To achieve the perfect flavour, there are countless ways to prepare meats and veggies when grilling. Simple seasoning with salt and pepper is always a safe choice. However, there are occasions when you crave robust flavours, so you may opt for seasonings or a remarkable rub.
Both seasonings and rubs play a distinct role in achieving your desired food taste by creating, enhancing, or improving flavour and texture, and both achieve this in different ways.
So, let’s dive right in and answer the burning question: “What's the difference between seasonings and rubs?"
Seasonings and rubs are both dry ingredients, so they may feel like the same thing, however that’s not quite true.
Simply put, seasonings are typically blends of dried herbs and spices and best for quick/flat cuts of meat or roasts. Meals like steaks, chops, chicken pieces, whole chickens, roast beef and roasted veggies are all foods you would usually enhance with seasonings.
You can use seasonings before and after cooking to enhance or add flavour to the dish.
Low and slow rubs are stronger in flavour, and don’t contain delicate herbs. They are a combination of spices, salt, and sugar used to season meat before cooking. As well as adding flavour to your food, rubs often add some texture as well.
They are designed for cooking over a long time with low and slow foods, so you need the flavours to be more pronounced. There’s no point including delicate herbs in rubs as they will cook out over time.
Rubs can be used on quicker cooking foods, but you need to be careful as they are designed with stronger flavours in mind and can be overpowering.
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