Where's the flavor?

[TNPIGBBQ]

Memphis flavor is hickory & charcoal. Hickory only, period.

My personal rub recipe:

3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup Paprika
5 tb coarse or freshly ground black pepper
6 tb garlic powder
3 tb onion powder
2.5 tb oregano
2.5 tb thyme
1 tb ginger powder
1 tb cayenne
1 tb ancho chili powder
1 tb rosemary
2 tsp mustard powder

eliminate cayenne and reduce black pepper down to 2 or 3 tb if you want it sweet.

[Dewesq55]

+2 To me, in general (there are exceptions), the taste of BBQ is synonymous with hickory smoke. Although I think that pecan is also really good on pork. It's like as slightly milder hickory, since they are related species.

[Dewesq55]

Without checking, this looks a lot (thought not identical} like Memphis Dust

[TNPIGBBQ]

Dewesq55

It’s a blend of 3 different recipes, developed to my taste. Or rather my wife’s taste. When I started it was 6 tb of cayenne 😂. I had to cut it 50/50 with a commercial rub to get her to eat it. Memphis Dust is serving that purpose now, the base I’ve built from.

My cousins were Grand Champions at Memphis in May way back in the day, their rub is what I was going for. This is close, but too sugary, and still missIng something. But people love it, so that’s how I make it.

[Richard Chrz]

I'm still learning, and likely always will be. But, I think flavor is in every step. Knowing your cooker, understanding the humidity control in it, understanding your fuel source and wood choices, and then getting consistently good meat, understanding how to best render the fat in it with your cooker, how trimming your protein to have smoke and air flow over it and around it for all said purposes, and then tying in seasoning that you prefer. At least that is what I believe so far. Someday I hope to understand all of this.

[Red Man]

No one seems to have noticed that pkadare posted a link to buy the exact rub that the OP is trying to replicate.

[dubob]

I actually looked at the link. They don't seem to sell just the rub by itself, just as a combo with the sauce and I don't need/want the sauce. I have some Heaven Made rub on its way to my doorstep and I will make some Memphis Dust soon. And TNPIGBBQ recipe above looks interesting as well. 😁

[frigate]

dubob from your avatar you must be a veteran. Thank you for your service.

I am BBQing for my wife and myself at this point. I have tried a lot of commercial rubs. None of which had a profile we liked. I started to make my own. It took a few tries but I have a rub we both like. Also after a few tries got a pork and beef injection we liked.

Wrapping ribs with light brown sugar, honey, and butter (Parkay I have found works best) and put the ribs meat side down works to our liking.

Agree with Spinaker that FOGO is the best lump to use.

[dubob]

dubob from your avatar you must be a veteran. Yes, I am; retired USAF.Thank you for your service. Thank you.

I am BBQing for my wife and myself at this point. I have tried a lot of commercial rubs. None of which had a profile we liked. I started to make my own. It took a few tries but I have a rub we both like. Also after a few tries got a pork and beef injection we liked.

Wrapping ribs with light brown sugar, honey, and butter (Parkay I have found works best) and put the ribs meat side down works to our liking. Thanks for the tip. I got that very same suggestion from Heaven Made Products and it is definitely on my list to try.

Agree with Spinaker that FOGO is the best lump to use.

About that: Spinaker said this:

To me, personally, I don't think anything beats the smoke a flavor you get from burning logs. I love using my FOGO lump and BGE it makes great BBQ as does Kingsford in the PBC.

I don't have a clue what the acronyms FOGO, BGE, and PBC mean. I would guess that the vast majority of members here know them by heart. I'm not at that point yet. A few I can figure out, but there are a lot more that are not intuitive. I'll get there some day, but haven't arrived just yet.

[dubob]

Thanks 👍

[DurhamBuckeye]

dubob I'm a newbie on these boards, and I have found I refer to to the sticky that lists commonly used acronyms often:

https://pitmaster.amazingribs.com/forum/pitmaster-general-discussion/7752-commonly-used-acronyms-abbreviations

[Dewesq55]

SLC=St. Louis Cut spareribs

[frigate]

FOGO is the name of a company in Fla. that sells lump charcoal.

