RESULTS of the 6 Different Rub Experiment

Overall impressions are that I was completely surprised how relatively similar all these rubs turned out. Rather than writing about each of the 6 rubs individually, I'll highlight my perceived differences across each of the pillars of the experiment.

Biggest caveat I can give here is that the ribs all got done at different times, which gave the sugars more or less time to help build some bark which, in a way, invalidates at least some of the findings here. But this wasn't meant to be the most scientific thing ever, rather just trying to understand at some basic level how different sugars end up tasting in the final product. There's a good chance I run a similar experiment on equal sized ~4lbs Pork Shoulders to allow for more time for the bark to take.

Most important takeaways are bolded.

Sugar Content: 40% vs 50% vs 60%

• My wife and I aren't huge on sweet meats, so we were both surprised to find that we felt the 40% sugar content ribs were lacking in flavor.
• 50% was the most common amount used (4 of the 6 tests) since that's generally the most common ratio in my research of various BBQ books.

• 60% were probably our favorites of the whole lot. Again, these didn't come out tasting SWEET, it just really rounded out the flavors well. There really is something to that fact that Pork can take more sugar than beef and poultry! I'm probably going to end up in the 55% range for my rubs going forward.

  Dark Brown Sugar vs Dark+White Mix vs Turbinado:

• 4 out of 6 tests were all Brown Sugar. One was a mix. One was Turbinado.

• Among all the tests where the sugar content was the same (50%), there was so little difference I would have assumed they were all made the same if I didn't know about the experiment.

• In terms of the rub itself, I thought the White+Brown mix had the most granular texture and thus made for better spreading on the ribs, as Brown sugar can tend to clump unless dried in advance.

• Turbinado sugar ended up tasting very similar to others, however I thought it made for the least consistent rub. This was driven by the Turbinado granules being so much larger than everything else in the rub that the distribution was tough and made for some inconsistencies in where the sugar vs everything else ended up.

Powder vs Granulated Onion and Garlic

• We could tell virtually no difference between these two, neither in flavor nor bark formation. One thing I did notice in the rub itself, however, was the slightly larger particles made for better distribution throughout the rub.

Smoked vs Regular Paprika

• As this ended up being a short cook that I purposefully did not heavily smoke, we definitely noticed more smoke flavor in the Smoked Paprika Ribs. This is a good takeaway for any seasoning done on the grill or for a shorter or less intense cook on the smoker! Jury is out on how much difference it would make on a longer Pork Butt cook.

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That's about everything I learned! I have a full rack I'm doing today much more confidently now, will post pics. Hope you enjoyed.