Thursday, May 17, 2012

Tastefully Simple Honey BBQ Seasoning & Rub - All Natural

Tastefully Simple Honey BBQ Seasoning & Rub - All Natural

Heather told me that they had added quite a few new products to the Tastefully Simple line and wanted to know if I'd like to sample something (free in exchange for an honest review). The Honey BBQ seasoning and rub had my name written all over it. OK. Well, not really. But, I do love barbecue rubs, and honey is messy (and tends to burn on large cuts of meat) so having that in a dry rub sounded fabulous.

Harry won a ham at the turkey shoot (no - they don't shoot turkeys - they shoot at paper targets), so I thought a honey rub would taste good. Before sprinkling on the rub, I put mustard all over the ham. That's the trick to get your rub to stay on a big cut like a ham. You can't taste the mustard at the end. It just acts like a rub glue.


Ham Bone In Covered with Tastefully Simple BBQ Rub

As you can see, this rub is a beautiful color and the ingredients are all natural (can't beat that). The smell was really nice. The combination of honey and heat was obvious even at the rubbing stage.


Putting the Ham on the Bottom Level of Our Weber BBQ Smoker

Jimmy took the ham out and put it on the bottom level of our Weber smoker. We were smoking ribs too, so it was easier to put the ham on the lower level, since the ribs got sauced later.


Ham on Bottom Level of Weber Smokey Mountain Bullet

Here you can see the ham right before we pulled it off. This ham was pre-cooked, so we were basically just heating it through. At 225 to 250 degrees F, three hours worked well for heating and getting that smoked flavor in with the meat and rub.


 Tastefully Simple BBQ Rubbed Smoked Ham

The ham smoked up beautifully and smelled terrific. The rub slow smoked created a nice crispness while holding in the moisture (along with that mustard I mentioned earlier).

It's all about the flavor when it comes to barbecue, so the real test was when I sliced and served the ham. In some cases, something will look and even smell great but then doesn't really pass the taste test.

The Tastefully Simple Honey BBQ rub flavor was spot on and went well on the ham. For summer, I'd suggest pork chops or chicken (quicker to make and light tasting meats that benefit from a nice BBQ rub). On the ham, we got that holiday honey kick but with some heat (not over the top - just enough to pop). The rub is well named as it was actually "tastefully simple." The flavors were classic and simple but blended at just the right ratios to taste wonderful.

If you like honey but find that the natural sugars in there tend to burn before you finish smoking or grilling, this is a great alternative. Or, Tastefully Simple a good pick if you want a flavorful rub that delivers on the flavor without having too much of any one thing that might freak out your guests. This one is not too sweet (even with honey) and not too hot. I'd recommend it for any griller or smoker unless he or she doesn't like honey. And, who doesn't like the taste of honey?

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