Oakridge Rubs

I experiment regularly with different pre made rubs but keep coming back to SPOG+cayenne. Equal parts by weight 1/2 part cayenne.

Wise choices, but you shoulda got the Black Ops and Secret Weapon to round things out!

I have tried the dominator rub on ribs. It's what I'm using now and it works well. Always good to try a new rub here and there. Good luck.

I found out, no 2 people will agree on the same rub. I bought the Dominator rub and used it. I liked it and so did the wife, but she prefers something with the typical bbq profile. I do too, but I like the change sometimes. That's why I'm not "stuck" on any rubs.

As for the Dominator rub, to me it taste like apples. My only neg is that there's no kick or heat. But that's why there's different rubs.

I stumbled across Oakridge Rubs by accident when I had problems with another distributor trying to ship some rubs to my son who was deployed overseas. The deployed soldiers wanted some rubs for for a holiday cook they had planned a few weeks in advance.

Since then I have tried all of the Oakridge rubs and I am more than pleased with such outstanding products low in salt and low in sugar, but very large on flavors.

I use Competition Beef and Pork rub, it is great.... The Dominator Sweet Rib rub is also good, but it has a very slight hint of cinnamon, nothing wrong with that, but it may take you buy surprise if you never used a rub with cinnamon in it.

While making homemade rubs can be a fun experiment and the outcome can be good. I have tried many recipes from here and even varied them from time to time, but have never created anything exceptionally outstanding.

In blind taste tests, more often than not, the rub you like best will not be the one you make yourself. This is because lock ourselves into a closed mind of what spices we should put into the rub we make. Personal changes in taste are difficult to make and we tend to lock in on a specific set of ingredients and exclude others that don't appeal to our personal tastes. They break your barriers of normal taste and expand your flavor horizons. Remember that a rub is not only a mixture of spices and herbs, it is a mixture of flavors. A good rub will have a balanced flavor that adds layers of flavor of the meat, without overpowering it. While a rub will add flavor, it is also a flavor enhancer that brings out and compliments the overall flavor of the meat with subtle additions of salty, sweet, savory, and spicy flavors in perfect balance to our taste buds.

The bottom line is that making multi-layers of flavors in rubs at home is not an easy task. In the end I think it is best to leave the rubs to the professional suppliers. They are commercially mixed in bulk at extreme discounts. They have professional mixing, measuring, and packaging equipment. In the end they have the quality control labs to provide you with a consistent product that will not change from cook to cook. It will save you a lot of work, effort, and yes even money in the interim, and there are so many choices out there.

End Note:
(After 3 years and I am still waiting for that other distributor to contact me with the actual shipping costs that were estimated at $40.00+. I called everyday for over a week and was simply told, "we are working on it". After a week Mike stepped up to the plate out of nowhere and offered to deliver them on time. Mike from Oakridge shipped the rubs for a simple $4.95, needless to say, I'll never spend another cent of my money with the other distributor. The happy ending of the story is that a group of 40 deployed soldiers had a great tasting holiday meal.)

I'm not a fan of the Cinnamon in the Dominator and Secret Weapon rubs prefer to use my own or others. Carne Crosta on steaks and burgers is fantastic and will buy again, I will probably order some Santa Maria in the future and wouldn't mind trying Black Ops but I really like to just use salt and pepper with a hot sauce slather on Briskets, Beef Ribs and Chuck Roasts.

My Mother came down to visit me last week and she had never had Beef Short Ribs so I smoked a couple of racks. She asks while we're eating what kind of rub I used, I responded salt and pepper, she then looked at me and said just salt and pepper? I said yes Momma I slathered the Ribs with hot sauce then just applied salt and pepper, her response was wow.

Hey hows it going? I've tried all of the oak ridge products. I love every one of them! The Beef and Pork comp goes good with everything! I've had it on brisket, ribs, chicken, etc. Its the wife's favorite rub out of the whole lot. The dominator rub works well for a lot of things as well. Nekked fatties are great with the dominator rub.

I haven't tried many rubs, due to little variety here so I've been forced to order rubs online. Ever since I received my first order from oak ridge, I've been hooked. Their product is great.

Do yourself a favor and order their sampler pack. It's a great way to taste their rubs and see what you like. I narrowed my purchase down to competition pork and habanero death dust after trying the sampler.. I find a light sprinkle of heat mixed with other rubs is very tasty.

I really like all their products. Dominator with Stubbs original as a glaze was the best ribs I've made so far. I also LOVE carne crosta on steaks after using it it makes S&P taste boring.

We like Dominator so well that I buy it in the 5 pound bags. The cinnamon flavor is ever so slight on the cooked ribs. Hardly even noticeable to me. I use it exclusively on ribs and alternate between Dominator and Yardbird for butts.

I also use the Dominator Sweet Rib Rub on my ribs. Great choice! Everyone always comments my ribs taste better than the restaurants.

Back in early March I bought the Oakridge sampler based on recommendations on this board, and my wife and I conducted a double-blind taste test using some cubed pork, smoked on my Camp Chef at Low Smoke for 3 hours. Ranked results, FWIW:

Dominator
Secret Weapon
Game Bird & Chicken Rub
Competition Beef & Pork Rub
Santa Maria Steak Seasoning

We both liked the complex flavor of the Dominator and it was easy to pick out the cinnamon note.

Competiton Beef & Port rub scored low, but from looking at pictures of the cook I think the samples may have gotten too light a dose. So I'd say the jury is out. We'll give it another try.

The Steak Season was definitely an un-favorite and, tried again on some hamburgers, stayed in that category.

Related: Since the rub test I did a brisket according to Franklin's method, rubbing with 50/50 salt & pepper and it was the best brisket I've ever done. I suppose I'll try some rubs on future briskets but I am in no rush.

I too was making my own rubs for years (trying to be a purist) and although i have tweaked them here and there I still thought something was missing. So last month I decided to take the plunge and I bought the Black Ops Brisket, Dominator Rib Rub and Secret Weapon Chicken/Pork rub. They are fantastic and I have no shame in saying that they can do it better than me. My original rub had cinnamon in it so I'm used to that flavor profile and enjoy it. The secret weapon has done wonders for my chicken and I'm a huge fan. I finally tested it out on some PP last weekend and yup its a keeper. I haven't tried the Black Ops yet but did sprinkle some on some left over brisket i heated up and I like. I have 2 prime packers headed my way that I will be dusting with the Ops in a couple of weeks.

When you try these out be sure to do one slab with dominator and one slab with comp pork and then dominator on top. I've found that I really enjoy this combo. For pulled pork I do the same but it's secret weapon on top instead of dominator.

In the end it may not matter. Oakridge doesn't make a rub that I do not like.

I have used Dominator and Ops. Both are great! I don't think you will hate either of them

I really like their Santa Maria rub. My go to for steaks now is Kamado Joe Steak seasoning with some Oakridge Santa Maria on top of that. Makes a great flavor combination.

I like them all. My current lineup is:

Secret Weapon for Chicken

Black Ops for Brisket

Competition Beef and Pork for Ribs and Pork Butt

Carne Crosta for Steak and Tritip

The new Jerk Rub was amazing on chicken but too hot for some folks. I may be going to half and half for chicken cooks (half of the chickens hot and half savory).

I use Habanero Death Dust and Black Ops on my hot Burnt Ends with Sriracha and Blues Hogg.

I keep trying others and my own and always end up back with Mike.

While you are at it, make sure to order a couple of their stainless steel rub shakers. They are the best I have ever used...by far.