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• Wine & Drinks

Marinades, Rubs and Mops
Learn how pitmasters make their special mark

By Douglas Brown

Smoke and time are barbecue's dual backbones, but any self-respecting rib or slice of brisket exhibits more than just the byproduct of burnt hickory and an afternoon of patience. There are spices and herbs, liquids and sprays, and here is where each pitmaster develops secret recipes that set him apart from the competition.

Marinades. A marinade usually contains acidic ingredients like lemon juice or vinegar, and is used to break down proteins and muscle in meat, serving as a liquid tenderizer. Swamping your meat in a good marinade, too, will help add flavor to meat, and for cuts that are notoriously dry, like chicken breasts, the marinade can help keep everything moist.

Rubs. A rub is a dry mixture of herbs, salt and spices that sometimes also contains sugar. The rub is slathered all over the pork shoulder, brisket, rack of ribs or bowl of chicken thighs shortly before it gets set in the smoker or grill. Some pitmasters and barbecue traditions shrink from adding anything — like barbecue sauce — to a hunk of meat that has been rubbed and smoked. Since barbecue uses low heat, the rubs cook too, instead of burning, which is what some of them will do if grilled quickly over high heat. Rubs add complex flavor, but they also contribute a key textural element: crunch and crust.

Mops. A mop is similar in taste and consistency to a marinade — thin and acidic. Only where most marinades also depend on fats, like olive oil or butter, mops tend to eliminate them. And while marinades sometimes can be a stew of varied ingredients, mops can be awfully straightforward, often containing nothing more than vinegar, salt and black pepper. Beer, too, is a popular mop ingredient. The point? Moisture. Mops aren't typically applied to small cuts of meat that spend less than an hour on the smoker. Instead, a mop might be applied every hour-and-a-half or so to a six-pound pork shoulder as it spends its morning and afternoon slowly cooking and absorbing smoke.

Sauces. Marinades and mops are back-up singers; rubs and sauces are the stars. And for many barbecue styles and enthusiasts, an awful lot hinges on the quality of the sauce. There are also regional differences in choice of sauce:
- South Carolinians prefer spiking their sauces with mustard.
- Eastern North Carolinians snub tomato and lean heavy on the vinegar.
- Western barbecuers embrace the tomato.
- Kansas City pitmasters lace their thick sauces with molasses.
- Texans often skip the sauce altogether, or they jack it up with cayenne or other hot peppers.
Using sauce is tricky. As long as you are vigilant about maintaining low heat, any barbecue sauce — even a sugary one — should survive without burning. But even a few short bursts of licking flames can turn a decadent, sweet glaze into a charred mess. As a result, barbecue sauce often is added to the meat shortly before it's yanked from the smoker, or is simply added to that paper plate piled high with sliced brisket. Sauces that do not revel in sweet, on the other hand, can be easily added before, during and after cooking.

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