This rub is taken directly from AmazingRibs.com, where founder Meathead Goldwyn published it as the Big Bad Beef Rub recipe. It is the rub that the site’s own Texas-style brisket recipe points to, and it is built for beef rather than pork. The salt is handled separately, which changes how you use it.
Where It Sits Against Texas Salt-and-Pepper
AmazingRibs notes that in Texas many barbecue joints use just plain salt and pepper, a mix known as Dalmatian rub. Its view is that brisket and beef ribs can handle, and benefit from, a more potent mix, and that this rub builds a crunchy crust the site calls the bark. Its Texas-style brisket recipe treats the two as alternatives: rub with Big Bad Beef Rub “or if you’re a traditionalist, just salt and pepper.” If you want the purist version, that is the choice; the recipe below is the fuller one.
The page also explains why this blend is not sweet. Pork loves sweetness, the author says, but beef does not, and black pepper works especially well on beef. That is the contrast with a pork rub such as Meathead’s Memphis Dust, which carries much more sugar.
Ingredients (makes about 1/2 cup)
- 3 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon granulated white sugar
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons mustard powder
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons American chili or ancho powder
- 1 teaspoon chipotle or cayenne powder
Mix everything together in a bowl. There is no salt in the blend, which is deliberate.
Salt Goes On Separately
AmazingRibs’ rule of thumb is about 1/2 teaspoon of Morton Coarse Kosher Salt per pound of meat, not counting bone, applied ahead of time as a dry brine. When possible, put the salt on the day before; the recipe says even an hour or two is enough to get it moving inward. Its brisket recipe uses the same figure. The site cautions that kosher salt is half the concentration of table salt, so if you switch to table salt, use half as much.
As a worked example: for a 12- to 15-pound whole packer brisket, the size the site’s brisket recipe calls for, 1/2 teaspoon per pound comes to roughly 6 to 7 1/2 teaspoons, or about 2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons. That is our arithmetic on the published ratio, not a figure the site prints, and it assumes the weight is for meat only.
Applying and Storing the Rub
- Timing. The author says the spices in the rub are mostly a surface treatment for flavor and bark, because most of the molecules are too large to penetrate more than a fraction of an inch. You can apply it the night before or just before cooking.
- A light wetting. He likes to lightly wet the surface with water before applying the rub, because many of the flavors are water soluble.
- How thick. Spread it generously on brisket and less thickly on thinner cuts.
- Make it ahead. The blend makes more than one brisket needs. Leftover rub goes in a clean jar or zipper bag at room temperature, and the site says it should be fine up to a year in a tightly sealed bottle in a dark place, though it slowly declines, so taste it first.
- Drippings. If you save drippings from salted meat for a gravy or jus, taste before adding more salt.
Notes on the Ingredients
Two of the author’s notes are worth following. For the pepper, he grinds it and then sifts it, using the coarse portion in the rub and keeping the fine dust for a shaker. For the chile powders, he wants two different flavors and two different heat levels: ancho, which he says has a raisiny character, is his choice if you can find it, with chipotle or cayenne adding a kiss of heat. Chipotle, he adds, has better flavor.
The Brisket Steps Around It
The rub is only one step in AmazingRibs’ Texas-style formula, which is: buy a 12- to 15-pound whole packer brisket, USDA Choice or better; trim the fat cap to about 1/4 inch; dry brine with the salt; apply the rub; and smoke at 225°F with hardwood smoke. The site says the choice of smoking wood is not critical. For the full timeline to wrap, hold and slice, follow the linked brisket recipe rather than relying on this summary.
Keep reading
- Meathead’s Brisket Burnt Ends Recipe, Step by Step
- Meathead’s Memphis Dust Rub: A Sweet, Salt-Free Blend
- Meathead’s Texas-Style Smoked Brisket Recipe, Step by Step
- Walter Jetton’s Texas Brisket Mop Sauce