Store bought VS Home blend

Elias

Well-known member
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84
Location
Kansas
Grill(s) owned
  1. Bull
I have diabetes and cannot use a lot of the premixed stuff. I smoke meat. I dont BBQ. I grill meat. I dont BBQ... you get it I am sure.

Over time and patience, Queenie and I have put together our own rubs, marinades and other flavors based on our own taste and we have found this very rewarding. I am originally from India and she is German. So there is an Indo-Germanic influence in taste and cooking technique that is exciting and very satisfying. It is great to start with a clean slate and mix spices and try them. We do the same with herbs and that is a different part of the adventure. We add tiny amounts to butter and heat the mixture to taste test and then arrive at what we think is the best blend. Then we try it on meat. This discovery is better or just as great as smoking various meats and vegetables. Finally we arrive at something that pleases both of us.

Now we look for vendors of the spices and herbs. We buy directly from the vendors that carry the ingredients. We prepare the spices (roast and grind etc.) and blend it together. We know exactly what is in the spice blends and the ingredients are fresh. Store bought blends are very mysterious to us. They include stuff we have not heard of... sometimes they include stuff like "blend #5" or "yellow #2". The spice companies don't have to tell you what is in these minor blends as long as they dont go over a certain percentage.

Try it. Start with Salt, Pepper, Onion and Garlic or whatever you feel you want to begin with. You will find the spices you add are fresher and better tasting. The McCormick stuff could be sitting on the shelves for eons and dont taste as good as YOUR mixture.

Long post eh? I hope you try it. Queenie and I are retired and love experimenting. I hope this post encourages you to try. You dont have to use Brown Sugar. You could try Palm Sugar that is better for overall health.

Smoke on my fellow Chefs and innovators of flavor.

:) :) :)
 
I've been making my own rubs and sauces for many years. I consider it part of learning to smoke and grill. Now, I'm pretty much a back-to-the-basics guy and don't stray too far from the basic SPOG. I chuckle when I see folks stocking up on a huge variety of stuff. My goal in smoking and grilling is to enhance the natural flavor of the protein, veggies, etc. rather than to cover it up. YMMV
 
Try it. Start with Salt, Pepper, Onion and Garlic or whatever you feel you want to begin with. You will find the spices you add are fresher and better tasting. The McCormick stuff could be sitting on the shelves for eons and dont taste as good as YOUR mixture.


:) :) :)
I'm with you on SPOG, but I add smoked paprika to my version. I've dabbled with the other stuff and have an irritated wife who counts spice shakers now (rather than empty beer bottles).:ROFLMAO: Life is good!
 
I have a few premade ones, taco mix, blackened seafood, and 1 my wife likes on ckn, anything I use on the smoker is mixed at the time of prep. While I do use smoked paprika, I do not grow my own peppers.
 
While I do use smoked paprika, I do not grow my own peppers.
As a suggestion, it’s worth trying. In my garden of 10-4 x 8 raised beds, 2 of them are dedicated to peppers every year. Some of them like Ghost and Carolina Reaper peppers, I raise but mostly never eat but they are still fun to grow. If you want to be practical, jalapeños, serranos (my favorite), bell, banana and poblanos are the most practical in my kitchen. Habanero peppers are great, but they are the fringe for me. I also grow a number of much milder varieties that add a nice flavor without the punch in the mouth.
 
As a suggestion, it’s worth trying. In my garden of 10-4 x 8 raised beds, 2 of them are dedicated to peppers every year. Some of them like Ghost and Carolina Reaper peppers, I raise but mostly never eat but they are still fun to grow. If you want to be practical, jalapeños, serranos (my favorite), bell, banana and poblanos are the most practical in my kitchen. Habanero peppers are great, but they are the fringe for me. I also grow a number of much milder varieties that add a nice flavor without the punch in the mouth.

Nice! I grow the same variety of chilis in our raised bed garden boxes. And serranos are my favorite, as well!

Every couple years I'll dry some of each chili, or smoke-then-dry, and then make blends of dried ground chilis. Homemade Serrano powder (or blended with others) is great on scrambled eggs. Perhaps the most surprising is a little serrano powder in a berry smoothie - a strangely delicious mix of fruit and spice.
 
@Greg Jones and @Mannydog, any chance of seeing a couple of photos of your raised garden beds? This is something I'm considering at the new house. Thanks.
Here are a few of mine. One is in the off season, which gives a better look of the beds with nothing growing. This was a couple of years ago when I only had 8 beds. The garden was a major downsizing this year-all the straw was garden space that was converted back to sod. The beds, I made myself.

The other pictures show what it looks like most recently. There is a mini-green house, two compost bins, wild flowers, and the inside row of beds have a fence panel installed so that climbing plants span the row.. I also have a mini herb garden behind the Wyldside and I grow Kentucky mint along the south side of my house.
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I guess at least part of my "secret" is out; I also add smoked paprika to my SPOG. And, true confession time: a little bit of ground celery seed as well. That's pretty much it for me.
@Jim6820, I have experimented with various other spices rather than paprika over the years, but always come back to it. Never have tried celery seed in a rub though.
 
Thanks, @Greg Jones. I'm envious. Are those wooden sides on the boxes?
Yes, they are standard pressure treated deck boards, 5/4” x 6”. It takes 6, 8 foot long boards to build each bed. The corners are in-ground PT 4” x 4” and the sides are in-ground PT 2” x 4” the legs protrude approximately 6” as I dig holes to keep the beds from shifting over time. The beds will then be painted with a blue deck paint. This bed was built last spring and left out for the year so the PT boards can shed some moisture. I’ll be painting them soon and then fill it with topsoil, about 2.5 yards per bed.

Note that unlike arsenic-treated lumber of the past, today’s copper-treated wood is safe to use in raised beds. Copper is an essential micronutrient for plant growth. One thing to be aware of is that with the copper, the vegetables may perhaps not be considered organic. Something to keep in mind if you want a strictly organic garden.
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@Greg Jones and @Mannydog, any chance of seeing a couple of photos of your raised garden beds? This is something I'm considering at the new house. Thanks.

Hey Jim. Mine are neither very fancy nor "raised" all that high, and I'm sure there are many other folks in this forum with much better ones, including Greg. But they do the job and have lasted many years.

Since we had our deck redone about 10 years ago, I decided to recycle the old composite deck boards (after checking they would be food-safe in a garden) and make four boxes that are about 11' x ~4', plus a more narrow front herb box (sorry Chris, just savory herbs). There's a brace board halfway for support.

I had very little carpentry experience, so I probably used the wrong brackets. But the boxes are all still in good shape to this day. There are also tons of good plans online these days if you need inspiration. Good luck and enjoy!

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