A trial of popular rubs and sauces

[smoke ninja]

I am a big fan of what i call mail order rubs and sauces.

I find a gem at supr markets here and there and do believe everyone should know how to build a rub but at the end of the day these speciality companies can produce superior products at fair prices.

I placed an order for some various products ive heard mentioned. No slight to other great offerings, these were just a few that peak my interest.




I decided to do a test using chicken breast. Why? Because its like a blank canvas......and it was already in the fridge.




Starting top left and going clock wise; swamp boy. i hear rub is kinda a big deal, Malcolm Reeds killer hogs. Ive heard this gives geeat color, simply marvelous cherry and season all. Ive had several of Stephs offerings including the cherry. Oakridge competition pork & chicken and jah love. Im a big oak ridge and am no stanger to these. Yard bird. This seems to be one of the more popular rubs with the everyman crowd


We be drummin


The
Results



Swamp boys. 2nd fav by itself, look forward to further trials, good stand alone. Killer hogs. Delivers on the color claims, needs more additional flavor. Simply marvelous blend. Good, the cherry stands out in this rub and is a household favorite. Competition pork & chicken, Oakridge is another staple here. Jah love, good but not the best application here, needs a traditional application and a sear. Yard bird. More salt than the others but more up my alley too, the others were mostly sweet. This rub complements the others well when mixed. All of them had good qualities but most could use a top coat of Q-salt imo

Sauces



Clockwise from top left:

Blues hog mixed, I can see why its so acclaimed, great. Kosmos comp. my taste testors really like this one. Old county. I liked it, reminds me slightly of open pit, maybe the smoke flavor. Swamp boy. Another great product, rubs stuff stands by itself. We mixed some sauces and the blues hog cut with kosmos seemed to be popular.

Conclusions. Swamp boys are good stand alone, most others a mix of two seems better. Yardbird and any of these is the bomb. Add Killer hogs for great color. Im surprised how much liquid smoke is in some of these sauces. Blues hog plus and any other sauce is good.

 

[tom b]

Nice review Ninja

 

[ronbrad62]

Good taste and good review. Some of those I haven't tried, so thanks for helping me spend more money:becky:

 

[Kanco Connection]

Appreciate the insight, Ninja. Thanks.

 

[el luchador]

Thanks for posting. I love seeing comparisons even though rub is something I don't think I'll ever buy

 

[Wolverine]

Nice review as always Ninja, Ive been ordering Famous daves country chicken, they dont have it in stores here I buy it by the case, Oak ridge by the 5lb bag dont last long, Walkers wood by the 5lb bucket is my fav ,

 

[Jrogers84]

Good review. Thanks

 

[fwdiii]

Nice review...thanks! I am a big fan of Blues Hog mixed with their Tenn. red.

 

[KevinJ]

Good review, I've tried most of those Rubs and sauces but haven't tried the Kosmos. Received a free bottle of Granny's BBQ Sauce with a Rub/Sauce order from BPS and it is really good, so if you run across it you my want to give it a try, my wife likes it a lot so much so she asked me to order more and and keep it stocked. The only other item she's ever asked me to reorder and keep on hand as far as rubs or sauces is Carne Crosta for steaks and burgers.

I like the Jah Love too, especially on thick cut grilled pork chops.

 

[jstrand]

Nice review. I had a cart full of sauces and rubs the other day but sanity took over and i didn't pull the trigger!
I had a bunch of sauces from HEB that i ordered, made it all the way to Minnesota only to have the local UPS hub destroy the order!:mad2:
I'm a fan of the Blues Hog, but to be honest I haven't tried alot of different ones. At least not ones i can't find at the grocery store.

 

[ChrisBarb]

I would love to find a decent sauce without added smoke.

 

[Stingerhook]

Thanks for the post Ninja.

 

[Norm]

Thanks for the review Steve, I've not tried some of those and wondered how they would taste.

For BBQ sauce I make my own. Nothing special just a Virginia cider sauce that I go heavy on the tomato base. I make a batch when I'm cooking on the big weber. At the end I put the ceramic pan of sauce on the grill and cover it up with a little draft. Next morning I put it in reused milk containers and freeze it.

 

[smoke ninja]

Thanks for the review Steve, I've not tried some of those and wondered how they would taste.

For BBQ sauce I make my own. Nothing special just a Virginia cider sauce that I go heavy on the tomato base. I make a batch when I'm cooking on the big weber. At the end I put the ceramic pan of sauce on the grill and cover it up with a little draft. Next morning I put it in reused milk containers and freeze it.

I make some sauces myself, mostly for larger cooks. We are mostly sauce on the side people in the house. These 4 bottles will take me into at least the summer without counting any large cooks. I bought a 4 pack variety of the heinz pitmaster series and still have almost half of each bottle.

 

[BigKing]

Thanks for the review. I've had most of the rubs and sauces but still haven't had any Swamp Boys stuff so I may need to dive in.

I have at least 12 different BBQ sauces in the fridge that have been poured in to squeeze bottles and labeled. Blues Hog still stands out above the rest and that's in original form. Agree that it is better when cut with the T-Red.

 

[HogGrog]

Well done review SN, thanks! Which combo do you like best when smoking a fatty?:wink:

 

[jakel]

Great review ..... thanks for sharing. :thumb:

 

[Steve J]

Great review. I wish you'd made a video to go along. These types of comparisons are really fun to do. I did one on rubs and tested them on ribs; if you get a chance, check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX3z6LSl2pQ

 

[SirPorkaLot]

All of them had good qualities but most could use a top coat of Q-salt imo

Great reviews and thanks for the shout out!

We tend to use Q-Salt on most everything around here, so I completely understand.