Steve graciously let me have a pre-release jar of his rub which is awesome so I thought a few mates, some beer, UFC and a triumvirate of ribs rack would be a good testing ground.
I have three rubs to start with but have a few more in the post so can see this section growing as I try to report on them all.
The 3 in question are Guerrilla Powder, Dizzy Pigs' Raging River and 3 Eyes BBQ.
You can see there is an obvious pigmentation difference from the off with 3 Eyez BBQ looking a lot darker with a lot more black pepper and darker paprika. It was also the last one rubbed yet seems to be drawing out the liquid a lot quicker (is this a higher salt content??).
A simple licked finger test already suggests that 3 Eyes concentrates on the heat element in a rub while the other two have a much more flavourful taste - let see how they taste after a good smoke.
So they all cooked over cherry and pecan wood for 3 unfoiled and 3 foiled at about 250f (went back on for between 20-30 mins each after removing from foil but decided not to put any sauce on any of them as I wanted to test the rubs);
A = 3 Eyes
B = Dizzy Pig
C= Guerrilla Powder (only half a rack as I put the other half back on for a little longer as they still had some belly meat on them)
3rd place 3Eyes -
lots of pepper and a bit of heat (on top of the pepper eat) but not much else. Not really too much else to it and a reminder of why I started making my own rubs.
2nd place Dizzy Pig -
a lot more to this rub and definitely a less uniform crust to the 3 Eyes - this is down to a less finely ground rub but also a lot more savory elements to the rub. Far more flavour with less emphasis on pepper
. I tried this on the chicken as well and it excelled there but was not quite the winner of the day on the ribs.1st place Guerrilla Powder -
quite a good uniform crust (a bit in between the other two) but the main reason that this one took the votes today was that you could still taste the pork. If anything it made the pork taste better as opposed to trying take over from it.
I have another couple of rubs in the post and a couple of pork shoulders to cook during the week so will see where this "rub off" (
) ends up.
