Brining and rubs vs "double salt jeopardy"?

[jtw]

I guess this question is aimed at those of you who use commercially available rubs. Do you dry brine your meat before putting on a rub containing salt? As we all know, most of the rubs you can buy contain a lot of salt which gets you in Meathead's "double salt jeopardy" if the meat has already been salted.

Do you skip the brining step or do you just put the whole rub on? It always feels like the moisture given off by the brining process washes off some of the rub.

I do make a lot of my own [salt-free] rubs so that I can dry brine, but that's a lot of work and a lot of those commercial rubs are really good so I'm wondering how you guys use those rubs.

[Jerod Broussard]

If I'm doing 20-30+ pork shoulders I will use commercial rubs as the dry brine and put them on a day or two early.

[Jerod Broussard]

Geez, it's 3am I must be lonely.....

[Purc]

+1 on dry brine only with commercial rubs. I only add salt to fried chicken and corn on the cob. I also try to buy low or no added salt food. I'm not a fan of salt.

[DaveD]

I pretty much never use commercial rubs for exactly this reason - way too salty. The only ones I use nowadays are Spiceology Cowboy Crust, because its salt content is low (listed as the fourth of five ingredients); FlavorGod's Everything But The Salt, which is self-explanatory; and Hickman's No-Salt BBQ rub. Everything else I use, with one exception, I mix up myself salt-free from posted recipes, like those here and the ones Henrik Hank posted based on the recipes he used to sell commercially. The one exception is the secret-recipe Jenni In A Bottle that my foodie pal supplies me with. I don't know the details except that it's very low-salt by design.

This allows me to always dry-brine first and never worry about oversalting. I've become pretty persnickety about controlling the salt content by itself anymore...

[STEbbq]

No Jenni’s?!?

[DaveD]

STEbbq Not sure what you mean... I mention Jenni's at the end of that first paragraph. And it's not exactly "commercial". If Jenni ever decides to actually tell me the recipe, which I don't think will ever happen, I'd mix it up salt-free as well. But it has so little that it's never an issue with dry brining, I know it's less than 5%, she told me that much...

[STEbbq]

Oops. I missed the mention of Jenni’s and read it too quick.

[klflowers]

I just use the rub as my brine. I am partial to Meat Church rubs. I used to make my own, but I ended up with lots of spices I didn’t use. I do keep some MMD on hand though and I dry brine when I use it exclusively.

[Mosca]

I do this as well.

[LegoMySearwood]

This is what I have started to do as well.

[dpearce]

+1

[fzxdoc]

There are some pretty tasty commercial rubs out there. If salt is listed as the first or second ingredient, I use the rub to dry brine the meat, as klflowers does. It always works just fine. Sometimes, like for chicken or ribs, I add a light top layer of paprika to help give it a nice color as it smokes. I don't dry brine ribs overnight though--an hour or so before smoking them is all they need. They have that "cured" or "hammy" taste with an overnight brine.

Sooner or later, you'll want to smoke a meat that has been treated with a salt solution.

Here is a handy guide that Huskee posted a few years back.

When to brine a salt solution infused piece of meat:
Look at the Nutrition label:
200-300mg sodium, brine as if it weren't salted at all
300-400mg sodium, brine lightly.
400+mg, maybe skip brining.

Kathryn

[TripleB]

I go by the size of the protein generally. Large cuts of meat (Tri-tips, rib roasts, chuck) I'll use my rubs with salt from the get-go. So a TT will be dusted the day before with a rub w/ salt and then re-rub the TT before it goes on the grill with another rub w/ salt.

Small cuts like steaks, chops, chicken pieces will be dry brined a few hours before grilling ant then dusted with a salt-free rub just before it goes on the grill.

[Santamarina]

If I were to use a commercial rub, that would be my only salt addition. But I haven’t used one in over a decade, so I dry brine everything.

[jfmorris]

I’m with everyone else - if I use a commercial run that is salty, I use it to dry brine, if I dry brine. I don’t salt and use a salty rub.

[briano52]

I use mostly homemade rubs with kosher salt that doesn't seem as salty as fine salt does. My most common recipe is equal parts kosher salt and coarse grind pepper. To that I sometimes add a dried herb or two. Favorites are cumin, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, ancho chili powder, Italian herbs, herbes de Provence and a whole host of others. Recently I tried dried cherry powder, and I liked that on ribs smoked over cherry wood.

Hard to go too far wrong with homemade rub as long as you don't over salt it. Some come out better than others, but they are fun to play with. I also try store bought rubs occasionally to compare with my homemade rubs. More often than not the homemade stuff is better. Biggest problem with trying an unknown store bought is the unknown saltiness. Most list salt as the first ingredient on the list but that is only a rough clue as to how salty they might be on the pallet.

[Dr J]

I have moved to non salt rubs or if it is salted I use it as the dry brine because the salt is already on it. The secondary benefit is the spices will be drawn into the meat.

[cruiseplanner1]

Dry brine overnight then salt free rub next morning.

[FireMan]

It sure sounds like you have a pretty good understanding of what happenin. Continue what yer doin and go on to yer next quest of cookin technique! Good work Man!