Raptor Rubs - Smoky Salmon Rub product reviews

We love to fish and although fresh fish has the most amazing flavour without anything extra - if it isn't straight out of the sea or if it is a beautiful trout from the lake then we will often smoke it and add something special. We are fortunate to live in Taupo so as soon as fishing was allowed under level 2 we were out getting some beautiful trout for our family and neighbours. The trout was destined to be our first smoked trout out of lock-down and with the Raptor Natural Herb and Spice Rub Smoky Salmon waiting in the pantry for a good use, this was the time!

I love that this product is made in New Zealand with ALL natural ingredients and not a hint of gluten or MSG. It is packaged in a little sealed packet and the perfect serving to add to a family dinner, rub on fish or chicken or mix with breadcrumbs and flour to coat tenderloins or fish for frying. The scent when the pack was opened was spicy, a little bit of herb and just enough sweetness that adds the caramelisation to a perfectly smoked piece of fish.

We prepared the fillets of trout and added this spice mix to rub it in and then left it for an hour before cranking up the bbq and on a low heat smoked it for two hours. The smell of the spices, while they were cooking on the fish, was mouth-watering! The fillets came out smoked to perfection with a lovely colour due to the spice rub. This will be our go-to from now on for a special flavour that adds to the enjoyment of a fishing trip. We shared with two sets of neighbours and both asked what the herbs and spices were that we added - very easy to tell them it was the Raptor Naturals Herb & spice rub smoky salmon. We are true to our tastes and this was an excellent product to come across to make our enjoyment of smoked fish that extra 5% more magical. I can't wait to try it on other dishes that we create.

I have not used a salmon rub before so I carefully followed the instructions and was really pleased with the outcome. It didn't taint the fish, artificially changing it, but it did give it a lovely aroma and edged the taste nicely. I think it would go with lots of different seafood and I will try further uses and rubs. I liked the smoky taste and smell and it was not overpowering at all. If you are not familiar with rubs this was the perfect starter experience. and I did like how easy it was to use. It's a bit of pressure when fish is expensive to think about ruining it by adding the wrong tastes to it.

I don't really have a lot more to say other than I (after looking at another review) finished it off by using with chicken (we don't often have salmon in our house and there was spare rub as it goes a fair way). I liked it on the chicken too and I think going forward I will do this again for guests as it added a nice change to a plain dish whereas for me you don't need to "flavour" salmon much but that is probably a personal taste thing. I was happy with the instructions and the packaging. These were a great "try before you commit" way of deciding if I wanted to buy a larger quantity and I will be experimenting further with the rubs and rebuying this one. Not a whole lot else to say other than I will be trying other ones in the range as they are so easy to use that I may become quite lazy.

I love exploring new flavours and easy to use is a big plus in my book. I had heard about these Raptor Rubs, but all of them sounded really nice so I hadn't decided which to purchase, so when I saw these come up for review, I jumped at the chance and was really lucky to receive not one, but two different rubs to try.

What first appealed to me about these rubs was that they are making a huge effort and push to be natural and flavoursome and lets not forget that these are blended and made here in New Zealand. The creator of them (Rachael) had a simple idea of creating easy to use, full of flavour but no nasties seasonings.

In our house I am the only one who really eats salmon, so rather than it be only me that sampled this rub, my husband (aka the chef) decided he would use one of the other suggestions and coat our chicken to be roasted in it.

My hubby followed the instructions on the packet - they are easy and fuss free - exactly what is needed in a busy 3 child household. You drizzle oil over, coat in the spice and after leaving it for around 10 minutes, rubbing it it. From there you cook as normal - meaning for us into the oven to be roasted. I could smell the rub on the chicken before it went into the oven and it was really appealing - I could mostly smell paprika and sweetness (the coconut sugar?) mostly but then a herb, which I discovered was thyme. After it was cooked, taking it out and releasing the cover, that aroma was amazing, and I hoped that during the last bit the skin would brown a wee bit. Unfortunately it didn't really, but, the flavour on the skin was really delicious. It was neither too strong nor underpowered, for me personally I thought it could have been stronger, but in saying that, possibly using more of it would help. I do note that of course the jars and pouches would allow for that.

I would buy this again, as it has a lovely flavour, and all 3 of the kids enjoyed it - so definitely a win here. I am enthusiastic to try the other flavours as well, as all in all these are a great, easy, taste, good for you addition to a lot of different meals.

One of my favourite foods happens to be salmon so this Raptor naturals smoky salmon rub caught my eye. I was particularly excited about trying it when I first saw the packet. It came and straight away I was pleased with the size and quantity inside the packet. The design itself pleased me with its simple yet charming design with a lovely sky blue. Opening the packet up was fairly easy which I appreciate. The smell from the rub was very strong. When I opened it I found the smell to be very appetizing as it was a very smokey and slightly sweet scent which is what I had expected.

