Spice rub is any mixture of ground spices that is made to be rubbed on raw food before the food is cooked. The spice rub forms a coating on the food. The food can be

marinated Marinating is the process of soaking foods in a seasoned, often acidic, liquid before cooking. The origin of the word alludes to the use of brine (''aqua marina'' or sea water) in the pickling process, which led to the technique of adding flavor b ...

in the spice rub for some time for the flavors to incorporate into the food, or it can be cooked immediately after it is coated in the rub. The spice rub can be left on or partially removed before cooking. Rubs are typically applied as a powder, aka "dry." Some "wet" rubs may have oil, water, or other liquid added to make a thick paste.

Ingredients

The spices are usually coarsely ground. In addition to spices, salt and sugar may be added to the rub, the salt for flavor, and the sugar for

caramelization Caramelization is a process of browning of sugar used extensively in cooking for the resulting sweet nutty flavor and brown color. The brown colors are produced by three groups of polymers: caramelans (C24H36O18), caramelens (C36H50O25), and ca ...

. Different salts are sometimes used for their unique qualities, such as Himalayan pink salt. The most straightforward rub is just coarsely ground

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in dia ...

as in

steak au poivre Steak au poivre (, Quebec French pronunciation: ) or pepper steak is a French dish that consists of a steak, traditionally a filet mignon, coated with coarsely cracked peppercorns. The peppercorns form a crust on the steak when cooked and pr ...

. Spice rubs can also add ingredients such as herbs, crushed garlic, or oil to make a paste. Less common ingredients can include

coffee bean A coffee bean is a seed of the '' Coffea'' plant and the source for coffee. It is the pip inside the red or purple fruit often referred to as a coffee cherry. Just like ordinary cherries, the coffee fruit is also a so-called stone fruit. Even th ...

Foods

Spice rubs are mainly used for preparing meats and

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of ...

. There are many different recipes for rubs, and most are targeted toward a specific kind of food. The exact combination of spices that makes a good rub for a particular food varies from region to region and culture to culture.

Cooking methods

Cooking with rubs is almost always done using the dry heat cooking method, where almost no water-based liquid is used. The most popular cooking method for food prepared using a spice rub is grilling. Baking and pan roasting are other dry-heat methods.

Sautéing Sautéing or sauteing (, ; in reference to tossing while cooking) is a method of cooking that uses a relatively small amount of oil or fat in a shallow pan over relatively high heat. Various sauté methods exist. Description Ingredients for ...

is another method, especially if the spice rub includes flour or

bread crumbs Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thicken ...

. When water is used for cooking, it is usually after the food has already been partially cooked with the dry heat method.

References

External links

Lafayette Spices Website
{{Herbs and spices Herb and spice mixtures

Ingredients

Foods

Cooking methods

See also

References

External links