BBQ Seasoning, Herbs & Seasonings

Our signature BBQ Seasoning provides the perfect balance of sweet and heat to enhance the flavor of any barbecued protein, from brisket and pork shoulder to chicken and seafood, or even veggies.

All about BBQ Seasoning, Spice Blend

What it’s like, and how to make it

HeatMild

CuisineAmerican & canadian

Best forGrill bbq, roasting, marinades rubs

Goes inRoasted vegetables, grills roasts

WithBeef, chicken, pork, fish seafood, vegetarian, bison

What’s in itpaprika, mustard, garlic, onion, chile peppers, pepper, coriander, thyme, marjoram, allspice, cayenne, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric

How to use it

The everything rub. One tablespoon per pound of any protein — beef, chicken, pork, fish, it doesn't matter. Rub generously and let it sit for at least an hour before grilling, smoking, or roasting. The cinnamon and allspice give it a warm depth you won't get from simpler blends. Also great on roasted sweet potatoes and mixed into burger patties.

Weeknight ideas

bbq-ribs

BBQ Seasoning spice, shown over a chalk-and-watercolour illustration

Illustration: BBQ Seasoning with Kansas City's 18th and Vine district in 1908

What’s in it

Every herb in the blend, and where to read about it on its own.

Spice · Caffeine-free

Paprika
Capsicum annuum
Dried sweet red peppers, ground. It is in twenty-eight products here mostly for colour and body — paprika gives a rub or a stew its red without adding heat, and it carries a soft, sweet pepper flavour that fills in the gaps between louder spices....
Sweet red pepper, no heat, vivid colour; the smoked one adds deep oak smoke
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Spice · Caffeine-free

Mustard
Sinapis alba, Brassica juncea
Seed and powder, from two related plants: yellow mustard (Sinapis alba), which is mild, and brown or oriental mustard (Brassica juncea), which is hot. Dry mustard is not hot at all until it is wet — water sets off a reaction between the enzyme myrosinase...
Sharp, nose-tingling heat once wet; before that, a dusty, faintly sweet, earthy powder
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Spice · Caffeine-free

Garlic
Allium sativum
A bulb, dried and broken down to three different coarsenesses, and the single most common ingredient in this catalogue — forty-three products carry it. Granulated is coarse and blooms slowly in hot oil; minced is visible pieces that plump up in a sauce; powder disappears...
Sweet, toasty and savoury; deeper and rounder than fresh garlic, without the raw bite
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Spice · Caffeine-free

Onion
Allium cepa
Dried onion, in three grinds: granulated blooms in oil, minced rehydrates into pieces you can see, and powder disappears into a dip or a rub. Twenty-seven products carry it. Drying takes 96 per cent of the water out and, with it, the sulfur compounds that...
Toasty, sweet and savoury; none of raw onion's sharpness
Learn more Sold on its own
Spice · Caffeine-free

Chile
Capsicum annuum
Dried chile peppers, whole, crushed or ground — the generic heat in twenty-nine products here, from curry powders to jerk to Tex-Mex. Heat comes from capsaicin and is measured in Scoville heat units; the shop's blends name theirs where the supplier gives a figure. The...
Heat first, then a dry, fruity red-pepper taste; the darker dried chiles run raisiny and the lighter ones bright and tannic
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Spice · Caffeine-free

Black Pepper
Piper nigrum
The dried unripe berry of a climbing vine — the mill on every table, and the most travelled object in any kitchen. Black, white and green pepper are all the same berry, picked at different moments and treated differently: black is picked unripe and dried...
Warm, woody, resinous and sharp; the bite is piperine, roughly a hundredth as potent as capsaicin
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Spice · Caffeine-free

Coriander
Coriandrum sativum
The round, ridged seed of the same plant whose leaf is cilantro — and it tastes nothing like it. Where the leaf is green and divisive, the seed is warm, citrusy and floral, closer to orange peel than to anything herbal. That is why plenty...
Warm, citrusy and floral, a little sweet — orange peel and pepper together
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Herb · Caffeine-free

Thyme
Thymus vulgaris
A small woody-stemmed Mediterranean shrub, dried. Thyme is the first herb into a stew and the one that survives longest in it — unlike most dried herbs, it improves with long cooking rather than fading. Eleven products carry it, from poultry seasoning and herbes de...
Warm, earthy, woody and resinous, with a minty, peppery edge that deepens as it cooks
Learn more Sold on its own
Spice · Caffeine-free

Allspice
Pimenta dioica
One berry that tastes like three spices — cinnamon, nutmeg and clove at once, with a peppery, woody edge. The English were calling it allspice by 1621 for exactly that reason, and it confuses people to this day: it is a single dried berry, not...
Warm clove, cinnamon and nutmeg at once, with a peppery, woody edge
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Spice · Caffeine-free

Cumin
Cuminum cyminum
A small ridged seed with a deep, earthy, faintly smoky smell — cuminaldehyde is the compound doing most of it. Cumin is one of the oldest travelling spices there is, and in this catalogue it is one of the busiest: twenty-three products carry it, which...
Deep, earthy, warm, a little smoky and bitter, with a musky edge
Learn more Sold on its own
Spice · Caffeine-free

Cinnamon
Cinnamomum verum, C. burmannii, C. loureiroi
The inner bark of a laurel tree, peeled, dried and curled into quills. Three different trees are sold under the one name, and the shop carries all three: Ceylon (Cinnamomum verum), the soft, papery, floral one from Sri Lanka; Korintje (C. burmannii) from the Kerinci...
Sweet, woody, warm — Ceylon floral and citrusy, Korintje smooth and familiar, Saigon bold and fiery-sweet
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Spice · Caffeine-free

Turmeric
Curcuma longa
A ginger-family rhizome, boiled, dried and ground to a powder so yellow it stains everything it touches. In sixteen products here it is doing two jobs: colour, which is most of why it is in a curry powder or a mustard, and a gently bitter,...
Earthy, warm, gently bitter and peppery, with a musky root smell; it colours everything gold
Learn more Sold on its own
Herb · Caffeine-free

Marjoram
Origanum majorana
Oregano's gentler cousin — the same genus, a much softer voice. Where oregano is pungent and a little bitter, marjoram is sweet, honeyed and faintly citrus, with a touch of pine and a hint of clove. It is the sausage herb and the stuffing herb:...
Sweet and gentle, honeyed with sweet pine and citrus; a little like oregano with the edges taken off
Learn more Sold on its own
Spice · Caffeine-free

Cayenne
Capsicum annuum
Clean, direct heat with a dry, faintly fruity red-pepper taste behind it — the workhorse hot pepper of a North American kitchen. Standard cayenne runs 30,000 to 50,000 Scoville heat units; the shop's Mild is 40,000 and its Hot, which is actually a bird's eye...
Heat first, then a dry, slightly fruity red-pepper taste
Learn more

Every ingredient in the shop →

What it goes with

This blend was made for our Lapsang Souchong — literal smoke meets smoke. Brew a cup alongside anything off the grill. For a roasted, nutty alternative, try our Hojicha — the charred compounds on the meat match the roasted compounds in the tea.

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Where it takes you

A Backyard in AugustOne taste and the slip'n'slide is ready.

Reviews

What the time-travelers say

5.0 from 1 review of this one, and 206 of the shop’s 213 are five stars

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