Cousin Mike’s Porcini Steak Rub

Quick answer: A great steak rub is coarse, built for high-heat crust, and — here’s the trick — it has no salt in the jar. Salt needs a full day to work into the meat, while garlic and herbs need about 30 minutes before they go dusty or scorch. So you dry-brine the steak with kosher salt a day ahead, then rub it 30 minutes before cooking with toasted black pepper, dried porcini, granulated garlic, ancho chile, and a few herbs. Makes about 1/3 cup — roughly 2 teaspoons per side of steak.

Every steak rub online is the same jar: salt, pepper, garlic, smoked paprika, maybe a little espresso powder if they’re feeling fancy. It’s fine. It’s also exactly why one steak tastes like the next. This one’s different on purpose, and it starts with leaving the salt out of the jar entirely.

Here’s the thinking. Salt is the one ingredient that actually needs time — twelve hours or more to move through the muscle and set you up for a dry, browning surface instead of a gray, steaming one. Garlic, herbs, and chile are the opposite: they want about half an hour on the meat, and if they sit overnight on a wet steak they turn bitter and dusty. Jam them all in one jar like everybody does and you’re forced to compromise one or the other. Keep them apart and you get the best of both — plus a rub jar you can shake onto chicken thighs, pork chops, or a smashburger without doing sodium math.

The other move is the porcini. Smoked paprika and espresso are what everybody reaches for to add “depth” — this uses dried porcini powder instead. It’s loaded with natural glutamates, so it reads as dry-aged beef rather than seasoned meat. Ancho chile stands in for the smoked paprika and brings a dried-fruit sweetness that plays nice with the char instead of fighting it. That’s the whole rub: coarse, savory, and built to crust up hard over high heat.

Cousin Mike’s Porcini Steak Rub

A coarse, saltless steak rub built around dried porcini for dry-aged depth. The salt goes on the steak separately the day before — that's the whole trick. Makes about 1/3 cup, roughly 2 teaspoons per side.

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Total Time 10 minutes mins

Servings: 8 steaks

Course: Seasoning

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

For the rub (goes in the jar)

• 2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns or 2 tablespoons cracked 16-mesh
• 1 tablespoon dried porcini powder
• 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
• 2 teaspoons ancho chile powder
• 2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon whole coriander seed
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper optional

For the steak (kept separate)

• 2 tablespoons coarse kosher salt Diamond Crystal, for the dry brine

Method

 

1. Toast the whole spices. Toast the black peppercorns and coriander seed in a dry skillet over medium heat, shaking constantly, until the coriander smells citrusy and a few peppercorns start to pop. Dump them onto a cold plate right away — they’ll keep cooking in a hot pan and go acrid.
2. Crack them coarse. Crack the cooled pepper and coriander coarse with a mortar and pestle or the bottom of a heavy pan. You want visible grit, not powder. Fine-ground pepper dissolves into the meat and turns harsh over high heat; coarse pepper builds crust.
3. Mix the jar. Crush the dried rosemary to near-powder between your fingers, then combine it with the cracked spices, porcini powder, granulated garlic, ancho chile powder, thyme, mustard powder, and cayenne (if using). Shake in a sealed jar for a solid 30 seconds — the porcini and mustard are fine enough to settle to the bottom.
4. Salt the day before. The day before you cook, pat the steak dry, season all sides with the coarse kosher salt (about 3/4 teaspoon Diamond Crystal per pound), and set it on a rack over a sheet pan. Leave it uncovered in the fridge for 12 to 24 hours. The surface will look dry and slightly darkened — that’s exactly what you want. That dry exterior is the difference between a seared steak and a steamed one.
5. Rub 30 minutes out. Pull the steak from the fridge and coat it with about 2 teaspoons of rub per side, pressing it in. Let it sit at room temperature for 30 minutes while your grill or pan gets screaming hot. No oil needed — the rub grabs onto the tacky, brined surface on its own.
6. Store the rest. Airtight jar, dark cupboard, nowhere near the stove. The toasted pepper and coriander are at their best for about two months and still good at six. Grind a fresh batch rather than doubling up front — the whole point of toasting is gone by month eight.

Notes

On the porcini: buy dried porcini slices and grind them in a coffee grinder. An ounce of slices costs a fraction of pre-ground mushroom powder and tastes noticeably better. Dried shiitake works too and is cheaper, though it leans darker and more sulfurous — this is the ingredient doing the heavy lifting, so don’t skip it. And skip the espresso powder you’ll see in other steak rubs; the porcini already covers that roasted, savory register better.

Tips for a Better Steak Rub

• No salt in the jar is the whole point. Salt needs 12+ hours to work; herbs and garlic need 30 minutes and go bitter if they sit that long on wet meat. Keeping them apart fixes both — and makes the jar usable on chicken, pork, and burgers without over-salting.
• Coarse everything. Cracked pepper and coriander build crust; ground fine, they dissolve and turn harsh over high heat.
• Best on thick cuts. The rub and salt ratio assume a steak at least 1 1/4 inches thick — ribeye, strip, or a thick sirloin. On thin flank or skirt it can push past seasoned into salty.
• Works beyond steak. Because the salt lives separately, the rub jar is great on chicken thighs, pork chops, and even a smashburger.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why isn’t there salt in the rub?

Because salt and the aromatics want completely different timelines. Salt needs 12 or more hours to move through the meat and dry the surface for browning; garlic, herbs, and chile only need about 30 minutes and turn dusty or bitter if they sit overnight on wet meat. Salting separately the day before lets each do its job, and it keeps the rub jar from being a sodium bomb on everything else you cook.

What does the porcini powder actually do?

Dried porcini is loaded with natural glutamates — the same savory compounds that make dry-aged beef taste the way it does. It gives the crust a deep, meaty, almost aged flavor without any smoke or coffee notes. It’s the ingredient that makes this rub taste different from the 400 other steak rubs online.

Can I use this rub on chicken or pork?

Yes — that’s a bonus of keeping the salt separate. The jar is straight aromatics and porcini, so it’s great on chicken thighs, pork chops, and burgers. Just salt those the same way, scaled to the weight.

How long does the rub keep?

About six months in an airtight jar in a dark cupboard, but it’s at its peak for the first two months. Because the pepper and coriander are freshly toasted, they fade faster than store-bought pre-ground spice, so smaller, fresher batches are better than one giant jar.

What steaks work best?

Thick cuts — ribeye, New York strip, or a thick-cut sirloin, at least 1 1/4 inches. Those handle the salt ratio and the long dry brine. Thin cuts like flank or skirt can go past seasoned into salty and don’t have the mass to develop a real crust.

More to Try

Fire up the grill and finish that steak with a homemade sauce — my Honey Bourbon BBQ Sauce and Spicy Peach BBQ Sauce are both killer on beef.