Piggy Dust All-Purpose BBQ Rub - 10 oz

Piggy Dust is the rub that started Double D BBQ, mixed by hand in the founder's own Minnesota kitchen long before it ever got a jar and a label. It began as the go-to seasoning for whatever hit the grill at home, and it stuck around because it worked on everything.

This jar of all-purpose BBQ rub is built on thirteen ingredients -- chili powder, paprika, cumin, coriander, and a touch of cinnamon among them -- balanced for a rub that browns evenly and holds its flavor through a long, slow smoke. Every batch is mixed in small quantities in a Minnesota home kitchen under the state's Cottage Food Producer Law, using locally sourced Minnesota ingredients, the same jar that ends up on the founder's own table before it ever reaches anyone else's.

Piggy Dust shines hardest on pulled pork, coating a shoulder before it goes low and slow, but it earns its all-purpose name on ribs, chicken, roasted vegetables, and even popcorn when the smoker isn't running. With no wheat-based fillers and only a touch of fine sugar, it's naturally gluten-free, though anyone strictly counting carbs on keto should note the small amount of sugar in the blend.

Store the jar in a cool, dry pantry between cookouts, lid on tight. With no wheat-based fillers or anti-caking agents in the blend, it's a straightforward one to read on the label.

Ingredients: Salt, Chili Powder, Fine Sugar, Black Pepper, Paprika, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Cumin, Coriander, Cinnamon, Ground Mustard, Celery Salt, and Cayenne Pepper.

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Common Questions

How does Piggy Dust compare to a typical grocery-store BBQ rub?
Most mass-market rubs list dextrose, silicon dioxide (an anti-caking agent), and modified corn starch as fillers before you even get to the spices doing the actual work, and many run 300 to 400 milligrams of sodium per quarter-teaspoon once those fillers dilute the seasoning ratio. Piggy Dust has no anti-caking agents or starch fillers at all, so every gram in the jar is either salt or an actual spice, and a quarter-teaspoon runs closer to 190 to 210 milligrams of sodium because there's nothing bulking out the blend. The tradeoff is that it clumps a bit more in humid weather than a rub full of flow agents, which is exactly why the description tells you to keep the lid tight in a dry pantry. You're paying for spice, not filler, which is also why 10 ounces goes further than it looks.

Why does this rub include sugar, and what does it actually do during cooking?
The fine sugar makes up a modest percentage of the blend and its job is chemical, not just sweet: sugars caramelize and drive the Maillard reaction, the browning process where amino acids and reducing sugars react under heat to build the reddish-brown bark you want on a smoked pork shoulder or a rack of ribs. Cinnamon and coriander in the blend contain aromatic compounds (cinnamaldehyde and linalool, respectively) that hold up to long low-and-slow cook times without turning bitter, which is why the rub is built to survive a 12-hour smoke rather than just a quick sear. Paprika and cayenne contribute capsaicinoids, the compounds responsible for the mild heat, layered under the sugar's browning effect rather than on top of it. That combination is what gives the finished bark both color and a slow-building heat instead of one-note sweetness or spice.

Does Piggy Dust fit a keto, paleo, or carnivore diet?
A quarter-teaspoon serving carries roughly 1 to 2 grams of carbohydrate, almost entirely from the fine sugar, which is low enough that most keto trackers won't flag it at normal seasoning doses of a teaspoon or less per pound of meat. It's paleo-compliant in structure since every ingredient is a whole spice, herb, or salt with nothing derived from grains, dairy, or refined seed oils. Strict carnivore protocols that exclude all plant matter won't allow it, since chili powder, cumin, coriander, and the other ten ingredients are all plant-derived, but it fits comfortably within any carnivore-adjacent or ketovore approach that permits spices. If you're counting net carbs tightly, use it as a light coating rather than a heavy crust and the carb load per serving of meat stays negligible.

What can I use Piggy Dust on besides pulled pork?
It's built around pork shoulder but the ratio of salt, sugar, and paprika works the same way on beef brisket and beef ribs, where the sugar content still drives good bark formation over a long smoke. On chicken, thin skin cooks faster than pork, so pat the rub on lighter and expect a shorter window before the sugars start to darken, since chicken doesn't need the same hours of exposure a shoulder does. It's also solid on roasted vegetables like cauliflower or sweet potato wedges, where a lighter dusting before high-heat roasting mimics the same Maillard browning at a faster pace. The popcorn use mentioned in the description works because the salt and paprika cling to the oil coating without a smoker involved at all.

What does the Minnesota Cottage Food Producer designation actually mean?
Minnesota's Cottage Food law allows home-based producers to make and sell certain low-risk foods, including dry spice blends, directly to consumers without operating out of a commercially licensed facility, provided they register with the state and follow labeling and food-safety rules. It's a legal framework, not a marketing certification, so it means Dennis Daily's kitchen operates under state oversight but doesn't carry third-party audits the way a USDA-inspected plant would. You can verify the underlying rules through the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's Cottage Food Producer registry, which lists what categories of food qualify and what the registration requires. Because it's a home kitchen operation, batches stay small by law, which is also why the label reads as short and simple as it does.

Why does small-batch production matter for a spice rub specifically?
Ground spices lose potency over time as their volatile oils oxidize and evaporate, and that clock starts the moment they're ground, not when the jar is sealed. Large commercial spice blenders often hold pre-ground stock in bulk for weeks or months before packaging, while a small-batch operation mixing in home-kitchen quantities turns over its spice inventory faster, so what ends up in your jar has spent less time sitting ground and exposed to air. That's most noticeable in ingredients like cumin, coriander, and cinnamon, which carry a lot of their flavor in essential oils that fade with time and heat exposure. It won't show up as a listed shelf-life difference on paper, but it's the practical reason a small-batch rub tends to smell and taste sharper straight out of the jar than one that's been sitting in wide distribution.

How much of this rub should I use per pound of meat?
A common starting ratio is about 1 to 2 tablespoons per pound of pork shoulder, applied as a visible even coat pressed into the surface rather than a light dusting, since the fat cap and long cook time can absorb more seasoning than a quick-cooking cut. For ribs, closer to 1 tablespoon per rack side is typical since the meat-to-surface ratio is higher. Because the blend has no filler diluting the salt content, using the same volume you'd use with a filler-heavy grocery rub will actually deliver more concentrated seasoning, so it's worth starting slightly lighter than you're used to and adjusting up next time rather than oversalting the first cook.