Magic Dust

I like to think that I'm this cool and groovy guy that just gets it when it comes to food and wine. For the most part, I am. However, a lot of things that I do aren't the product of this idea that leaps unbidden into my brain in the middle of the night, startling me awake, not allowing me to sleep until I either act upon it or visciouisly strangle that idea into submission. No, most of what I do is just the product of good old fashioned research and then some trial and error along with an occasional conversation with Ms Cocktail. The Magic Dust comes from the research portion of our program.

One of the very first cookbooks I ever bought myself was the highly recommended primer on barbeque titled Peace, Love and Barbecue by Mike Mills. You'll notice that he spells barbeque incorrectly (I'm a traditionalist, what can I say?) but it is something I can easily forgive him on because this book really does give you everything you need to know about barbeque. For those that aren't quite sure what barbeque is, that means meats and other things that were slow cooked over wood charcoal, preferable at a temperature less than 250 degrees fahrenheit. This does not mean grilling food. Grilling is grilling and barbeque is...well...barbeque.

Now, the point of this blog is not to debate the merits of barbeque v grilled food, they each offer extrodinary culinary delights that can't be gotten by any other food preparation method. No, the point is to pass on this wonderful dry rub that Mike Mills makes and uses in his restaurants (17th Street Bar and Grill in Southern Illinois and Memphis Championship Barbecue in Las Vegas, Nevada) which he calls the Magic Dust. I have to admit that it is special, I use it for my ribs, chicken and pork butt when I make barbeque and I've discovered that there are plenty of other uses for it as well. I tend to keep a shaker of it around because as Mike says in his book, "Keeps indefinitely but won't last long".

Magic Dust

1/2 cup paprika
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbs mustard powder
1/4 cup chili powder
1/4 cup ground cumin
2 Tbs ground black pepper
1/4 cup granulated garlic
2 Tbs cayenne

Mix all ingredients and store in a tightly covered container. Makes about 2 1/2 cups.

Here are a couple of notes that I have about this wonderful dry rub. First of all, I use Gebhardts chili powder almost exclusively. Gebhardts is not something that you can run down to the local supermarket and find, in fact the only place I found it is through a web site called Hometown Favorites. It has a wonderfully unique flavor that can't be found in any other chili powder. This brings us to the second point, the better the ingredients, the better the finished product. Don't use old spices that have been sitting in a closet for several years. Spices lose their flavor over time no matter how well they are sealed. The fresher, the better. Finally, the mustard powder will want to stay clumped in little balls. I use a large bowl to mix this in so I will use the back of a spoon to press the mustard powder balls against the side of the bowl in order to break it down as fine as possible.