Hands down my favorite rub is sea salt and cracked black pepper. It's my basic rub. I'm dead serious here....This combination is common for a reason, people like it. And if you think you have seen it all ..... have you seen Spepper?
You guessed it. Top quality salt and pepper in the same bottle. Really handy when doing food prep and when cooking. I carry it in my lunch box and with my camping gear.
Okay, back to the basic rub. I leave myself open for plenty of options for adders. Different kinds of pepper is my first option. I like at least 3. Black, white and a red variety. The next adders would be garlic (granulated or powder) followed by onion powder. After that, I'm partial to paprika or chile powder. Then there's cumin, celery seed and ginger. Sugar can fall in there as well. Mustard powder, Wooster powder and ground coriander have their places too.
I guess I never answered your question. My favorite no sugar rub is this one. I leave it coarse, but you can grind it as fine as you like.
Montreal Steak Rub – A coarse rub suited for beef, but also good on pork, chicken and potatoes.
Ingredients:
3T coriander seeds
3T black peppercorns
4T dried bell pepper (mix green & red bell pepper)
2T onion flakes
2T garlic flakes
2T sea salt
1T caraway seeds
2T dill seeds
1T dried thyme
1t dried lemon peel
Combine all ingredients and grind in a coffee grinder.
A little coffee won't hurt the rub, but leftover rub is not that good for the coffee.