Enhanced Ribs?


 
Bob Sample

Bob Sample

TVWBB Diamond Member
Bought some side ribs from Walmart for the first time yesterday and cooked them up on the kettle.Part way through I moved the rack and tested a little piece of the trimmings and found they tasted salty, which was strange since I don't add any salt to my rub. When the ribs were finished they seemed almost perfect,sorry no pics.
When I tasted my first bite i found the ribs once again salty so i tried a piece of meat from the centre of the rib with no sauce or rub on it and it was definitely the meat that was salty. Remember the taste in your mouth you get after gargling with salt water? Thats what these ribs tasted like. I pulled out the wrapper from the garbage just to make sure it didn't say seasoned or enhanced and all it said was 100% pork side ribs. Is it possible that Walmart sells enhanced ribs and doesn't mark them as enhanced? Has anyone else found this with Walmart meat? I am going back to see the meat manager and give him a rib to see what he says about it.
 
Bob, here in Tennessee, at least, the Walmart ribs, both spares and loinbacks, are enhanced. I believe it's the Tyson brand. I don't remember for sure if they have phosphates or not, and I haven't tried 'em.

Except for the one time last year when I tried some Smithfield enhanced St. Louis ribs, all the slabs I cook are supposedly natural. The Smithfield St. Louis slab, which listed phosphates on the label, tasted terrible, like a bad combo of ham and ribs that looked a lot better than they tasted. Anyway, K. Kruger, who posts frequently here, said it was the phosphates that you have to look out for, and I've heard from some other folks that enhanced ribs can be good as long as you use salt sparingly.

Were those Tyson ribs?
 
Dave I dug the label out again and here it is.
100_1816.jpg
Looking closer it doesn't even say if it was Canadian or US pork. Don't think I'll ever buy Walmart meat again. Unfortunately my local butcher is closed on Mondays and I had a craving for some spares.
 
most of the cryo-vaced pork round here is "enhanced" Main reason is they can sell12% of the weight wich is salt water for $4 /lb
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Maybe they're not as regulated up there? Here in the states they have to list whatever solution is added, even broth or water, if I'm not mistaken.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by John Ford:
most of the cryo-vaced pork round here is "enhanced" Main reason is they can sell12% of the weight wich is salt water for $4 /lb
icon_frown.gif
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>John I have never had a problem with this because our local grocers label the packaging enhanced or seasoned so I don't buy it. It caught me by surprise that these ribs weren't labeled as enhanced.If they had been I never would have bought them and made chicken wings instead.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by John Ford:
most of the cryo-vaced pork round here is "enhanced" Main reason is they can sell12% of the weight wich is salt water for $4 /lb
icon_frown.gif
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yep, and Walmart figures the "smart" shopper is likely to show up at Sam's club. I guess that's why the meat there is still unenhanced. No, on second thought, it's probably cause Costco's isn't either.
 
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