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    🏠Home » Recipes » Sauces, Rubs, and Seasonings Recipes

    Marlowe's Memphis Dry Rub-Home Size

    Jun 26, 2010 · Modified: Jul 28, 2021 by Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan · 5 Comments

    Recipe Table of Contents    
    4.36 from 14 votes

    Bring the taste of classic Memphis BBQ to your grill with this wonderful dry rub from Marlowe Restaurant in Memphis (on Elvis Presley Boulevard, of course).  A spice rub that is full of flavor without much sugar, just great flavor. Use it with any meat that needs a rub.

    closeup of cooked ribs

    Jump To:
    • Recipe Size
    • Storage
    • Black Magic Seasoning
    • Tips
    • Memphis Recipes
    • 📝Recipe

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    Introduction

    This recipe is from the famous Marlowe Restaurant in Memphis (on Elvis Presley Boulevard, of course). If you watch a lot of Food Network, you have seen them. It is the mandatory stop in Memphis for ribs.

    The recipes were given to Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives by the restaurant. But the original recipe (apparently already cut down) produced 11 ½ cups of rub, plus you need to put together Marlowe's Black Magic Seasoning, and that recipe is 12 more cups of spices.

    Marlowe's trailer that is a decorated as a pink pig

    My Rating

    My rating system. Great 5 out of 5

    Oh yeah, it is a strong 5.

    Recipe Size

    Even though the original recipe was "cut down," I would say it was not really "Cooking For Two" friendly nor home cooking friendly as originally published. So I cut it down to a more reasonable size.

    The ratio I used was 1 tablespoon for each cup of recommended seasoning. A 1:16 reduction was making about ¾ cup of rub, which is about what I use on most recipes. It is now home-friendly.

    Storage

    This will keep fresh in tightly closed containers for up to 6 months. You can go longer, but most of the flavor is lost after the bottle is opened, and by 9 to 12 months, it should be tossed.

    It is better to be away from light and cooler but not the refrigerator where moisture could condense on the container during use and then damage the spices later. A full container is good, and a vacuum-sealed would be great.

    Black Magic Seasoning

    One of the components of this dry rub is Marlowe's Black Magic Seasoning. The restaurant kindly provided that recipe at the same time, but again in a huge size. I have cut that recipe down also in another post.

    Do I have to use black magic? No. Although Black Magic Seasoning is full favor seasoning with many uses, you will still have a great rub without it. The seasoning shares several spices with this rub and does add a touch of other flavors, but it is not mandatory. I can tell the difference a tiny bit, and I think most people won't be able to tell.

    Having said that, I usually do the black magic, so I have it for other grilled meats.

    Tips

    Dry rubs and the sauce you use should complement each other. I suggest my Memphis sauce listed below or another sweeter sauce like a Kansas City or St. Louis sauce. Not a Carolina vinegar-based sauce.

    This is generally a rub for ribs, but you can use it anywhere that a dry rub is needed.

    There is not much sugar in this rub, so don't pack it on as much as the higher sugar-based rubs.

    There is also a large amount of salt between the seasoning salt and regular salt in the recipe. I normally skip about half the normal salt and use coarse salt that cuts it even more.

    Memphis Recipes

    Memphis Barbecue Sauce - A Wonderful Thing

    The Best Grilled Pork Tenderloin - Memphis Style

    Grilled Memphis Boneless Country Style Pork Ribs

    baby back ribs with rub
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    📝Recipe

    closeup of cooked ribs

    Marlowe's of Memphis BBQ Dry Rub

    From Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan
    Bring the taste of classic Memphis BBQ to your grill with this wonderful dry rub from Marlowe Restaurant in Memphis (on Elvis Presley Boulevard, of course).  A spice rub that is full of flavor without much sugar, just great flavor. Use it with any meat that needs a rub.
    Tap to leave a Rating
    4.36 from 14 votes
    Print Email CollectionCollected
    Prep Time: 10 minutes
    Total Time: 10 minutes
    Servings #/Adjust if desired 12 tablespoons

    Ingredients

    US Customary - Convert to Metric
    • 3 tablespoons paprika
    • 2 tablespoons sugar
    • 2 tablespoons garlic powder
    • 1 tablespoon salt
    • 1 tablespoon onion powder
    • 1 tablespoon seasoned salt - Lowery's
    • ½ tablespoon chili powder
    • ½ tablespoon black pepper
    • ½ tablespoon Black Magic spice mix
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    Instructions

    • Mix well.
    • Store in an airtight container.
    See the step-by-step photos in the post. Some recipes have an option to display the photos here with a switch above these instructions but the photos DO NOT print.

