Are expensive BBQ Rubs a rip off? Homemade BBQ rubs that cost less & taste better REVEALED

So Ill add a note about the "Pepper Cannon". Ive owned it for about 2 years now. It is hands down the best pepper grinder you can buy. It is expensive but IMO worth it. Now I dont use mine for anything except pepper. You can grind a Cosco/Sams club sized container of 16 mesh pepper in about 3 minutes. I really produces.

Can't find the recipe in the description box. Maybe only for channel members?

Where is the recipe for your Memphis Red rub? I searched the description but couldn’t find it or any of the other recipes. Thx!

When you dry brine a steak with salt alone 24 hours in advance, how much do you apply? I've heard one teaspoon per pound, but I find bone-in cuts complicate this rule.

I make my own rubs but support Meat Church. Matt Pittman is a force for good in the world of bbq. I watch his videos and for that I'll pay the price for a few of his rubs.

$179.10 for a manual grinder? And this vlog is about BBQ rub rip offs? Sorry but that’s just seems very odd 😞

I’ve been on this for a few years now and am so with you on it, about 3 years ago we had a spice shop open up nearby and I couldn’t believe how inexpensive they are in bulk, for instance a 3kg kosher salt bucket $30, 1kg of 16 mesh black pepper, $10, and so on, I bought 1kg packs of everything and the amount of beautiful rubs I make that don’t have sugar as am diabetic is incredible, thanks for this vid too

Where are the recipes?

Ok, I feel silly for asking, but where are the actual rub recipes?

Keep it simple usually. Want the smoked meat to shine. Offset pork butt with just salt To die for.with home dried oak wood. Mild and delishious

I don't disagree but, I have a very simple solution.

There are rubs everywhere. Find a rub you like and go with it. As long as you like it ..who cares.

Once you have found rub you like, just simply put in freezer when not in use. Freezing rubs help to preserve freshness indefinitely. It will prevent clumping and keep fresh.

Thanks for the tips. What is 30% Your lane in your Umami binder from above?

I’m sorry to bother you James (BTW, I love your channel), but I cannot find the 3 rub recipes that you say are down below! Any help would be appreciated.

Yea i make ribs that cost nothing cuz i make my own rub

Depends how late you are staying..I go in at 630

It’s all marketing. Boutique brands will always be pricier because they have their particular fanbase, usually middle aged people with money to burn. I’ve checked ingredients on many expensive rubs and sauces and there’s cheap for the price you pay while Walmart 3.55$ little known brand have high quality ingredients. It’s not brand name that counts but quality.

Sounds like you have a little hater in your game it’s all personal choice

Well they go off in a short amount of time guaranteed..

Our incentive to make our own rub was not only cost but also availability. We've relied on some blends for our consistent cooks then one day they're no longer available. Thus, for our ribs for example, we developed a rub that we like and we'll never run out.

store your spices in your freezer, no more clumping issues....ever....

Layered approach, I agree with. Good message. Pepper Cannon, I don't. It might be worth it for a chef that wants presentation with precise grind, but for rubs, you can do the same with a $20 electric coffee grinder and get the grind in your range with a little practice. The statement about the oils, is well not true. The oils are going to be there if you crack the peppercorn, no matter how you do it. With the $20 grinder you can wipe cup and switch spices quickly. All grids are much faster than the pepper cannon would ever be.

I always make my own rubs. Blending the spices is part of the fun. I can also control the salt and sugar content.
The rub industry is massive, but expensive, lots of folks have done very well out of mixing salt, pepper and garlic powder together and selling it for a fortune.

wow this guy is a scientist...

Adore the rub recipes, your channel is awesome, thanks! 🙏👍👏🏻

😮 SmomingDad. Great channel for us meat lovers.

Respectfully, I do take issue with your SPG basic rub. Although the flavor is awesome, the mismatch of mesh sizes of the ingredients makes the rub settle into the container in layers. The Lawrey's Seasoned salt settles on the bottom then the Diamond salt then the 16 mesh pepper.

