Dave Grohl Ends The Debate Once And For All. Salt And Pepper Is All You Need For A Great BBQ Rub
Dave Grohl is one of those guys who just seems to kick ass in everything and anything he's a part of. Whether it's music or acting or just being an all around decent human being. The ultimate "I'd love to have a beer with that guy" type of guy. And one of those things that Dave Grohl kicks ass at is BBQ. I'm not exactly sure when it happened but at some point over the past few years, Dave Grohl caught the BBQ bug and he caught it hard. It's one of those things where a small little bite from the bug turns into a full blown obsession. Where most people just see a tray full of meat, you're thinking about fire management and smoke quality and fat render and muscle breakdown and rest time and slicing temperature and so on and so on.
The great thing about BBQ is that there's no one specific way you have to do it to achieve the result you're looking for. Some people like to cook low and slow. Some people like to cook hot and fast. Some like wrapping their brisket in butcher paper, some like wrapping in foil, others don't wrap at all. At the end of the day, if you can make great tasting bbq then that's all that matters. With that being said...well everybody is still always going to have their opinion on what way is the best way.
So when Dave Grohl went on Hot Ones today and was asked about what makes a good rub, his answer was simple.
You don't need a top secret recipe that requires you to take out your entire spice rack to throw together. You don't need to add a dash of this and a sprinkle of that. Maybe if you've got a recipe that has been handed down in your family for generations, you can stick with that because it has some actual significance to it. But if you're just sitting at home looking to throw a brisket on the smoker and you want to make it as juicy and tender and delicious as possible, then you'd be focusing on the wrong thing if you're too busy worrying about your rub recipe.
Keep it simple stupid. Salt and pepper generously, that's all you need. Then you can spend more time focusing on the things that'll actually impact the final product. Like how you trim your brisket, and what temperature you smoke it at, how long you smoke it for, when you decide to wrap your brisket, when you decide to pull it off the smoker, when you rest it, how long you rest it for until you decide to slice into it. All of that ends up being a lot more important than adding a dash of chili powder and calling it your secret recipe. Dave Grohl gets it.