How do I make a dry rub for meat, and when do I put it on?

It is worth being honest about what a rub does. Salt migrates into the meat and changes it all the way through. Sugar caramelises on the surface. Spices sit on the outside and form part of the crust. That is not a criticism — the crust is most of what you taste — but it does dictate when each component should go on.

What you'll need

• Coarse salt
• Sugar — brown, demerara or white
• Ground spices and dried herbs
• An airtight jar for storage

Step by step

1. Start from the salt, and measure it against the meat.Salt is the only ingredient doing internal work. As a working figure, around 1% of the meat's weight in salt seasons it properly — 10g per kilogram. If your rub is a quarter salt by weight, you need about 40g of rub per kilogram of meat. Working this way stops you either under-seasoning a large joint or making a small one inedible.
2. Add sugar for colour and crust, not sweetness.Sugar browns, helps the surface lacquer and balances salt and heat. Brown sugar brings molasses depth; white sugar is neutral; demerara stays coarser. Roughly equal parts salt and sugar is the classic barbecue baseline, but half that sugar is more to most British tastes.
3. Build the aromatic layer.Smoked or sweet paprika for colour, garlic and onion powder for savoury depth, black pepper, cumin, coriander, mustard powder, dried oregano or thyme, cayenne or chilli for heat. Ground spices distribute better in a rub than whole ones — whole seeds bounce off.
4. Toast and grind whole spices if you want it to taste of anything.Pre-ground spice loses its volatile oils within months. Toasting whole cumin, coriander and fennel in a dry pan until fragrant, then grinding, is a two-minute step that makes a much bigger difference than the recipe does.
5. Apply salt early and everything else to suit the cook.For a short cook, put the whole rub on 40 minutes to a few hours ahead. For a long cook — ribs, shoulder, brisket — salt the day before, and either use a low-sugar rub throughout or apply the sugary rub in the last hour so it does not burn black over five hours.
6. Pat the meat dry, then press the rub on.A dry surface takes rub evenly. Oil or mustard as a binder is optional and does not help penetration, but it does stop the rub falling off when you move the meat. Press it on rather than sprinkling from a height — coverage should be even, not patchy.
7. Store it properly and label it.An airtight jar away from heat and light. A rub with sugar in it clumps if it gets damp — a few grains of rice in the jar help. Ground spice blends are noticeably better in the first three months.

Tips

• A wet rub or paste — the same ingredients bound with oil, mustard, garlic paste or tomato purée — clings better to awkward shapes like a rack of ribs or a whole chicken.
• Make the base without salt and add salt separately by weight when you use it. That way one jar works for a 200g steak and a 3kg shoulder.
• If a rub tastes flat, it is usually short of salt or acid rather than short of spice. A squeeze of lemon at the end often finishes it.
• For chicken skin, keep the sugar low and the salt high — sugar burns before poultry skin has finished crisping.

Common mistakes

• Expecting a rub to flavour the inside of a joint — Nothing but salt travels more than a few millimetres. A rub builds an intense crust, which is the point — but the middle will taste of meat and salt.
• Sugary rub on a five-hour cook, applied at the start — Sugars pass caramelised and go bitter and black. Save the sweet layer for the last hour, or use a savoury rub and glaze at the end.
• Scaling a rub recipe by eye onto a big joint — A 4kg shoulder needs roughly four times what a 1kg one does. By eye, people massively under-season large joints and over-season small ones.

Alternatives

• Dry brine only: Just salt, applied hours ahead. Does most of the work of a rub for the meat itself, with none of the crust. The right choice when you want to taste the meat.
• Marinade: A liquid with acid, oil and aromatics. Better for thin cuts and skewers, and it flavours a surface layer rather than building a crust. Does not tenderise as much as its reputation claims.
• Glaze or mop: A sweet liquid brushed on in the last stage of cooking. This is where honey, barbecue sauce and syrups belong — applied late, in thin coats.

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