The 5 Best Meat Rub Gift Sets for Meat Lovers

Nothing opens up the palate to new possibilities like the perfect rub. Meat rubs are made up of the right blend ingredients and seasonings that add flavor to your cut of meat. They are wonderful, and it is downright unfair to any meat-lover who has no idea they exist. 

This article has the best meat rub gift sets that any meat-lover would be happy to receive.

Type of Meat Rubs

Wet Rubs: People might refer to these as brine in some circles. Brine is popularly known as salted water, but not in this case. The brining here is a mixture of the finest and most flavorful ingredients. Everything about meat rubs has to do with flavor, so if an ingredient needed to attain that flavor comes in liquid form, then the entire mixture becomes a wet rub. Vinegar, oil, apple juice, and salted water are common examples.

Dry Rubs: Each ingredient present in dry rubs is anhydrous, hence the “dry” in dry rub. They are often in powdered form after being ground up. Common examples include brown sugar, black pepper, garlic powder, and coriander seeds.

Meat Rubs: To Be Grilled or Barbecued?

Meat-lovers often make the error of thinking rubs are meant for every form of outdoor cooking – from grilling to barbecue. But there is a difference, despite the fact that the two terms are often used interchangeably. 

Grilling is a faster form of cooking, meaning high heat and no smoke. It typically means cooking smaller-sized cuts of meat using an open grill without a lid. When grilling meat with rubs, the rubs are quickly burnt off and immediately turned to charcoal or ash because of the high heat.

Barbecuing, on the other hand, is a form of slow cooking. It’s commonly used for larger cuts of meat and uses less heat and more smoke on a grill with a closed lid. This allows the rubs and their ingredients to have more time to penetrate the meat and not get burnt off. 

You should inform anyone you are sending meat rub gift sets to that rubs are meant for low and slow cooking on barbecues and not for high-temperature grilling. 

How to Apply Rubs Correctly

Knowledge leads to mastery. And you can be certain that your loved ones will appreciate this information. Applying rubs on your favorite meat does not require any special skill, just attentiveness and patience. 

The three ways of applying dry rubs are sprinkling directly on the meat, rubbing directly on the meat, or adding it to a wet ingredient to make a wet rub. Most meat rub gift sets come with shaker bottles to make the process easier and less messy.

If the rub has a liquid ingredient, it is a wet rub and can be applied as a paste or injected into the meat. A more common approach is to let your meat sit in the wet rub and marinate for hours.

Tips for Using Rubs

• Wash your hands – personal hygiene cannot be understated when food is concerned.
• Always rinse your meat, always.
• Dry your meat with paper towels before applying the rubs – this removes excess water.
• Do not be gentle with your massaging if you are using dry rubs. You should forcefully knead the rub into the meat to tenderize it.
• Rubs are meant for barbecues or any other slow cooking method.

In A Hurry?Here Are Our Top Picks..

Product Review of the 5 Best Meat Rub Gift Sets

1. The Spice Lab BBQ Barbecue Spices and Seasonings Set

Last update on 2024-12-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

This gift set contains dry rubs perfect for barbecuing, grilling, and smoking. The seasonings are prepared in the United States and put in four shaker bottles. The bottles are see-through with black caps and flavors labeled Bad to the Bone, Sweet Rib Rub, Smokey Pecan Rib Rub, and Ancho Chili and Coffee. 

These rubs are perfect for various meats, such as pork, ribs, poultry, hamburgers, meats, seafood, vegetables, and even processed food. 

Bad to the Bone gives a savory and sweet flavor, adding traces of citrus in ribs, shoulder, pork butt, chops, and tenderloins. Smokey Pecan Rib Rub and Sweet Rib Rub have a varying balance of sweetness and smokiness. Both are ideal for beef, pork, and chicken. Finally, Ancho Chili and Coffee has a smoky and sweet flavor, making it a trifecta with a chili finish that’s great on chicken, pork, or beef. The Spice Lap specialty common in all its products is kosher salt.

2. Thoughtfully Gifts, Barbecue Rubs to Go Gift Set

Last update on 2024-12-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

This pack from Thoughtfully Gifts includes five unique vegan BBQ rubs – Cajun, Caribbean, Mexican, Southwest, and Memphis. They are packaged in transparent bottles with narrow necks and color-coded red, blue, orange, yellow, and green based on flavor.

This BBQ rub is versatile and can be used on a variety of different food products, including meat and vegetables. It is the perfect gift for the aspiring chef in your family.

3. FreshJax Smoked Spices Gift Set

Last update on 2024-12-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

The FreshJax gift set offers vegan, naturally flavored, smoked spices. Five transparent bottles with black caps hold these gluten-free, non-GMO, untreated by irradiation, organic rubs. They are also certified organic and kosher by Americert International and Gesher K.

These spices are proudly made in the USA and mixed by hand in small batches. 

