Dry rubs are common, particularly out here in the Southwest, where ribs and barbecue happily sit upon the food king’s throne. I like spices and combinations thereof, though I have not been one for dry rubs. And today it dawned on me, there can be more to a rub than chili spices and ribs. I looked immediately to the salad dressing aisle, particularly the pre-packaged dressings, the scientific combination of dry ingredients combined to produce the ever-popular commercial dressings. These packages have been used by home cooks to make dips, season potatoes, or sprinkle on green beans as a last-minute seasoning. Why have I overlooked these basic pre-packaged kitchen staples? Well, because they are pre-packaged. But, think how many millions of dollars have been spent combining flavors to create unique and original top-secret blends for simple salad dressings and dried soups. We have plenty of unique flavors in dry form in our kitchen from buttermilk to soy sauce. What if we started using these ingredients as dry rubs for fish and meat, mirroring existing flavor profiles but increasing the factor of wow with more intense and focused flavors, making the rubs ingredient-specific?
Today, Aki put together a ranch dressing dry rub for veal fillet. The powdered base consists of powdered buttermilk, fennel, celery seed, smoked paprika, black pepper, and salt. We rubbed the fillet with the mixture and then slow-cooked the fillet for an hour at 52.5 degrees C. We paired the well-flavored meat with squash-cocoa agnolotti, melted onions, epazote, and sweet and sour squash juice mixed with pumpkin seed oil. Today’s rub is the first of many to come.
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