Rib Prep with Commercial Rubs

[zupanj]

I usually dry brine my ribs overnight and add the rub just before putting them on the smoker. My rub is homemade and has no salt. I have several store bought rubs I want to try as soon as the weather breaks. The commercial rubs have a fair amount of salt in them so I was wondering how others handle this. Do you put the rub on the night before? This doesn't sound right to me. Alternatively, do you put it on just before the cook and not worry about the salt penetration?

[Donw]

I mainly use my homemade rubs and separately brine but family keeps gifting me jars of commercial rubs and sauces because they run out of gift ideas for me I guess. When I do use one of the gift jars I apply it the day before and leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge. Never had a complaint doing it that way.

[Panhead John]

Same here. I mainly use commercial rubs with salt and will apply it several hours before or overnight.

[Mosca]

I don’t apply salt (and by extension, the rub) to ribs until within a couple hours of cooking them; I usually start my coal, then prep the ribs while the pit comes up to temp and the smoke stabilizes. My experience is that salting ribs the night before gives them a hammy flavor that I don’t care for.

[CRO]

I do the same.
I mainly use Memphis Dust (Original Recipe w/ salt) for Ribs and Butts.

[Sweaty Paul]

I've tried a couple of different things and don't really notice much of a difference between either method. Method one is dry bine overnight with less salt than I would normally use if using a salt-free or low salt rub and then just before cooking rub them with the commercial rub with usual salt load. The second is to brine overnight with the rub. I will often freshen the rub a bit more in the morning or before I'm gonna put them on the cooker. I really can't tell that much of a difference in either approach in terms of moisture of the meat or salt flavor (too much or too little).

[TripleB]

I dry brine ribs and just about everything else. That way I can add as much of my non-salt rub as I want. Gave up on commercial rubs a long time ago.

[DaveD]

This is me as well. I use almost no commercial rubs for this reason, I'm determined to control the salt content separately.

[Mosca]

I’m curious why you’ve given up on commercial rubs; so have I. My reasoning is, if I use a commercial rub then I can’t really say that the finished product is mine and mine alone.

I’ll allow myself to use a rub recipe, and I’ll stretch to allow mixing several commercial rubs together randomly. But I won’t just shake a commercial rub onto my ribs. To me that’s someone else’s idea of what they should taste like.

[TripleB]

Mosca As DaveD mentioned, I want to control the salt content too. But I do make my own rubs with salt. So I'm also in line with your thinking that I want the finished product flavor profile to be my own.

[captainlee]

I put the rub on about an hour before I put them in the smoker. I'm not much of a salt person but I do use commercial rubs. Through trial and error I have found rubs which I feel are reasonable with the amount of salt.

[Finster]

I season the morning of. Sometimes that means 30 mins, sometimes an hour or two, before going on the pit
I don't dry brine even if whatever rub I'm using has no salt..

[WI Bubba]

+1

[Purc]

Agree, I only dry brine 1 to 2 hours max prior to smoking the ribs.

[HawkerXP]

+1

[Oak Smoke]

I tried dry brining ribs but don’t now. It seems to change the flavor or texture in a way I don’t care for. Matt from Meat Church says to not apply rub unless you’re within an hour of going on the pit. His rubs have salt in them. That works very good for me.

[Lynn Dollar]

I don't dri brine ribs. There's just not enough meat on the bones to make a difference, IMO .

I do dri brine ribeye and I use my rub instead of salt. The Kosmo Texas Beef rub has enough salt.

[N227GB]

The only ribs I make are BBs, and these days seem to have plenty of loin meat. Comercial or homemade I dry brine them about an hour before going in the cooker. Always plenty juicy.

Posted from my phone.

[dpearce]

I've done it a couple different ways. When using a commercial rub with salt, the night before, let it rest on a rack in the fridge, loosely covered with some foil (uncovered would work ok too, but my kids come home on weekends from college and they slop things in and out of the fridge).

I've also just applied the commercial rub a few hours before cooking.

Without salt, like MMD, just a dry brine overnight, then apply the rub a couple hours before the cook. I haven't really noticed that much of a difference if it's a couple hours, or maybe a half hour, but I just do it ahead of time.

If you've got a couple racks, you could always experiment? One the night before, one a few hours before? Might be worth finding out for what you like best.

[Murdy]

I dry brine the night before. Also, primarily because it's easier to do it all at once, I add my salt-free home-made rub the night before as well. Never had any complaints. When I do use a commercial rub with salt on occasion (gifts), I've added it the night before and skipped adding salt independently.

[radiodome21]

If I’m using a commercial rub then I’ll apply about an hour or so before. If I’m doing my ow salt free rub then I’ll do the night before and add salt at least an hour beforehand. If I didn’t have so many rubs I’d probably do this more often.

[Cryptidbbq]

I haven’t used a commercial rub in a few years, but I don’t overnight dry brine ribs regardless. (Assuming you’re talking pork) I’ll give them a good dusting a couple hours before and that’s it. There is a little bit of salt in my mop sauce as well so an overnight would just be overkill imo.