The rub has a very appealing texture and I love the way it doesn't look processed and you can see all of the ingredients used to make this rub. Once I started cooking it with the salmon it released an even more smokey scent making my mouth water. Another thing is I don't enjoy the skin of salmon because its a little too slimy even when pan-fried but to my surprise, it crisped up with the rub so yet another great thing about the smokey salmon rub.

Once done it was time to taste it and I was blown away by how tasty it was. It has a sweet smokey taste just like the smell with hints of pepper and it complimented the salmon's savoury flavour well. the flavour of the rub is sort of reminiscent to hickory bbq sauce which I also enjoy. The texture it gave the salmon is unbelievable as it stated that it made it crispy but I didn't expect it to work that well. I was also impressed with how well it tasted.

Overall the Raptor naturals smokey salmon rub is something I will be purchasing in the future for my meals and I would recommend to people who are fans of seafood or just love a good smokey rub. I look forward to trying this next on chicken as I can see it matching it very well.

I originally requested this product to add to salmon and have as bites with cream cheese on crackers for Christmas. As I received, a little after the big day, my plans changed and as it stated delicious with Salmon, Trout, scallops, Prawns, Chicken and Kumara I decided to use what was in the house and decided to have with Prawn Cutlets.

The prawns were frozen so I let defrost first before adding the seasoning and this took longer than expected. It wasn't till a little after 4 I put in a bowl and stirred the seasoning thru them and looking at it now I did have rather a lot of prawns 1 kg worth and it didn't cover as much as I would of liked - well not evenly at least. I also noted the smell was rather subtle and really all I picked up on was the Paprika. I put in the fridge and let sit for a little over an hour before I cooked in batches over the grill.

I can't say I noted much of an aroma cooking - not like last nights Tex-Mex flavour which set the house on fire with smells. It really did not smell like anything and it did not brown as much as I would of liked either. It basically was just like cooking prawns and they pinked up with a speckle of brown in places. I was hoping that it would of caramelised them in some sort of coating - but it really just looked a little dark in places.

After cooking all the prawns and then re-cooking again I found the olive oil in the bottom of the pan a nice brown colour than I spooned all over the prawns. Before doing this my husband dipped his finger in it and said that it tasted fantastic. Dishing up was simple just corn with Hassle-back potatoes sprinkled in grated cheese and I thought the prawns would speak for themselves.

I was surprised at the flavour that came thru, it was a subtle smokey flavour but you could sense something was there. It was not overpowering at all but rather added an element to the dish. I am sure if I had used less prawns to begin with the flavour could of been a tad stronger but I was happy at the results that I got. All four of us enjoyed the meal and all agreed that we would like to try again. Although, in saying that I am not entirely sure that I would personally buy this particular flavour again just purely because I am not sure of the use it would actually get - I think there are better Raptor flavours available. .

Although the pack states that this rub is great with a variety of foods - fish or roast vegetables - I wanted to try it with fresh barbecued salmon as the idea of a caramelised outer layer appealed to me. Salmon skin is something I usually find a bit slimy, so the idea of a product that would make it crisp interested me. My cousins have a purpose-built barbecue at their bach - the perfect way to cook fresh fish - so we decided to try out the Smoky Salmon Herb+Spice rub.

We followed the instructions exactly as indicated on the packet. Olive oil was added - and then a sprinkle of the herb and spice mix on both sides, rubbed in well. It smelled divine; I was tempted to taste it but thought it better not to while the fish was still raw, so confined myself to enjoying the aroma. It was sweet and spicy, not at all fishy, and led us to believe that the finished product would be delicious. We planned to serve it with fresh courgettes, asparagus, and mashed kumara. Plain natural vegetables without any adornment - we wanted the flavour of the salmon to dominate!

As the fish cooked, the outside turned a deep caramel brown. We kept the heat quite low so that the fillets would cook right through without burning, but it was still tempting to spear a morsel to taste while the cooking was proceeding! My cousin's husband, who was in charge of the barbecue, delegated us to pick some fresh coriander to put on top; this was the only additive we used apart from the rub itself.

Once it was served and we all took our first taste, there were smiles all round. Despite the strong aroma when the packet was first opened, and the occasional wafts of sweet spice during the cooking process, there was no noticeable effect when we actually bit into the fish. It just tasted of salmon - perfectly cooked, strong in flavour, but with no intrusive extras. Apparently, the rub had merged completely with the fish, enhancing it but not changing it. What we were eating was simply flavoursome, perfectly prepared fish.

I think it is a strength of this product that it does not seek to change the food it is added to. Rather, it enhances what is already there to bring out the natural flavour and colour. We were not sure what proportions it should be used in - the packet said that it served four, but we did not know what amount of food each portion should be! We erred on the generous side; I had brought 200g of salmon per person, which may seem like a lot, but hey, we love our fish! This amount - the contents of one packet of rub to 800g of fish - seemed to be about right. I look forward to serving it with roast vegetables at some stage; certainly, the kumara went well with the smoky flavour. Another one to add to the store cupboard!