"Give a man a free hand and he'll run it all over you." Mae West
Some meats just don't need anything other than a little salt and pepper. A great steak comes to mind. Or a really fresh piece of swordfish. On the other hand, some meats love swimming in sauces. Like pork ribs. Other meats are not very flavorful on their own, and are a blank canvas that is easily painted with herbs, spices, and flavorful liquids.
There are several ways to amp up the flavors of foods before cooking:
Seasoning
Briners beware of double salt jeopardy!
Rubs are a great way to add flavor to meat. Brines are also a great way to add flavor as well as moisture. Rubs often contain a lot of salt (click here to read about The Zen of Salt). You can use both a rub and a brine, but beware of double salt jeopardy. If you use a brine and then a rub, you should make your own rub mix and leave the salt out of the blend. A salty rub on top of brined meat can make the meat unbearably salty. Never brine meat that is labeled "enhanced" or "flavor enhanced" or "self-basting" or "basted" because they have been injected with a salt solution. Remember, you can always add salt, but there's no taking it away.
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When chefs speak of seasoning a dish, they are not referring to adding herbs and spices. They are talking about salt and pepper. Period. And most chefs think that these two basic additives are absolutely positively essential. Salt is an excellent flavor enhancer because it actually opens up your taste buds and this really wakes up the flavor of meat and vegetables. If your diet requires low salt, go easy on it, but if you can handle a little, don't skip a little "Dalmatian rub", just plain salt and pepper, on almost anything.
Dry rubs and spice blends
Dry rubs are a mix of spices and dried herbs and they are rubbed into the meat before cooking. They come in a wide range of flavors. There are barbecue rubs, chili powder (yes chili powder is a spice blend), curries, jerk seasoning, sate, Old Bay, and many more.
Rubs can be applied just before cooking, but if you have the time, leave them on overnight so they can penetrate. They don't go much more than 1/8" into most meats, but that's enough to make a difference. You can buy pre-mixed rubs, but they are easy to make yourself, and every good barbecue cook should have a signature house rub to brag on. Just steal my recipes. Then experiment with variations.
Dry rubs usually have salt in them. The salt melts when it contacts the meat and weird things happen with electrons, and it is sucked into the meat dragging with it the other spices. Salt can also help make the surface crusty, usually a desirable texture. Sugar is a common addition because it is a flavor enhancer and it also helps with crust formation. Hot pepper is often in rubs because it adds excitement, but go easy, not everyone likes it as hot as you do. Paprika is often included, not so much for flavor as for color. Black pepper is common, so is garlic powder, onion powder, and herbs. Find a rub recipe you like, make a big batch, and put it in a large spice shaker with a lid. If it clumps or cakes, you can do what waitresses in diners have been doing forever: Add rice to the jar to absorb the moisture.
Pastes, wet rubs, and slathers
Pastes come in two classes: Water based and oil based. Most are just dry rubs mixed with water or oil. They have the advantage of sticking better and can be layered on thick. If salt and sugar are important components, use water as a solvent. Water base slathers are often mixed with mustard, wine, stock, or just plain water. Oil won't dissolve salt and sugar as quickly as water, but many herbs and spices are not water soluble, and oil pulls out their flavors better. Oils are especially good at pulling flavor from fresh herbs. Oil has the added advantage of helping seal the surface of the meat, slightly reducing evaporation. It also helps keep food from sticking to the grates, and if oil-based pastes get hot enough, it can fry the surface, helping with bowning and really amping up the flavor.
Recipes
Most spice blends can be used as both dry rubs or pastes. Here are my faves. Mix them up and keep them on hand for any occasion.
Meathead's Memphis Dust. Memphis is second only to Kansas City as a town of barbecue renown. Many Memphians prefer their ribs "dry", with only a spice rub, so Memphis is justifiably known for rib rubs. A restaurant's gotta have confidence in its meat to serve it with spices only and no sauce. My Memphis Dust is the result of years of fiddling. Folks want me to bottle it and sell it. Nah. Not my style. You can have it for free.
Rendezvous-style Memphis Dry Rub. Perhaps the most revered dry ribs are served at Charlie Vergos' Rendezvous (called "The Vous" by the locals). There are a lot of recipes on the internet that the owners have palmed off on gullible media. They aren't close. I've reversed engineered the recipe, and my version is a LOT closer to the real deal than the red herring going 'round the net.
Big Bad Beef Rub. In Texas, the preferred barbecue meat is beef. That's why they're called cowboys, pahdner. Here's an authentic Texas rub for your brisket.
Mrs. O'Leary's Cow Crust. This is a different kind of spice rub for beef, especially beef roasts, flank steak, and chuck steaks. It's both a dry rub and a wet rub.
Simon and Garfunkel Rub. This is my favorite all purpose spice mix. I sprinkle it on chicken, turkey, pork chops, potatoes, asparagus, omelets, you name it. It can go on as a sprinkle or be mixed with oil as a paste. You'll love it.
Genovese Pesto. The Italian basil based classic is super all by itself on meats and as an additive to other sauces. Make a batch in summer and freeze it.
Mayo Mojo. Here's a spice blend you can keep in a jar and mix with mayo whenever you need it. Since mayo is oil based, it does a great job of extracting flavor from the spices. Use it in egg salad, deviled eggs, potato salad, or a sandwich spread. Now that's convenient.
Harissa. The best hot pepper paste going. Make up a batch, put it in the fridge, and add it to anything that needs heat.
Ras el Hanout, which is Arabic for "head of the shop", is a spice mix often used as a rub for meats, especially lamb and goat in North Africa and the Middle East. Every spice shop, every restaurant, every home has its own recipe, and it can contain dozens of ingredients. It is also used as an ingredient in sauces and marinades, and to flavor rice or cous cous. Some say it is an aphrodesiac. Let me know if it works for you.
Five Spice Powder. One of the specialty spices in many Asian dishes is Chinese five spice powder. It is a blend of cinnamon, cloves, star anise, fennel, and Szechwan peppercorns. Here's how to make your own.
Poultry Seasoning. An easy all-purpose spice mix for chicken, turkey, and even pork (pigs can fly, can't they?). They sell it in bottles, but you can make it yourself easily, and modify the ingredients to your taste.
Brines
The Zen of Brines. Brines are salt water solutions, often with sugar and other flavors added. They are primarily a technique for getting moisture into meat, but they can also add flavor, especially when you add spices, stocks, and bouillons to them. When meat is soaked in a salty liquid, chemistry happens. A process called osmosis pulls the liquid in.
Marinades
The Zen of Marinades. Like brines, marinades are a liquid bath that penetrate meats. They are usually high acid, and often have oil in them. Most marinades do not tenderize, but some contain fresh pineapple juice or papaya juice which contain enzymes that can tenderize. Most vinaigrettes make great marinades because they contain oil, acid, and herbs and spices.
Ingredients
As background, read these articles, The Zen of Herbs & Spices, The Zen of Chiles, the Zen of Garlic, and The Zen of Salt.
...more to come (to be notified when new recipes and other articles come online, be sure to subscribe to my free, spam free, email newsletter).
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