A barbecue rub is mostly salt, then the pepper, sugar, and paprika that match how long that meat sits in the heat. Too much sugar turns a bark bitter because it has hours to darken, and the wrong salt brand makes the same spoon taste twice as salty because the crystals pack tighter.
The three rubs that are written out
Beef
Brisket rub
Diamond Crystal, coarse pepper, and granulated garlic. No sugar as a main ingredient.
Pork
Pork butt rub
The same salt logic, plus paprika and one tablespoon of brown sugar.
Ribs
Dry rub for ribs
More brown sugar than brisket, still short of a glaze, so the surface browns and does not burn.
Brisket rub
The brisket rub is salt, coarse pepper, and granulated garlic. A packer sits in the heat all day, so sugar as a main ingredient has hours to darken until the bark tastes bitter. Pepper is doing the color and the flavor you can still taste after the wrap. The written ratio is half a cup of Diamond Crystal, about 68 grams, half a cup of coarse pepper, about 55 grams, and 2 tablespoons of granulated garlic, about 18 grams. Morton kosher is denser, so the same salt weight is about a third of a cup, around 73 grams.
Pros
- The brisket rub seasons a packer with salt and pepper, and the bark still tastes like beef after a long cook.
- Leaving sugar out keeps the bark from turning bitter over a full day of heat.
Cons
- The brisket rub will taste plain if you wanted a sweet rib bark. That sweetness belongs on a shorter cook.
- Morton kosher in the Diamond Crystal measure oversalts the packer. Use the smaller Morton amount on the recipe page.
It suits a packer. The full recipe is the brisket rub.
Pork butt rub
The pork butt rub keeps the salt logic and adds paprika plus one tablespoon of brown sugar. A butt has enough time for that small spoon of sugar to brown, and not so much sugar that the bark goes bitter the way a rib rub would on beef. Paprika is the color. The sugar is a tablespoon, not a cup.
Pros
- The pork butt rub browns a shoulder with paprika and one tablespoon of brown sugar.
- The salt is still the seasoning, so the bark tastes like pork after the wrap.
Cons
- That tablespoon of sugar is the whole sweetness. Adding the rib amount makes a darker, harsher bark.
- The same Morton warning applies. A denser salt in a Diamond Crystal spoon oversalts the butt.
It suits a pork shoulder you are going to pull. The full recipe is the pork butt rub.
Dry rub for ribs
The dry rub for ribs uses more brown sugar than the beef rub, half a cup packed, about 110 grams, because ribs are supposed to brown over a few hours. Salt is still there: a quarter cup of Diamond Crystal, about 34 grams, or 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon of Morton, about the same weight. It is short of a glaze. You want color, and you still want to taste the meat after the wrap.
Pros
- The rib rub browns the surface over a few hours, which is what the brown sugar is there to do.
- The salt is measured, so the ribs still taste like barbecue after the wrap.
Cons
- That much sugar on a packer has too many hours to darken.
- Packing the brown sugar, or swapping in Morton at the Diamond Crystal volume, changes the rub in your hand.
It suits spare ribs and baby backs. The full recipe is the dry rub for ribs.
Chicken is a shorter, hotter cook, and the rub for it is not written yet. Start from the smoking techniques index, keep the salt under the skin if you season chicken at all, and do not borrow the rib sugar for a bird that finishes in a few hours.
The clocks that sit next to these rubs are the brisket calculator and the pork butt smoking time calculator. Season before the meat goes on. The rub does not need an overnight cure to work, though a few hours in the fridge does no harm.