My new steak rub

[Neecy]

I love to barbeque in the summer but I get tired of cumin-based rubs - they're fine on ribs, but nasty (to me) on steak.

So, I set out in my kitchen to make a steak rub. I love steak au poivre, so I made that my starting point.

I bought a couple of packages of dried wild mushrooms at the grocery store and soaked them in cognac in a sealed glass container for a week in the refrigerator. After the week was up I placed them back into a food dehydrator and redried them. After they were dried, I placed them in a 250 oven for 10 minutes to get the very last bit of moisture out - and yeah, they still reeked of cognac so the week in the refrigerator worked.

I put the dried mushrooms through a clean coffee grinder until they were a fine powder, and this became the base for my steak rub.

In the same coffee grinder, I coarsely cracked about 3 tablespoons of green peppercorns and threw that into the mushroom powder. Next followed a couple of tablespoons of dried shallots, a little tarragon and rosemary, a bit of yellow mustard seed, and some dried chives and parsley. I whirled that around a little into a coarse chop, added it to the mushroom/pepper blend and then added a little granulated garlic and about a half a teaspoon of salt. It smelled heavenly when I finished and then it was out to the grill with a couple of KC strips.

Wow, was it good. The wild mushrooms and cognac gave a nice smoky undertone to the herbs and pepper and I'm no longer a slave to commercially bought cumin-based steak rubs.

I'm going to try this next with portobello mushrooms and merlot or cabernet and maybe add a little lemon grass to the other ingredients. Between those two rubs I'll be set for summer!

[Stinky The Clown]

1. That sounds great

How did the dry rub (particularly the mushrooms) hold up to grilling? Would I be successful grilling my steaks really, really hot so I can get them nearly cold inside and crusty of the outside like I prfefer them?

[Neecy]

2. Sure...

I grill over a very hot fire as well and it held up fine - it formed a nice crust and didn't burn, although once I seared the steaks I put them over an indirect fire to finish them. If you go hot all the way I think the mushrooms would be fine, although the shallots might burn a little. If you put a finer grind on your spices/herbs you should be okay.

[Karenca]

3. Yum!!

That sounds wonderful!

I want a steak NOW.

[troubleinwinter]

4. Hows about a basic course on rubs?

Does one just rub a heavy application onto the steak? Let it set awhile, or grill immediately?

[Neecy]

5. I think it depends on the rub...

When I do ribs, I put the rub on early and put them in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.

With steak, eh, not so much - I usually put the rub on and throw 'em on the grill. I used a lot of this rub on my steaks, only because I wanted that pepper-encrusted taste. With other rubs I use a lot less, because I'd rather taste the flavor of the steak than cumin.

[Tab]

6. Usually what works best with my steak

is to bring it up to room temp a bit, and rub it with Garlic Salt.

That's it - nothing else.

The salt brings the proteins to the surface and allows it to caramelize a bit. And it just tastes damned good.

I've tried salt and pepper but garlic salt alone always seems to win out.

You can get fancy with all sorts of other flavors, but I usually like the steak to speak for itself.

Favorites are london broil, boneless rib eye and boneless strip steak.

Filet Mignon is pretty much a waste, imho. It's tender, sure, but generally flavorless. You have to wrap it in bacon or something to give it some flavor, which, given the cost, doesn't make sense, if you have to do that to enjoy the cut.

- Tab