salsalady said:
last weekend, I did up sinensis's rib rub recipe with no salt (see post #428 for the recipe. I had it in one of the pics but it's pretty fuzzy~)
white sugar with molasses, and all the spices. I had to really work in the molasses with a spoon, I think I'll try just blitzing everything in the FP next time. I like the NoSalt at the beginning. I probably put too much dry spice mix on the ribs before smoking, they definitely needed the wet sauce at the end. All in all, WAAAaaaayyyy better than the pile of chit I did before!. Thanks sinensis!
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awesome, glad you liked it. it looked like it turned out pretty good.
also, sorry, i should have said that mixing the molasses in by hand takes some elbow grease. overall, which did you think was easier? un-bricking old brown sugar or mixing molasses into white sugar?
by all means, if you have fresh brown sugar on hand, or if you think it's easier to un-brick the old stuff, then do that. just use the combined weight of the white sugar + molasses in the recipe and sub in brown sugar.
what i do is try to pour the molasses in thin ribbons onto the sugar pile. then i give it a few stirs to break up the main clumps and get everything covered with sugar since you don't want anything super sticky. then i dump it in my blender (a vitamix these days) and pulse it. i pick up the jar and give it a few shakes between pulses, because it won't blend evenly otherwise. also, if you overdo it, you kind of end up with powdered sugar.
i think this method is relatively fast and easy. i haven't tried a food processor, and i wonder if that would work even better.
here's the end result of that mixing process:
as you can see, it's not perfect. there's some powdered sugar, there's some brown sugar, and there's some clumps. i think this is really not a big deal in this application.
also, if you're using the sugar+molasses in a baking recipe or something with wet ingredients, then it's even easier since the liquid will just dissolve everything.
but if you want perfect brown sugar, i think the best way is to use a large spoon and spend some time shearing the clumps along the wall of the bowl. or just buy it fresh from the store. i hate planning ahead though
so my overall workflow is blend up the sugar+molasses, then add paprika, garlic, onion, and ginger powders. then i move onto my un-ground ingredients which i measure on a more sensitive scale instead of my baking scale due to the smaller weights involved. i combine the rosemary, black peppercorn, chipotle, smoked hab flakes, and sichuan peppercorn in my spice grinder which is just a cheap krups coffee grinder. i actually weigh those ingredients in the grinder's lid. grind it up, add it back to the other ingredients, and stir.
here's the final rub with all ingredients added:
i'm doing a few racks of st louis ribs tomorrow!
they're defrosting now. in the morning, i'll pull the membrane and salt them. then a few hours later, i'll add the rub and throw them on the smoker.
Sauce the bottom, dress the top (the usual suspects but add olives mmmmmm). Oh shit like a per peri vera cruz po boy!!!!!
Seriously, dont these guys know that...