Comment: I have been receiving hits for people looking for St Louis Rib Recipes. I know I was originally confused about the subject, so I’m dedicating a page to What is a St. Louis Rib?
This is what I use as a general purpose BBQ rub. With the brown sugar it fits in well with Memphis sauces. It will work well for both wet or dry ribs. Originally I never used sugar in my rubs for fear of it burning. However as I found myself able to control the temp of the pit better (I prefer to run ~250F) I found that using sugar in the rub is OK. It functions similar to salt to pull juices out of the meat, which helps the meat self-baste during the smoking process. I used to mop, now I just leave it be. I put a container of water in the smoker to keep it a bit steamy, and I can go about 6 hours and the ribs don’t dry out.
Keep in mind that on ribs that are smoked for 5+ hours, a lot of the spices can be ‘hauled off’ by the fat as it drips away. So on ribs I will apply this very liberally. On chicken however I only lightly rub them. I may adjust the recipe for chicken but for now this works.
Ron’s Rib Rub (works for Chicken too)
Makes enough for 3-4 racks of St. Louis style ribs or 8-10 split chicken breasts
- 2 Tbsp Turbinado sugar (preferred) or cane sugar
- 2 Tbsp salt
- 6 Tbsp dark (preferred) or light brown sugar
- 1 Tbsp cumin
- 1 Tbsp chili powder
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 1 Tbsp cayenne pepper
- 2 Tbsp paprika
- 1 Tbsp mustard powder
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
4 responses so far ↓
1 Talley Beardsley // Sep 11, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I had the pleasure of trying this rub on both ribs and sausage one evening and it was fantastic. Ron’s absolutely right about the sugar not burning at smoking temperatures. The spices blend very well, but in my humble opinion, the SUGAR is what makes this rub outstanding.
2 RonSenykoff // Jun 8, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Yes this rub does have more sugar than many others. The various peppers do help balance this with heat so you get a sweet-hot and savory rib. So long as you keep the temp from spiking too high, the sugar will slowly caramelize and you may wonder if you really need any sauce. I prefer to use a dipping sauce so that I can taste the rib and rub on its own, then add a bit of sauce for flavor.
3 RB // Jun 25, 2009 at 4:13 pm
What characteristic does the white pepper bring to the game?
4 RonSenykoff // Jun 25, 2009 at 4:29 pm
IMO white pepper can add a little more pepper aroma without contributing as much pepper to the taste. It also can be very overpowering which is why such a small amount. As I adjusted this recipe over time the white pepper went down. I believe I originally started with 1 tsp which was too much.
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