 years ago, most of my grilling had been on a charcoal grill. Then grumpy talked me into a gas grill and I was hooked at the ease of gas. I may live in Michigan where we have cold winters, but I grill year round. My grill sits right outside my back door on the porch and I have actually chipped ice off of my grill so I could use it. I love to grill and I think that I am pretty good at it.

Now back to the smokers. This year for mothers day I wanted a larger smoker. I was actually looking for a "barrel" type smoker, one that was made from a barrel like an oil barrel. Unfortunately, I was not able to find someone local who made them. And then grumpy and I found one, kinda like what I wanted, and it was reasonably priced so we bought it. We had researched smokers for a few months before we bought one, and I have actually learned a lot about smokers since I bought the one I have.

I am always looking for new rubs, suggestions on rubs, what people think about spritzing with apple juice, what type of charcoal do you use, is natural charcoal better, do you love your charcoal starter as much as I love mine and so many more questions. I could go on and on.

Well as I tell everybody I don't mind helping if somebody asks but I can't tell you everything or I'll have to kill
Ya. Lol. I've been cooking competitively for about 6 years with great success somedays and the What The Hell Went Wrong on others. Lol here's a most recent win streak a money hat that is a 50x Beaver Stetson worth about $300 and on the hat band $1000 worth of cash for winning Grand. http://img.tapatalk.com/4ac2eefb-649c-cc39.jpg

Welcome and can I borrow that hat with the cash attached ?

I wished I still had the cash. Comp BBQ is like classic cars any time you get cash it goes right back into the hobby. Now the question is how am
I gonna afford both???

Set up a BBQ stand and sell, sell ,sell .Dang Im hungry after seeing all those pics and Im not big into BBQ .

Heck no I honestly dislike cooking for crowds. I have friends I refer catering jobs to with an agreement I get a 6% kick back off the event for the referral. This just means I need to cook more comps to support the new addition in my life so I can afford to pay for things that need to be done. Assuming I win of course!

Congrats on the win. I am so curious about how you got started. And what kind of smokers have you used and do you currently use ?

It all started in the backyard. I have a friend who wanted to do a comp so I joined him in the quest. To him it was a party to me it was serious so the chase began. We went our separate ways in cooking and I moved forward and he stayed back. I cook on a Backwoods Chubby as seen @ www.backwoods-smoker.com and a WSM or Weber Smokey Mountain or better known as a Bullet. I also have a Traeger as well which is a pellet pooper as we call it. My Backwoods is really a comp only pit as it is designed to cook what you need for turn in only. It won't feed crowds so you can't expect much.

We; my wife and I cook about 25-30 comps a year in Texas events with a few KCBS events in Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Usually about 4-6 a year being the KCBS. We were fortunate enough to have cooked the American Royal for the past 3 years with hopes to be able to get to the Jack Daniels Invitational next year. Now that I have this new Chevelle in my life we will probably slow down some and hit a few local car shows.
Although the car is not a "show car" it is a very nice driver that would I think would do good locally as its not the same ole car that everybody sees at the events.

Bull, in my personal opinion, I would rather have a car that I can enjoy,than a car that is a trailer queen. One of the people here that has a beautiful car is flash, no offense to anyone else. The reason that I say that about Ms flash's 72 convertible is because they drive their car everywhere. And I don't mean to the local car shows, they have taken many trips all over the states in their car, and it is just beautiful. Partially because they take wonderful care of it, but mostly because it has "character" for all it's trips.

Anyone can have a show car ,it takes someone special (short bus) or crazy like us to actually drive all over the country in a classic car.And we sure do have fun being special and we still have the dirt on the car from Maine to prove it .Soon it will get the cleaning it deserves and then the El Camino comes out for its time to shine.

Well it's by far not a trailer queen and pops built it to drive and that's what I will do is drive it. Although with the collector car insurance I'm only able to cruise 2500 miles a year and in Texas where the sun always shines I think I'll be paying more for insurance next year. Lol.

You don't have to answer this, but curious who is your insurance company? There is a whole thread dedicated to car insurance and the pro's and con's to a lot of them out there. For me, I have Grundy, and I am not limited on my miles. But here in Michigan it may be different than for you in Texas.

I have Hagerty and no mileage limits as long as its not daily driver.

Flash if you have no limits than how would they know it's not a daily driver? I have Hagerty as well and pay $400 a year but am limited. But that's okay I have a nice Dodge Dually that I love driving as well. Also @ 8 miles a gallon and Super Unleaded @3.75 a gallon it's those times that I really cherish being behind the wheel.