Baby back ribs dry rub

A baby back ribs dry rub is half a cup of packed brown sugar against 3 tablespoons of Diamond Crystal, with paprika, pepper, garlic, and onion behind it. That is about 1 cup, and it seasons two racks. Baby backs are the smaller, shorter cook, so this jar keeps the sugar that browns them and uses less salt than the spare-rib rub. The same sweetness on a packer would sit in the heat all day and turn the bark bitter, which is why the brisket rub leaves the sugar out.

Recipe

Baby back ribs dry rub

About 1 cup, enough for two baby back racks. Prep 10 minutes.

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Ingredients

Ingredient	Volume	Weight
Packed light brown sugar	1/2 cup	110 g
Diamond Crystal kosher salt	3 tablespoons	26 g
Paprika	2 tablespoons	14 g
Coarse black pepper	1 tablespoon	7 g
Granulated garlic	1 tablespoon	9 g
Onion powder	1 tablespoon	8 g

Steps

1. Break up the brown sugar with your fingers so the molasses clumps disappear.
2. Stir in the salt, paprika, pepper, garlic, and onion powder until the color looks even.
3. Peel the membrane off the bone side of each rack and pat the meat dry.
4. Use about half the batch on each rack, a heavier coat on the meat side than on the bones.
5. Let the racks sit while the pit heats. The sugar will look wet as it draws moisture out.

This batch is for baby backs, which cook for a few hours. Morton kosher salt: use 1 tablespoon plus 2 1/4 teaspoons (about 26 g) in place of the Diamond Crystal. Spare ribs want the drier, saltier coat on the dry rub for ribs page. Sauce, if you want it, goes on at the end over heat you can watch.

Why each ingredient

Brown sugar is half a cup, packed, about 110 grams. By the spoon that is 8 tablespoons, the largest part of the rub. Baby backs are usually on the pit for about 3 to 5 hours, which is enough time for that sugar to brown and then come off. A spare rib is a longer cook, and a packer is a different day. The brisket rub leaves sugar out so a long beef cook stays peppery instead of sharp.

Diamond Crystal is 3 tablespoons, about 26 grams. The dry rub for ribs uses a quarter cup, 4 tablespoons, because that page also covers bigger spare racks. Three tablespoons is the baby back measure: enough salt to season a thin rack, and less than a salt crust on meat that does not have a spare rib's bulk. Morton is a tighter crystal. The same scoop is saltier. Use 1 tablespoon plus 2 1/4 teaspoons of Morton, about 26 grams, and the racks stay seasoned.

Paprika, 2 tablespoons, about 14 grams, is the color under the sugar. Coarse pepper, 1 tablespoon, about 7 grams, is the bite you still taste after a wrap. The spare rub uses twice that pepper. On a baby back the extra pepper can shout past the pork, because there is less meat between the bones. Granulated garlic and onion powder, a tablespoon each, are the savory base so the sugar does not taste like a candy shell. If your garlic is coarse, crush it so it does not sit in pebbles on the rack.

How much per rack

Half the batch is one rack: about 8 tablespoons, both sides. Put about 5 tablespoons on the meat side and about 3 on the bone side. The bone side has less surface that needs a sweet crust, and a dune of sugar there mostly falls into the pit. Two average baby backs should take most of the cup. A skinny grocery rack, the kind with a skim of meat over the bones, needs a lighter hand. Stop when the surface looks evenly coated. Piling more on does not salt the inside any faster, and the extra sugar is what burns if the grate spikes.

If you are cooking one rack, mix the full batch and save half, or cut every measure in half. Half of 3 tablespoons is 1 tablespoon plus 1 1/2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal. The ratio stays. The jar is just smaller.

When and how to apply it

Pull the membrane first. It is the thin skin on the bone side. Rub slides off it, and the meat underneath never gets seasoned. A butter knife lifts one end. A paper towel gives you a grip. Pat the racks dry so the sugar sticks in an even coat instead of clumps in the folds.

Coat both sides, meat side a little heavier. The sugar will turn shiny as it pulls water out of the pork. Give it 20 to 40 minutes while the pit settles at the grate temperature on how to smoke ribs. A few hours uncovered in the fridge dries the surface and helps the crust. Overnight is optional. The rub works the morning you cook. A full day on a thin baby back lets the salt work on a small piece of meat until the outside tastes cured. If the package says enhanced or self-basting, the plant already added a brine, so use a lighter coat or the ribs eat salty before the sugar has browned.

A thin film of water helps the spices stick. Mustard does the same job and then mostly cooks off. Use it if that is your habit. This card has no mustard powder. The tang, if you want it in the rub itself, is the variation below.

Sauce is a last step. Paint it on in the final minutes, over heat you can see, the way the rib method describes. Sauce plus this much sugar, left on for hours, is how a baby back goes black before it bends.

Storage

Keep the jar sealed. Brown sugar pulls moisture from the air and turns into a brick, and a brick does not coat a rack. Break it up with a fork before the next cook. Garlic and paprika fade before the salt and sugar do, so a batch older than a couple of months tastes flatter. Mix a fresh one. The salt in an old jar is still salt. The rub is no longer the one on the card.

Label the lid if you also keep the spare rub and the BBQ rub. They are all brown. The baby back jar is the one with 3 tablespoons of Diamond Crystal in the batch, and the spare jar is the one with a quarter cup.

Variations

A pinch of cayenne, about a quarter teaspoon in the full batch, is the heat version. More than that and the sugar can taste sharp on a short cook. A teaspoon of mustard powder, about 3 grams, is the tang in the dry rub for ribs. Add it here if you want that bite. Skip it and the rub still browns.

Spare ribs and a St. Louis cut want that other card: more salt, more pepper, and the same sugar, because the rack is bigger and it stays in the heat longer. Using this whole baby back batch on two large spares can taste light. Using the spare rub at full strength on two small baby backs can taste salty. Match the jar to the rack.

Leave the sugar out and you are closer to the pork butt rub, which keeps one tablespoon of brown sugar for a shoulder that cooks all day. You lose the color this page is for. Chicken, chops, and a weekend when dinner might be more than ribs are the BBQ rub recipe, which adds chili powder and a little cayenne and uses less salt than a rib-only jar.

The cook that uses this rub is how to smoke ribs: membrane, 225°F at the grate, about 3 to 5 hours for baby backs, and the bend test that can end the cook before the clock does. A grate probe is worth having so the sugar browns instead of burning, and meat thermometers for smoking is the list. The BBQ rub recipes index is the map if you season more than one meat.