[dubob]

Thanks 👍

[Spinaker]

FOGO is a lump charcoal compnmay. (As frigate mentioned above) BGE is for the Big Green Egg and PBC is for the Pit Barrel Cooker.

dubob Here is a full list of the common acronyms used around these parts.

[dubob]

I have it bookmarked for future reference. 👍

[Constrictor]

I'm a big fan of dry ribs. We've had excellent results using Meathead's Memphis dust.

where does one buy this product?

[MBMorgan]

You don't buy it ... you make it:

https://amazingribs.com/tested-recipes/spice-rubs-and-pastes/meatheads-memphis-dust-rub-recipe

[HouseHomey]

Perhaps it’s just the rub you like as stated above about the link sir "Dare" posted. Bite the bullet and buy so you can eliminate the easiest thing.

rule it out before trying a billion other things and buying other products you may not enjoy. The exact thing is available. Perhaps that solves all of your flavor problems.

other than that I can’t add to what was said above. Great stuff as always.

what we do in restaurants for flavor you may never be able to replicate (it may be so tedious or obscure) so I would start with the obvious which is their actual rub.

how did your next batch come out?

Also I just ate 5 pieces of fried chicken and feel great.

[Dewesq55]

Huskee In my line of work, in the field of juror psychology, we call that "primacy and persistence," the ideas that what a juror first comes to believe (primacy) they tend to continue to believe, despite contrary evidence (persistence.) This is related to the concept of confirmation bias.

[pkadare]

Dewesq55 - You are correct sir, it is indeed P.K. Adare - Paul Kenneth at your service. :-) I keep meaning to end my posts with Paul the way that fzxdoc signs her's with Kathryn but I can never remember to do so. :-)

[HouseHomey]

pkadare Many try to be like fzxdoc "There can only be one." Huskee darn it, now I can’t unsee the sound of "Dewey’s Q." Dewesq55 that struggle is real. i hate wearing my glasses especially in a kitchen. As a result I consistently read what I think I’m seeing or should be seeing rather than what is written. Not a good trait working with food and menus. Waiting on contacts now.

[dubob]

HouseHomey I did some baby backs yesterday and put the Heaven Made Texas Best Rib Rub on them. I cut the rack in half and did one half with just the rub. The other half I added some Blues Hog Original (man, I love that stuff ) before the wrap. When they were done, I ate some of both to judge any flavor difference. To be honest, the taste difference, for me, was very, very slight and I honestly thought they were equal. Neither equaled the remembered taste from Corky's.

So, I will make up a batch of Memphis Dust next and do a side by side taste with the Heaven Made product next time.

One thing I have been wondering about is all y'all experts method of applying the rub of choice. I haven't been using any spritze; just applying the rub to the patted dry meat surface. Should I be using a spritze? And how many layers of rub should I apply with spritze - one, two, or more? It seems like restaurant rub bark is way thicker than what I've been getting at home. Learning is fun, so keep the tips coming.

[Huskee]

If the surface is moist or tacky from dry brining, i just sprinkle the rub on. If it's dry I'll wet my fingertips and wet the surface slightly. I used to use a quick spray of Pam too, anything to make the rub have something to help hold it on.

[texastweeter]

mustard is my go to binder on pork.

[Dewesq55]

At one time, there was a member here who did a bunch of side by side "experiments" to test the various methods. I think the upshot was that in side by side the mustard binder made virtually no difference in taste. That said, when I recently did my prime brisket, I did use a shmear of Maggi sauce, mentioned by Harry Soo, to try to increase the umami quotient. I thought the umami taste of the bark was enhanced by it. I generally don't use any binder, but spray Pam on top of the rub.

[Polarbear777]

I make Memphis dust which is salt free. I salt it separately the correct amount of salt then add as much rub as I can possibly get to stick. You can add lots more rub if it doesn’t contain salt.

[texastweeter]

3 2 1 seems to wash out flavor in my experience. Humid cook chamber, no wrap. Most restaurants don't wrap ribs.

[dubob]

Yeah, I'm leaning in that direction. Just let it run until the IT gets in the 200*F region and then test for doneness.

[texastweeter]

I run a pit temp of 225° and start bend testing around 6.5-7 hours on St. Lewis cut. Never temp ribs.