Blogging Ottinger (tim)

I wanted to make up some more of my rub, but couldn’t find my recipe. That’s what happens when you don’t blog, boys and girls. Silly me. I have a very small sample of the original, and a little bit of memory of what it was like to make it.

This rub started out to be a chili powder, but I thought I could innovate a bit and end up with something better, richer, deeper, more complex than the average cumin, salt, garlic, and cayenne pepper powder. I added a little clove, a little allspice, a little ginger…. I used mostly ancho pepper powder rather than cayenne (though a little cayenne makes a nice “front burn”) and some habenero powder for the “back burn”. I added some powdered mustard, because that makes all my hot sauce attempts better. A little paprika to make it more smokey and fun.

Ooo. A little complex, this. Not too much of a price to pay for a miracle powder that would make everything you eat into an amazing experience. Even if you overcook it a bit.

A real chef wouldn’t probably have done this, because they could make something much simpler taste much better, but I just loved it. I wish I could just put it through a replicator rather than try to reproduce it through trial-and-error.

As it turns out, it wasn’t that great as a chili powder, because I took it too far from the accepted norms. It was great as a rub and a spice mix. I put it in hamburgers, on buttered corn, in chip dip, and even in soups and chili. I really liked this stuff. It had a fascinating layered complexity and was hot too. Hot came in three waves, even. The front burn (I think it’s the cayenne, anyway), the main burn (ancho) and the late burn that stings like a slap in the face. Yeah, it was good.

I poured some of the old powder on some pork ribs and dropped them in the oven for a bake. By the time they’re done, I should be too. The paprika, cumin, and ancho together give anything a lovely smokey flavor. I figure a little dry rub “faux bbq” would sustain me tonight.

Time to start over, I figured and I grabbed some utensils and spice jars. If I’m doing this, I’m doing enough to last a little while. Why not a big batch of powder?

Sadly, I didn’t have my original recipe or all the original ingredients. Gonna have to improvise. That means that I’m not really going to replicate the orginal. Now the question is what I could do that would be nearly as interesting, or maybe even better. The mad scientist gene kicked in, though, and I got carried away with ingredients. There is more here than I intended, and I let my pork ribs overcook while tasting and testing and mixing.

The habanero we have was flakes, not powder. No problem, says I. I got the mortar and pestle. Let’s skip the story and leave it at this: keep your face away from the grinding. Especially when it’s a really hot pepper.

No ginger this time, but here’s what we had:

• 1 part ground clove
• 2 parts ground fennel
• 2 parts mustard powder
• 4 parts paprika
• 4 parts garlic powder (Note: a little too much)
• 12 parts ancho pepper
• 2 parts cayenne pepper*
• 2 parts habenero flakes, ground at personal risk into powder
• 20 parts cumin

* I added four more scoops (making 16 parts more, total of 18 parts or 4 1/2 scoops) of cayenne. It got a lot better.

In my case “1 part” was 1/4 of the measure I was using, but that’s about the proportion. If it comes out good, I’ll at least have the blog’s copy of my recipe even if I don’t have anything else.

How can I test this? I was thinking of something bland, maybe buttered toast, but I didn’t pick up butter on the way home. Anything too dry and it won’t develop the flavor. I figure about a teaspoon of water and enough powder to get a good taste. Not quite a paste, but a very thin sauce. I slurp that up and wait for something to happen.

The first thing to hit you is the fennel and garlic. A nice, garden-y flavor, probably would be good with fish or poultry. Nothing fancy. Not quite what I’m after. I wanted more cayenne flavor up front, but I ran out of cayenne powder. I’ll have to adjust this after I get to the store. Next thing to hit you is the cumin. When that hits, the garlic is holding on but the fennel is backing away. There’s a little low note from the cloves. Nothing unpleasant, but nothing remarkable. Kind of a weak chili powder now. Oh, there is the Ancho pepper. Lots of it. Medium heat, smoky, and the cumin backs off as the pepper kicks in. Finally, there’s the habanero punch. Definitely habanero. The tongue goes tingly and numb, but the garlic is still hanging on. After the punch is all gone, the garlic remains.

Of course the real test is how it works on various foods. Now I have another reason to cook up some of the stuff out of my freezer.

Note to self: less garlic, less fennel, less cumin, more peppers. Maybe double up on them.

1 Sept 2008
I busted out the powder last night to put in a rice-n-beef mixture we’re just calling “chili beef and rice” here. It was incredible. I put a little in my eggs this morning, and didn’t care that much for it. It’s all in the context. It has mellowed while all mixed together. It has a really great flavor, and any issues with overage of garlic or fennel are faded. I could have a bit less cumin, but it’s okay. It’s not overbearing. It’s a really nice mix. I will be using it more in the near future, since it’s easier to have peppers in powered form than in liquid form at work. Maybe I’ll keep a little shaker in my computer bag for meal times.