The Rib Man’s Rib Rub

Ask most carnivores in London where to find either the best street food ribs or hot sauce and chances are you’ll hear the same name, The Rib Man a.k.a. Mark Gevaux.

Mark qualified as a butcher at the age of 15 and continued in that line of work until an accident meant he was unable to continue. Realising there were no street food vendors selling ribs he decided to bring ribs to the people, from there his repertoire expanded to include hot sauces because let’s face it, what’s a rack of ribs without sauce?

These aren’t any old sauces, these are homemade, no two batches are the same hot. The weak one, if you can call red-faced perspiration weak is the infamous Holy Fuck then you progress to Christ on a Bike (my favourite) and from there it’s Holy Mother of God. If you really want to test yourself you can try Judas is Scary Hot but it’s certainly not for everyone.

Mark kindly sent a sample of his latest product, The Rib Man Rib Rub. As the name suggests, this is what you apply to your ribs (or chicken, fish, steak, whatever) prior to cooking; fear not there’s no chilli added, this is a seasoning that is child friendly.

My first impressions upon opening were a strong smoky scent, a bit charcoaly (new word?) and something I couldn’t quite put my finger on, so instead I put my finger in it and had a taste. Yes, there was that smoky goodness and with it came a lovely sweetish after taste, I couldn’t wait to try it.

Not having a BBQ I have to resort to oven cooking my ribs. After generously coating my rack of ribs I wrapped them in cling film and left them to marinade for around 36 hours then it was into the oven with them.

After what seemed like forever (just 40 minutes) they were ready to eat. Pausing briefly to take a photo I channelled my inner caveman and stripped those bones clean. I had been a little worried that the sweetness would be overpowering but I needn’t have worried, overall it was just the right combination.

As someone who generally adds chilli/hot sauce to most dishes the lack of zing wasn’t an issue, the seasoning itself had enough flavour to distract me and as I say, it’s not just for ribs. I’ve used it to season vegetables and rice as well as various meats and fish, it’s only limit is your imagination.

All in all The Rib Man’s Rib Rub is incredibly versatile. Mark has mentioned the possibility of a hot version and if that comes to fruition I can see it becoming my go-to seasoning.

You can find the rub in the Rib Man’s online shop priced at £3.50 for 150g or £5 for 300g and I’m sure if you send him a tweet (@theribman) he’ll happily sell you some in person from his stall, where he sells those delicious ribs and rib meat rolls and wraps.