Bucket O' Ribs

So I was ambling through the local grocery-mart (P-chops, Guilderland) tonight when I came upon this. Here we have "Curly's Bucket O' Ribs." It is advertised as the equivalent of a whole rack of pork ribs. In a bucket. I am a big advocate of food in buckets, so I had to purchase this at the somewhat exorbitant price of 9.99$. There is something uniquely American about a bucket full of ribs, don't you think?

With great anticipation I removed the lid of the bucket. As it turns out, the ribs are vacuum packed in a plastic bag.



I was getting worried that the bucket might not be as involved in the rib consuming process as I had hoped. However, I was encouraged when the heating instructions called for pouring the contents of the bag into the "microwave safe" bucket. As the ribs are precooked, one only needs to heat them through in the microwave. Here is what we have after about 5 minutes.



I was kind of disappointed at the scant quantity of ribs. I expected to get a little more out of the 10 bucks I shelled out. This looked like a mere snack for an arch meatsman like myself. The aroma was good, they actually smelled much better than they looked. I dipped a spoon into the accompanying sauce and, I am almost ashamed to say, it was pretty darn good. Very spicy with a nice smokiness. I threw a couple of the stubby (but fairly meaty) ribs onto a plate.



As I was gobbling up the ribs I was struck by the fact that I was actually enjoying them. I expected the Bucket O' Ribs to be very processed tasting like some of the other ready made, pre-sauced, vacuum packed ribs that I have had the misfortune to sample. These little guys were good and meaty with a distinct smoke flavor, and I don't mean that rancid fake-smoke that you get in some low quality "barbecue" style products. They tasted like they had been smoked over actual wood.

I bought these as a goof, but they really weren't that bad. Don't get me wrong, the 10 dollar price is crazed at best. I guess you pay extra for the classy experience of eating pork out of a bucket. I don't think I will get these again but the experience was not a total bust. To put things in perspective I just got a full rack of pork ribs, probably 4 to 5 times the amount of meat, for like 6.50$. With my handy home smoker I could whip up a mess of ribs that would put these to shame. But then I wouldn't have the satisfaction of giving my wife a sauce covered smile as I fish meat out of a sauce filled bucket.