One night last year I was desperately looking for something new to slather on a few quarter chicken legs that I intended to barbecue.
Something I had read on the internet or seen on television (I can no longer remember which, though I vaguely recall Alton Brown) prompted me to attempt to create my own signature dry rub. I swear I saw Alton talking about it on one of his shows, and how it was important to label said spice rubs with dates and ingredients, lest you open up your cupboard 6 months later and have no clue what the heck that jar full of brown was.
Two guesses about what I didn’t remember to do…
I have this glorious little 4 ounce tin of a spice blend I made that is absolutely transcendent; hot, tangy and pungent – but I have no recollection of what exactly is in it. For a while I thought I had written my recipe down somewhere, but at this point if I did, I put it somewhere so safe that even I can’t find it.
I know you’re thinking how hard could it possibly be to recreate, right? Well, blending it took me the better part of a half hour because I put in about 20 different herbs and spices. I think at the time my intent was to come up with my own kind of ras al hanout-type blend, something that would have many layers of flavours throughout. Based on visual cues alone I can identify a handful of its contents (celery seed, epazote, pimenton), but not nearly enough to properly duplicate it’s majesty.
Fuck.
I wish I had one of those food analysing labs at my disposal that could just break down the secret combination. The container is already half gone, and once it’s finished, who knows if I will ever taste that deliciousness again. Le sigh!
Have you ever had a culinary mishap like this? Please feel free to share in the comments, I could use a good chuckle right now.
Until next time…
Tags: barbecue, rantings, spice rubs, stupidity
[...] Foodie and the Everyman – if you create a super-fantastic dish or spice blend and want to recreate it later, it's a good idea to write down what you used. [...]
[...] 10 – Ajowan – If you didn’t know any better, you’d probably confuse a handful of Middle Eastern ajowan seeds with the more diminutively flavoured celery seed. Ajowan is similar in taste to thyme, but also gives off a hint of rye bread-y caraway. When crushed (to release it’s essence) it can be stirred into vegetables or added to breads, but a little goes a long way. One (of many unknown) ingredients in my mystery spice rub. [...]