This writer posted a recipe last week on my new Barbecue Rub recipe. I tried it last Thursday on a five pound chicken – it worked out pretty well. The success is qualified however. I rubbed the chicken about ten minutes before I put it on the grill. Excited with the results I tried it again.

This time I bought six pounds of pork spare ribs. I laid them out on Saturday evening and rubbed in the new concoction. It is OK to use bare hands but I find that using plastic gloves leaves the rub on the meat and not washed down the drain from my hands. There were no plastic gloves around so I used a sandwich bag wrapped around my fingers. It worked just fine.

I let the pork sit overnight and fired up the smoker on Sunday morning. The ribs cooked about four hours and had a dark crust on the outside, but the meat inside was tender and moist. Reflecting on the rub recipe I realized that I probably put twice as much sugar in the recipe as was necessary. When sugar is heated it will caramelize and burn – so I have changed the recipe as follows:

(I have also increased the portions of garlic and onion powder)

2 Ounces of Paprika

1 Tbls of Brown Sugar

1 Tbls Granulated Sugar

3 Tsp salt

1 Tsp ground black pepper

2 Tsp Garlic powder

2 Tsp Onion powder

Part of the fun of cooking, of barbecuing, is in the experimenting with flavors and spices. This is a great hobby – but I have noticed recently that my belt seems to be shrinking.

Perhaps the belt is getting too much sun.