The ingredients that make up each flavor are all organic. Campfire Smokey Sea Salt features smoked sea salt and red roasted chili powder. Smokey Southwest is made from chili powder, cumin, smoked black peppercorn, sea salt, alderwood smoked sea salt, smoked paprika, garlic, onion, oregano, and crushed red pepper. 

Mesquite Lime Sea Salt features mesquite powder, sea salt, lime peel, dried maple syrup, chipotle pepper. Grill Master contains smoked black peppercorn, dill, onion, paprika, sea salt, coriander, thyme, garlic, fennel, and rosemary. Smoked Cherrywood Sea combines the ingredients mentioned above with smoked cherrywood sea salt.

4. Craft Spice Blends Gift Set

Last update on 2024-12-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Every part of the production process is started and finished in the United States for this rub. The four bottles are transparent with aluminum caps and are packaged in a completely enclosed box. Even though it is a small batch, this gift set holds Alehouse chicken seasoning, Whiskey maple smoke rub, IPA chili seasoning, and Bourbon barrel steak seasoning. 

Ale House Chicken Seasoning adds a crisp, refreshing flavor because of the lemon and herb seasoning. Use the Ale seasoning on chicken, eggs, fish like salmon, salad, pasta, and vegetables.

IPA Chili Seasoning will make a very bold statement thanks to its chili mix with sweet ancho chili pepper, earthy smoked paprika, cilantro, and hops. 

Use the Whiskey Maple Smoke Rub for beef, chicken, fish, and pork. Its flavor is notably characterized by garlic, onion, herbs, earthy smoked paprika, maple sugar, salt, and other spices – with a hint of hickory smoke. 

Bourbon Barrel Steak Seasoning contains savory herbs, roasted garlic, spices, molasses, and salt. It is good for steak, chicken, hamburger, and pork. It’s also not called Bourbon Barrel for nothing. The rub undergoes an organic process of being smoked with bourbon barrels that have spent time marinating with whiskey inside.

5. Spicewalla Grill Seasoning 6 Pack Set

Last update on 2024-12-25 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

This gift set has six square-shaped jars in one pack: Carolina Pork Rub, Cowboy Steak Rub, Honey and Herb Rub, Cracked Coriander and Pepper Rub, Mustard and Tarragon Rub, and Modena Balsamic Rub. 

This rub gift set is great for grilling, even though it features somewhat rare flavors. It is the perfect gift for the grill enthusiast who loves experimenting with unique flavors. It’s great on rib racks, chicken breast, pork chops, carne asada marinade, vegetables, and brisket. 

The rubs themselves free of genetically modified organisms. There is no artificial flavoring, and the ingredients are both organic and fresh.

Since these rubs are a little more unique, we want to break down the ingredient list of each one. The rubs from Spicewalla have Kosher salt and black pepper. The Carolina Pork Rub contains chili powder, brown sugar, granulated garlic and onion, mustard, celery seed, black and cayenne pepper. 

The Cracked Coriander & Pepper Rub contains black pepper, garlic herb, coriander, yellow mustard, paprika, and rosemary. The Thyme Cowboy Steak Rub contains coarse black pepper, garlic oil, crushed red pepper, cumin seed, dill seed. 

The Honey and Herb Rub includes brown sugar, garlic granules, smoked Paprika, honey powder, granulated onion, thyme, basil, citric acid, fennel seed. The Mustard & Tarragon Rub includes garlic, yellow mustard, salt, coriander, tarragon, parsley, dill seed, white pepper. The Modena Balsamic Rub features balsamic vinegar powder, garlic, brown sugar, tomato powder, a trace amount of wheat, and spices.

Bottom Line

Every meat rub gift set reviewed here would make the perfect present for the resident chef in your friend group. With that in mind, we know it can be difficult to choose. And it is very unlikely that you’ll just send all five of them as gifts at once. So we want to recommend our top choice to ease your selection process. 

The FreshJax Smoked Spices Gift Set is sure to please any meat lover and is easily our top choice. It’s produced by FreshJax, a family-owned organic spice company in Jacksonville, Florida. 

The company is committed to using high-quality ingredients that ensure product safety and transparency. FreshJax made sure their meat rubs were free of unnecessary ingredients to meet their mission. So no artificial sweeteners, flavors, colors, monosodium glutamate, radiation, preservatives, genetically modified organisms, or anti-caking agents. 

The FreshJax gift set is made up of five different flavors – namely Smokey Southwest, Campfire, Mesquite Lime Sea Salt, Grill Master, and Smoked Cherrywood Sea – all packaged with thick polystyrene foam pressure seal liners to maintain the freshness of the ingredients. 

The company has made some very versatile rubs, perfect to use for both meat and vegetables.

FreshJax uses organic products, which removes the need for artificial additives. Their flavors remain fresh, although it is always important to put the lid back after every use. It is an important way to ensure the rubs stay as good as the day you bought them.

Last Updated on April 29, 2022 by Judith Fertig