If store bought works for you, that's one option.

but if you want to be sure of what is in your rub, i.e. no MSG (or inosinate & guayanates), less salt, etc.  then it can be worth your time to make your own and invest in one of these.

^^^^ C'Mon summer! 

Meat Church is outstanding!

Right now I use store bought rubs, because I most of them have won championship's in bbqing meat and want to see how they taste.  Most are pretty good, now my B.I.L has a pretty good rub he makes, but won't tell me what's in it.  Being KC, there are a lot of good ones to choose from.  I have one that is for pork, but is great for chicken too.  Some day when I get low or stop buying I may make my own.

How many times have I made the "perfect" rub only to forget what I put in it, and how much of each ingredient... that's what the store bought stuff is for, consistency.

often just throw together a few tablespoons of rub for whatever i'm making.  made a shaker of dinosaur BBQs all-purpose red rub for easy use, I highly recommend it.

I like to make them to control the freshness/quality of spices and the amount of salt.  the downside is i rarely write down exact amounts so it's hard to reproduce them.

the addition of decaf espresso, as popularized here by mickey's rub, has been the biggest change for me recently.  holy sweet mother of all that is good, give me that stuff on a tri tip any day.

stompbox said:

If you make it at home, how do you keep it from lumping?

2 ways, one, only make enough for what you are doing so it never sits around to clump up.

two, add some raw dry rice to it, as long as your shaker holes are smaller than the rice kernels, the rice will absorb moisture and provide a "rock" to break up small clumps that may still form, but they won't come out of the shaker.  I always have rice in my salt & pepper shakers.

stompbox said:

If you make it at home, how do you keep it from lumping?

Keep it dry in a sealed container and whatever you do, resist the urge to add dihydrogen oxide.  Shake it like a money maker if it clumps up before using.  Or put your fingers in there and do the "things" to it, guys.

DieselkW said:

Agreed on the brown sugar - it's basically sugar mixed with molasses - which makes it too "wet" to add to dry ingredients for storage.

Yep, exactly what he said.  I use brown sugar in marinades, not in rubs.

And the suggestion for raw sugar is a good one also.

I guess I don't mind being inconsistent when it comes to cooking, I don't mind a little of this, a lot of that, no problem if it isn't the exact same all of the time.

I know baking you have to be a lot more precise to achieve the desired result, so I guess that is why I don't do much baking.