Flavor Enhancers - Big Y® World Class Market®

The Best Rubs, Marinades and Sauces

Barbecue sauces, rubs and marinades are the ultimate vehicles for taking grilled dishes from ordinary to extraordinary. These flavor enhancers allow you more opportunities to punch up the deliciousness of your grilled dishes. Whether you coat your pork chops with a spice rub, juice up your meat with a marinade, or brush your burgers with a sauce, these tasty add-ons will provide that extra oomph you're looking for.

Grilled BBQ Pork Spare Ribs

Rubs and Pastes

Simply put, a rub is a dry mixture of herbs and spices, while a paste is a mixture of herbs and spices combined with a liquid (usually oil). Coating food with a rub or paste before grilling will create a flavorful, aromatic crust during cooking.

Consider the food you are preparing when putting together a rub or paste. Bolder-flavored food, like salmon or steak, will blend well with bolder spices, which might overpower milder food such as chicken.
Rubs are easy to apply; just pat them on and gently rub them in with your fingertips until you ve lightly coated the entire surface. Not sure how much to use? You ll need about one teaspoon of spice mixture for every æ pound of meat.
To simplify mixing and storing, use a small container with an airtight lid. Add all ingredients, snap on the lid and shake, then use the same container for storage. Most dry rubs will keep for up to a month in a cool, dark place. Pastes should not be stored.
Improvise! Just about any spice/flavor combination you use in your cooking can be converted into a rub. Make sure to go lightly on the more pungent spices, such as cloves, cinnamon or cayenne pepper, as they can easily overpower the mix.

Sauces

A good barbecue sauce does more than just coat your meat with a sticky glaze it creates finger-licking, plate-clearing flavor. Most sauces include a combination of sweet and sour flavors, with spices added to the mix for complexity and a bit of heat.

The most important thing to remember: Don't add sauce too soon during the cooking process. The same ingredients that make your sauce so tasty the sugars, the tomato bases are also prone to burning. When sauce is brushed on before its time, it will char on the outside of your meat, creating an unpleasant looking and tasting crust. Instead, wait until the very end of cooking to add sauce, and then serve plenty of it tableside for those who want more.
Be sure to divide your sauce use separate bowls for cooking
and for serving later.

Marinades

A marinade usually includes oil, an acid (vinegar, lemon juice, etc.) and spices. Marinating meat adds moisture and flavor; it can also tenderize tougher cuts.

Use a shallow glass or stainless steel container for marinating, or make it easy on yourself and use a heavy-duty, resealable plastic bag.
You'll need between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of marinade for each pound of food. Don't worry if your marinade doesn t completely cover everything; just turn it over a few times during marinating.
While you can marinate beef, poultry or pork up to overnight, fish is more delicate and shouldn't be marinated for more than an hour. Any longer and it could lose texture.

Midwest Rub

Western Rub