Yes I shake it up before applying to the protein but it still comes out uneven.

A solution to this might be to apply each ingredient individually, but then the Ratios will be off.

So, that said, I'm on the hunt for a pepper of a smaller mesh size salt and pepper to match as close as possible to the smaller Lawry's mesh size.

Thanks for all of your effort in this meat eaters channel.

rocket

man, ain't nobody got time for that!!!😂 i love me some big poppas cash cow beef rub, i love kosmos honey chipotle killer bee, i love cimarron docs sweet rib rub, and i really love loot n' booty gold star chicken rub!!!! i just got into smoking about 2 years ago, my buddy justin got me into it, i had no idea, got my 1st GMG Davy Crockett and the food coming out that little smoker just blew my mind and he also introduced me to the many awesome premium rubs i mentioned above. now i've tried to duplicate some of these rubs as of recently and its a pain in the arse to find spices like 'smoked paprika' in my area in los angeles...sometimes it comes out more expensive to duplicate a rub than to just go out and buy it at bbq land! plus, now you bring up a good point that i dont want these spices to be sitting on my shelf for months b4 i actually mix another batch... but, great video and food for thought

Do you know of a really good book with recipes for BBQ rubs and sauces from different areas of USA ?? Could do with the ISBN number please

Got to be honest. Heath Riles isn't trying to scam people. The ribs are awesome.

Little late to the show as I just recently picked up a KJ Classic 3 so I've ran into some of your videos (had a Ironwood, and a older Louisana Grills Komado before that). I use to be a very big seasoning snob, making my own rubs, getting all sciency into it(and I still do for some things), that was until I looked into meat church seasoning. I agree, making your own seasoning is generally the better idea to control both cost, and quality. But I wouldn't knock Meat Church seasoning. The main reason I'm ok with supporting Meat Church, is yes you could by seasoning, and make your own cheaper. But Meat Church actually uses quality ingredients. It's not the lowest bottom $ spice, and filled with filler. It's all seasoning, and good quality at that. The convience to have that perfect ratio in my cabinet, and ready to is well worth the cost to me.

I see you ground cloves in your pepper cannon too. I now have clove flavored pepper still a couple of weeks after I put the black pepper back in the cannon. Did you find some way to remove the clove oil from the grinder?

Hello
Regularly watch your videos in England,BUT I’m currently on holiday in Orlando 👍🏻 Is there anything to add to add to my collection in your superstores which is a staple in the US ? Regards Rubs
Thanks Andy

about time someone addressed the absurdity of the prevalence and cost of premixed rubs. well done.

While the presenter here is doing his best to sound smart, there are numerous flaws in reasoning right off the bat:

1. Have you ever bought spices? For people not using different spices all the time, you will spend far more money on all the spices you need to make a rub (but don't use by the time they go bad), than if you just by a pre-mixed rub. You can get one jar of pre-mixed rub for the same amount it costs for one jar of ONE kind of whole spice. Some rubs are made from like 6 spices.

2. It's obviously more convenient to by the pre-mixed rub. Convenience matters to people.

3. We don't eat everything in layers. Have you never had soup? Soup has all kinds of ingredients, and it's not in layers. People also don't put rub on ribs in layers, and they win competitions. Different approaches for different things. And a burger gets processed in your mouth. Do you puke it up before you swallow because it's pureed in your mouth? No. Your analogy is flawed.

4. Some people just want a nice quick rub to put on some meat. They don't want to wake every little peppercorn up in a pan to then hand mill it with a pestle and mortar.

I wish you went into a little more detail on the recipes I'm a little co fused on them and want to learn and make them I got a kamado Joe last year and want to improve.on my cooks. I don't know what an umami binder is for example so it would help with some more in depth explanation. Thank you for your content

Anyone have a cheaper option for the pepper cannon? $200 is a bit expensive for me tbh

I buy rubs if I want to try flavour combos that I think are interesting at the moment, and if they use ingredients I don’t have yet.

Let’s you try out different things and if you really like it you can easily replicate it in bulk using spices. But for a first try it’s cheaper to buy the rub.

