Turn Your Onion Soup Mix Into A Flavor-Packed Dry Rub

There seem to be countless recipes for dry rubs being touted as "ultimate". But you might already have the absolute best dry rub for meat in your pantry. Dry onion soup mix is loaded with savory ingredients that add both deep flavor and tenderness when used as a dry rub or a marinade. Its primary ingredient is dehydrated onions. This is followed by quite a lot of salt (610 milligrams or 41% of the ideal daily recommendation by the American Heart Association), which is a good thing, especially when it comes to tenderizing meat. Steak, for instance, is composed of muscle fibers held together with collagen, and tougher cuts come from the steer's most-worked muscles, like the shoulder, brisket, or rump. There are several ways to tenderize steak, and a healthy pinch or two of salt is one of the best.

When applied as a dry rub, salt draws moisture from the meat and creates its own natural brine, which is then reabsorbed into the meat. The brine loosens the tight muscle fibers, making meat tender, and injects juiciness. Combined with the onion mix's other ingredients — onion powder, sugar, soy sauce, among them — you're infusing any cut of meat, including chicken and pork, with a seriously potent flavor bomb. There are many delicious ways to use onion soup mix besides making soup, and it's worth experimenting with it as a dry rub for standing rib roast, brisket, Salisbury steak, and succulent French onion meatballs.

When Lipton launched its onion soup mix in 1952, mixes and canned foods were all the rage. Convenience was the go-to word for harried housewives who needed to get dinner on the table for their families in a jiffy. Two years later, a mysterious genius combined the soup mix with sour cream to create what became known as the "California Dip." Massively advertised in all media, the two-ingredient dip — eventually redubbed "French Onion Dip" — achieved iconic status, which it still holds today.

Onion soup mix isn't too expensive, but it will be more economical to make your own in a big batch. In addition to the soup mix's second primary ingredient, salt, it has soy sauce and two other sodium-containing additives as flavor enhancers that are not dissimilar to MSG, which neither Lipton nor Knorr has. Your homemade version won't have as much sodium and can be made with only five ingredients: dried onion, beef bouillon powder (so extra salt isn't needed), onion powder, crushed celery seed, and sugar. You can personalize the proportions, and depending on which meat you're using the mix for as a dry rub, you might prefer to add more dried onion for a textural crunch. But if you really want to make your homemade onion soup mix a truly ultimate dry rub, add some dried caramelized onions.