Tried adding coffee grounds to my pork shoulder rub and got a weird crust

Last weekend I figured I'd experiment and threw some fine coffee grounds into my usual rub for a picnic shoulder. I thought it would give a nice deep smoky flavor since coffee's bitter like bark. Instead I ended up with this hard gritty crust that crunched when you bit into it, not in a good way. The meat itself was fine, tender and all, but that outer layer was like eating sand almost. My buddy Steve joked I was making a dirt cake. I learned that coffee needs to be ground way finer than what you'd use for brewing if you want to try this, or maybe just add it to a marinade instead of a rub. Has anyone else tried coffee on pork and gotten it to work without turning into a mess?

2 comments

2 Comments

jordan46421d ago

...and that's exactly the problem with coffee grounds, they don't break down the same way other dry rub ingredients do during a long cook. I've seen folks have better luck mixing instant coffee powder into a wet marinade or even into the injection liquid, since it dissolves completely and spreads through the meat. The real trick I've heard is to toast the grounds in a dry pan first to get that deep flavor, then pulverize them in a spice grinder until they're almost like dust. But if you're set on a dry rub, you'd probably need to use something like espresso powder from the baking aisle, that stuff is basically super fine coffee dust already.

dakota_fox20d ago

Three years of making my own coffee rubs for brisket and I've gotta push back a little here, @jordan464. I actually find that medium-grind coffee works great in dry rubs if you let it sit on the meat for a good 30 minutes before cooking, the moisture from the meat softens it up just fine.