Albuquerque - We knew we had a good thing going when we decided to make a business of dry rub seasonings but it's even better to have conformation like this: The results of the Fiery Foods Challenge were announced at a banquet in Albuquerque on Saturday night, March 2nd. In the Seasonings/Rubs category Feather Dustings took second place, David's Devil Dust third and Finessence Honorable Mention. These were from blind tasting by restaurant owners, chefs and other food professionals after being prepared by students of Culinary Arts at Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute according to package directions. Identity of the products was a very carefully guarded secret as were the results when tallied until the announcements at the banquet. We are very proud that so many of our products placed as finalist.

New Packaging Too!

Vivienne Groves of Minuteman Press in Portsmouth has done an excellent job of translating our ideas into art for the Pepper Coast Products labels - and they are eye popping! Now they look as great as they taste. Along with this goes some changes in the package as well. The sampler remains the same but with new labels, the shaker jar is larger and comes with a recipe tag. We tried hard to find glass but unless we "bought the factory" it was just not possible. These crystal clear plastic bottles are recyclable, same as soda bottles, and use less energy to ship and are less likely to break. Product freshness should remain about the same as glass as long as you follow our directions to "sprinkle plenty." We have dropped the middle size bag but continue with the large bag for serious BBQ Pit Masters. By the way, Vivienne tells us that she knows a place to get great fresh frozen crab cakes and that she always uses Finessence on them.

Salt? Low Salt? No Salt?

We get a lot of questions about salt in our products. Most traditional dry rub recipes and many currently available blends are based on salt - so it is a natural concern of health conscious people looking to reduce salt to a reasonable level in their diets. It's not that salt is a bad thing, it's just that there's too much salt in processed foods. I believe that salt helps the dry rub work by melting and carrying the flavor of the seasoning into the food. But our early attempts had us looking for the fire hose, not because of the heat but to quench our thirst! We have since tried to keep it as low as possible. OK, then, why is salt first or at least close to the first on the list of ingredients? It gets there because salt is denser than most other ingredients and even a small amount will weight as much as a large quantity of the lighter seasonings. For reasons of protecting their formula manufactures do not show what proportions of total content weight is salt, but you can easily tell by the heft and the nutritional analysis that many blends are half to three quarters salt. We want to keep our products healthy as well as tasty and if we can lower the salt without hurting taste, we will.

Texas 1015 Onions

Here's a tip for you if you like really nice sweet onions. Lone Star Farms in Mercedes, Texas grows these and markets them by mail. They are large, sweet and generally have only a single center (makes it easier to do onion rings.) They are similar to the Walla Walla and Vadalia onions. I like to marinate them in Italian dressing and cook them till charred on the grill. I've also coated them with a bit of mayonnaise and sprinkled them with David's Devil Dust. You could try any of our seasonings on them and there are many other ways to enjoy them as well. We usually order 40 lbs. ourselves in the spring and they will last till fall if kept reasonably cool and dry. You can contact them at 800-552-1015.

Spicy Onion Rings

Heat vegetable oil in an electric frying pan, deep fryer or skillet. Place the onion rings in, taking care not to overload the pan or device that you are using. Cook until golden brown on all sides, turning when necessary. Drain and serve with spicy catsup, salsa or BBQ sauce.

Wined and Dusted Bird

So long till next time,