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Visit trendy restaurants and the menu is sure to mention spice rubs at least once. The grilled shrimp may be enhanced by a chili rub, the Delmonico steak by a Montreal rub. Sure, the taste is great, but how do they do it?
Remember the commercials about the seasonings in a bag: just add meat and shake, then place it in the oven? Spice rubs are the rich cousin to that product. Gourmet food shops
sell them for big bucks; that’s an easy way to go. If you like to experiment on your own then keep reading for guidelines and ideas on how to make and use your own spice rubs to turn your ordinary entrees into rave dinners.
You can keep it simple by combining dried herbs and seasonings you already have in your pantry. Consider dabbling with new tastes. Purchase some new seasonings. Better yet, grow your own herbs and hang them up to dry. Once dry, just crumble or grind the leaves into small bits for mixing with other tastes.
The spice rubs can be used wet or dry. Mix the herbs with oil to increase the crunch on the outside of pork chops or steaks. Another option is to brush small meats like shrimp or scallops with oil, then rub on the chili powder, garlic and sweet marjoram before grilling. If you are using them dry, you can either put the spices into a bowl and drag the meat through the mix, or rub it into the meat with your hands.
Spice rubs can be made from a mix of dried and fresh herbs; use them immediately. Dried herb and seasoning spice rubs should be placed in airtight containers and stored at
room temperature. Need a hostess or holiday gift? Find an attractive glass jar, fill it with your spice rub, cover the lid with fabric and tie with a ribbon. Add a card explaining how to use it to turn steaks, chicken, pork and seafood into an explosive mouthful.
Here are some spice rub ideas to start you on your grilling and baking adventures. Play around with quantities. If that seems too hard, begin by adding equal parts of all
ingredients until you begin to feel like a pro mixing up your own spice rubs.
1 - Mix ground fennel, dried orange zest, salt and dried onions. Use this on beef that has been marinated in red wine for an added bonus.
2 - Cumin, oregano, dried onion, garlic, salt, cayenne pepper. Unless you want a hot Mexican pepper rub, cut the cayenne pepper to one-fourth of the amount of the other
ingredients. Use this for pork or seafood.
3 - Celery seed, black pepper, garlic, ground lemon balm leaves. Massage this onto chicken for roasting or fish for grilling or baking.
4 - Sage, cornmeal, finely ground hazelnuts, onion, salt. Add the cornmeal to the nuts when grinding so the oil is absorbed and the nuts don’t turn into nutbutter. Another way
to get the same great flavor is to mix the herbs and cornmeal for a dry spice rub, rub over meat. Paint egg whites over the spiced meat and roll in chopped hazelnuts. Bake. This turns a tame bird into a wild turkey.
5 - Mint, lemon zest, red ground pepper. Here use less pepper and go heavy on the mint and lemon zest. Seafood, fish and chicken love this mix.
6 - Oregano, thyme, basil, salt, chives, garlic. This rub works with every meat.
In addition, add the spice rubs to soups, stews, stir fries. When used to season meat, the spice rubs are great for grilling, baking, roasting and frying.
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