I find myself doing that less and less though as my spice collection expands.

Another thing is just ease of use. It’s nice to be able to pick up a rub from the store that’s already perfectly mixed and just shake it onto whatever I’m cooking.

But really I only own one rub right now and I don’t even really need it. Freshly ground pepper is best too.

If you’re truly on a budget skip all the fancy rubs and get the basic paprika, salt, pepper, and garlic powder. All work on all bbq and they work in every other dish youre gonna cook.

This is quality content in both honesty and detail.

If you want to grind/crack black pepper corns in larger quanities, use a SPICE GRINDER which is a small blender for grinding spices actualy!

There is an amazing but economical way to grind peppercorns. First, I like to toast them a dry pan, just until the fragrance is brought out and they start jumping out of the pan. Then, I blitz them in a blender. I do own a vitamix blender, and it can handle even very small amounts; typically I make about half a cup at a time. It takes maybe 20 seconds. You can also use a mortar and pestle. So little effort for a big flavour boost. And I didn't spend $$$ on a cannon. Your welcome.

I gagged....twice

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat should be in every home cooking enthusiast’s library! 👌🏼

This is just my opinion, and I used to think the same, but in Denmark where I live, if I were to separately buy spices I use for BBQ like black pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, cayenne powder, cumin powder, all spice, lovage, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, sugar, they will usually come in the small portions from Santa Marias or similar brands, and would cost me more than just buying the rub blends itself. Buying spices separately makes sense if you want to continuously experiment on mixing them, but economically, at least where I live, its a bad choice. They are not in any way more fresh than the local rubs I can get, and they are far more expensive as I get them at the grocery store, in smaller amounts. Aside from salt and sugar, a lot of these spices are rather pricey. The rub blends I use are usually sold as package deals when buying a large box of ribs or whatever, and the amount of rub you need usually also matches the amount of food you are making. I can see that if you buy a whole lot of different rubs in one go that they might get old, but if you buy on-demand, and only for what you're making next, or in the nearest future, then I think the rub blends are better

I agree 100%. My coworkers and I do a lot of grilling and smoking. I'm frequently asked what rub do I like and I always tell them I make my own. Super fun and you can experiment with your own blend.

A good tip is to grow your spices in the garden, then it Will be almost free.

Well, I'm in both camps. Like others, I recognized many, if not most, of the prepackaged rubs you had on display, in addition to having many bulk spices that I use to blend my own rubs. Some of the prepackaged rubs are so overpoweringly salty that I'm surprised a big name bbq'r even put that out. On the other hand, instead of hundreds of dollars in prepackaged, I have instead hundreds of dollars in bulk spices, and guess what? They sit around and go flat just like the little bottles. I try to circumvent that by buying whole seed spices, especially the ones that go flat so quickly, like mustard seed. Some people say that you can't tell what a rub will taste like until you put it on food and cook with it, but I've tasted some rubs that are so terrible that there's no way I'm putting it on anything. And I've also blended my own from bulk and they've come out so bad that I end up discarding them. How much money did I save then? Some big name bbq guys and gals say that cumin is the secret ingredient, and I find it's flavor so overpowering that I won't use it. Same with celery seed. Just a few grains of that and I'm out. I don't care what it does for the smoke ring. Unlike some, I don't think you were calling out guys for promoting their products; I doubt you bought all that stuff just to make a video. Thank you for including some recipes, I'm going to look at those now.

I appreciate this video the only thing I disagree with is grouping Malcolm Reed in with the guys who say" you must use this rub to be successful" . I get it, he's included because he's one of the bigger personalities but he does a good job of emphasizing you can use whatever rub you wish and isn't pushy on his products.

I believe you are wrong , and out of your depth .

What is "Your Lane" ?? As in your first rub recipe .

I will vouch for this 100% I never used single ingredients for a rub only in pan dishes or whatever but once you make a basic rub it tastes much better than any pre packaged one

Thanks very much a very informative vid and definitely from now on making my own rubs👍