Rib Meat Question


 
S

Steve Abrams

TVWBB Pro
My local Dominick Food Store is selling a line of meat called Rancher's Reserve. Its guaranteed to be the tenderest meat or your money back. They recently had loin back ribs on sale for about $14 for a 2.5 pound rack.

I looked on the package and couldn't find anything about the meat being "enhanced" or injected with anything. The meat was vacuum packed.

Now my question> Is this stuff any good? Can they really guarantee the tenderness of meat without chemicals? I've been buying my ribs from Sam's Club and have been getting some great meat. I pay slightly less for a 3 pack af ribs at Sam's than I would pay for 2 racks of Rancher's Reserve. Is there really a difference?
 
All you can do is try it and see. I don't think you notice a big enough difference to justify the price. Let us know. I'm kind of in the "a pig is a pig" camp. I don't know how ribs could be that much different. Also, if they're leaner, you'll have to be careful with the cooking. They may dry out sooner.
 
I see nothing on their website which suggests enhancement but I also can't find one thing about pork--just beef. They claim (for their beef) that it's the grain feeding, the cutting, the aging, that allows them to offer the guarantee. Give it a shot.
 
I don't know if the store you are talking about is a part of the Safeway family or not. But, for the last year or so, our local Safeway stores have been touting this Rancher's Reserve meat. Safeway belongs to a family of stores with other names too. Maybe this will help you.
http://www.ranchersreserve.com/faqs.asp
 
Yes, Dominicks is part of the Safeway chain. When they took over it started customer rebellion. Dominicks used to allow managers order ethnic food for their area. EX: Polish neighborhood Dominicks carried food geared to Polish people. The same for Italian, etc.

Safeway made managers order from Safeway supliers only. Each neighborhood Dominicks became generic and sanitized as far as food choices were concerned. Old loyal customers stayed away. Now, I understand Safeway is trying to dump Dominicks because they are losing money.

I'm cooking 2 slabs on Saturday and 6 slabs from Peoria Packing in Chaicago.
 
If you are interested, I couldn't tell the difference between the Ranchers Reserve or Peoria packing ribs. Peoria Packing were a hell of a lot cheaper.
 
I find it hard to believe they can 'Guarntee' the quality to be better than the meat you are getting at Sam's,,,espicially at the price you mentioned
 
James, I couldn't tell the difference between the Ranchers Reserve and other ribs. I smoked the ribs in my WSM and didn't grill them. Maybe they were supposed to go on the grill. I don't know but I'll stick with Sam's Club or Peria Packing (in IL).

This was the first time I saw pork ribs under the Ranchers Reserve label. They have a line of beef products with the same guarantee. The last time I visited their web site there was no mention of pork.

Have a great BBQ day!
 
It's called "branding". The consumer infers quality based on a name or term that has no bearing on actual quality or USDA certification. The "tenderness guaranteed or your money back" relies on people's unwillingness to go through the bother of actually holding the seller to the guarantee in case of dissatisfaction (see also: mail-in rebates).
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Doug D:
It's called "branding". The consumer infers quality based on a name or term that has no bearing on actual quality or USDA certification. The "tenderness guaranteed or your money back" relies on people's unwillingness to go through the bother of actually holding the seller to the guarantee in case of dissatisfaction (see also: mail-in rebates). </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Doug brings up a good point about marketing. There's a rather disturbing trend I'm seeing more often now. That is the practice of supermarkets upselling choice graded meat for premium prices. The disturbing thing isn't about the pricing, it's that they claim that the meats will cook DIFFERENT than the enhanced product. The 'branding' part comes in when they slap their own fancy corporate label on it. Some markets have even added ...get this....FULL SERVICE butcher shops as part of the branding. Selling meat that up untill about 5 years ago could be had at ANY market. Wow....(sarcasm added) Big fat hairy deal.
 
Are you going to try to get your money back on their guarantee?

I know it seems like a hassle, but you are entitled to it. Afterall, if they had put on the label "No difference in flavor or tenderness, but twice as expensive", you wouldn't have bought them.
 
We have Ranchers Reserve here in Central California. I exclusively buy Harris Ranch (if you can get it where you live I highly recommend it), however I got sucked in by the price and the guarantee. The store stood by the guarantee. I forget what I purchased, a filet roast or a prime rib, but for lack of a better word it was crap. I wrapped it up, took it back and they gave me my money back.

In my opinion, spend a few more bucks and get a better brand like Harris Ranch and don't go through the trouble of having a sub-par dinner.
 
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