    Your Own Private Notes

    Click here to save your own private notes only you will see. These will print and be saved for your next visit.
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    Recipe Notes

    Pro Tips

    1. Dry rubs and the sauce you use should complement each other. I suggest my Memphis sauce or another sweeter sauce like a Kansas City or St. Louis sauce. Not a Carolina vinegar-based sauce.
    2. This is generally a rub for ribs, but you can use it anywhere that a dry rub is needed.
    3. There is very little sugar in this rub, so don't pack it on as much as the high sugar rubs.
    4. There is also a large amount of salt between the seasoning salt and regular salt in the recipe. I normally skip about half the normal salt, and use coarse salt that cuts it even more.
    5. This will keep fresh in tightly closed containers up to 6 months.
    6. It is better to be away from light and cooler but not the refrigerator.

    To adjust the recipe size:

    You may adjust the number of servings in this recipe card under servings. This does the math for the ingredients for you. BUT it does NOT adjust the text of the instructions. So you need to do that yourself.

    Nutrition Estimate

    Nutrition Facts
    Marlowe's of Memphis BBQ Dry Rub
    Amount Per Serving
    Calories 21 Calories from Fat 9
    % Daily Value*
    Fat 1g2%
    Saturated Fat 1g5%
    Sodium 1171mg49%
    Potassium 71mg2%
    Carbohydrates 5g2%
    Fiber 1g4%
    Sugar 2g2%
    Protein 1g2%
    Vitamin A 961IU19%
    Vitamin C 1mg1%
    Calcium 10mg1%
    Iron 1mg6%
    * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
    Serving size is my estimate of a normal size unless stated otherwise. The number of servings per recipe is stated above. This is home cooking, and there are many variables. All nutritional information are estimates and may vary from your actual results. To taste ingredients such as salt will be my estimate of the average used.
    Course : Rubs and Sauces
    Cuisine : American

    © 101 Cooking for Two, LLC. All content and photographs are copyright protected by us or our vendors. While we appreciate your sharing our recipes, please realize copying, pasting, or duplicating full recipes to any social media, website, or electronic/printed media is strictly prohibited and a violation of our copyrights.

    Publisher's Note: Originally published June 26, 2010. Updated with expanded options, refreshed photos, and a table of contents to help navigation.

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    More Sauces, Rubs, and Seasonings Recipes

    • Blue Cheese Compound Butter
    • All-Purpose Seasoning Recipe
    • BBQ Dry Rub for Ribs, Brisket, or Pulled Pork
    • How to Make Gravy from Scratch—Quick & Easy

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    1. Margaret Pidde

      May 22, 2020 at 5:46 pm

      HELP! Love your recipes and generally trust them without much questioning...
      But, you say above in the text "There is no sugar in this rub...".

      However sugar is the 2nd ingredient in the recipe.

      Was presented with frozen ribs (defrosting as no room in my freezer) and want to pop them in the slow cooker on Low for overnight. No label on package (probably donated from a restaurant that closed here in these times) that came home from the food shelf. From the size I'd guess they are NOT baby back, but probably spare ribs. My slow cooker is 7qt and I plan to cook them vertically/on edge.

      Would love to use your dry rub recipe; please verify ingredients. Thanks, a very faithful reader, Margaret

      Reply
      • Dan Mikesell AKA DrDan

        May 22, 2020 at 6:32 pm

        Hi Margaret,

        My bad on the wording but the ingredients are correct. I should have said it was low in sugar. Usually the sugar will be about 2/3 of the volume but it is much less here. I have fixed all the wording. If somebody is use to a heavy coat of a typical high sugar rub and uses the same amount here, it will be way over spiced.

        Hope that helps. If they fit in the crock pot, that works well. I have recipes around here for grill, oven and crockpot.

        Hope that helps and thanks for asking so I could fix it.

        Dan

      • Margaret Pidde

        May 28, 2020 at 11:05 am

        5 stars
        Thanks for the quick response Dr Dan. As it turns out, the package of ribs was still hard frozen when I sent you my query and it took another 2-3 days to finish defrosting in my refrigerator (much like a Thanksgiving turkey). Ended up using this rub (modified to our taste preferences, of course) and baking in a 300F oven. The ribs were spare ribs, not baby back, so very dense. There was a lot of fat to trim off and it took closer to 3 hours for the bones to stick out as you've described elsewhere. The flavor from the rub was Very Good. One day I'll try this in my slow cooker, when the timing works out. Thanks again for your thorough coverage and explanations surrounding the cooking of ribs. It's been an education.

    2. Simon

      August 23, 2018 at 12:25 pm

      Having first found this recipe on food network I feel your scaling down is well off mark for the reasons..1 tbl of sugar will weigh a lot more than 1 tbl oregano etc better to scale it down weight for weight from the original recipe

      Reply
      • DrDan

        August 23, 2018 at 12:36 pm

        Hi Simon,

        Welcome to the blog.

        I just went to the original recipe and everything is in cups and not by weight so my ratio using volume is correct.

        https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/marlowes-bbq-dry-rub-recipe-1939608

        You are correct that if they were using weight, things like sugar would weight a lot more. But to do this by weight. First you would convert the volume to weights. Then cut them down proportionally. Then since most people do volume at home and can not measure by weight in small volume at home, convert back to volume. The results would be the same.

        Dan

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