A drunken delight (Rustlers BBQ Rib)

Member Name: yackers1

Product:	Rustlers BBQ Rib
Date:	18/10/09 (100 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Quick, fills a hole (For a few minutes at least), actually tastes quite nice, always on offer

Disadvantages: Very bad for you, the roll goes soggy, not authentic

Rustlers are well known manufacturers of hot finger food. Their advertising campaigns of 0 - tasty in seconds is the brands' unique selling point and I am sure that most of you have heard of Rustlers, even if you have not eaten one of their products.

I seldom eat convenience meals although recently I was offered no other choice. Leaving my lunch at home I got a severe case of the munchies and other than disgusting looking (and old) prawn and mayonnaise sandwiches my local Co-op had nothing else suitable, other than pastries and I didn't really fancy one of those. The only option was the BBQ rib Rustlers.

****Nutritional information****

As stated on the packet, a 100g provides 268Kcal, 15.1g of protein, 20.4g of carbohydrates (this is definitely not recommended for those following the Atkins or any other low carb diet), 14.0g of fat (this is more than half a 750g full size jar of vindaloo sauce, which is very fatty), 1,8g of fibre (at least it will get out of your system fairly quickly) and 0,64g of sodium, which is quite a high amount of salt.

Looking at the nutritional goodness, or lack of it, it is clear to see that the BBQ rib is a dietician's worst nightmare and this food product would not be recommended. I must admit that I was a bit shocked, I obviously thought they would be a bit bad, but I never thought it would be to this extent.

Despite the above, there are times when something bad does something good, and it is on these rare occasions that I would actually recommend considering the BBQ rib.

****Ingredients****

Rustlers claim that the BBQ rib is "made from the finest quality pork sourced from British and Irish farms. All pork is traceable back to the farm of origin". I am very skeptical about this being made of the finest quality pork since this meal (and I use the term very loosely) was very cheap and pork is not a cheap meat. In addition, at first glance the rib looks like it is 'artificial' and made out of re-constituted matter (obviously this is my thoughts and opinion on this matter and I can't confirm this one way or another) as opposed to quality meat. Perhaps it is made out of the bits that fell on the floor when the finest quality pork was being jointed? Whatever the percentage of meat is, what cut the rib is made from or where the meat was sourced, the rib doesn't look that appetizing or smell too good either, but I guess this is to be expected.

The list of ingredients is endless, although most things appear to be enhancers, stabilizers, extracts, sodiums, phates and the like. I hadn't heard of more than half of the items listed, and given the nutritional information, I don't really want to know what they are or what they could potentially do to your body so I quickly turned the packaging over and stopped looking.

****Cooking****

Cooking the BBQ rib is simple, hence why I purchased the product and simply involves putting it in the microwave and nuking it. The length of time depends upon the power of the microwave being used and it ranges from as little as 70 seconds, for a 1000W microwave, to 90 seconds for a 750W microwave. Whatever microwave you have cooking the BBQ rib is not going to take that long, which I find a bit of a concern. Burgers and other meat products that are made out of 'bit and pieces' as opposed to a complete piece, like a steak, need to be properly cooked to ensure that any nasty bacteria are killed, and I was wondering whether 70 - 90 seconds is long enough to do this.

The BBQ rib is cooked in the enclosed silver sleeve and it is turned once mid-way through cooking. The sleeve is meant to aid in the cooking process and give the roll that "freshly baked taste" although it fails to do this, in my opinion. I found the roll sweated in the sleeve, making it a little bit damp and soggy although it dried out sufficiently enough to eat during the standing and cooling phase of preparation.

Despite having a 1000W microwave I cooked the BBQ rib for the full 90 seconds on full power, just to make sure it was properly cooked. After the 90 seconds the BBQ rib sub was steaming and exceptionally hot and it was all the way through. The silver sleeve had definitely done the job as a heat conductor and this was too hot to touch with bare skin, hence a pair of oven mitts is definitely recommended. At this point the sub is far too hot to eat, unless you have an asbestos line mouth, so the sub has to be left to stand and cool down a bit.

****Smell****

One thing I did notice as I pulled the BBQ rib out of the microwave was the strong and overpowering smell, which whilst pleasant did not smell authentic. I didn't notice the smell during the cooking process but as soon as I opened the microwave it was like, bang and in your face.

****Taste****

There is a definite meaty taste to the rib, although I couldn't say it was pork for sure, so I wouldn't describe the taste as authentic. Despite this I was pleasantly surprised by the taste, even without the BBQ sauce, as it was actually quite nice (in an artificially tasting way) apart from the outside had dried out a little in the cooking process. The rib doesn't taste anything like a rack of 'proper' ribs, but this is not really surprising.

The sub comes with a small sachet of BBQ sauce to add to taste. Whilst the roll was definitely moist, the BBQ rib itself looked like it had dried out during the cooking process and wasn't looking too appetizing. In my opinion, the BBQ sauce is required to put a bit of life back in the meat part. The sauce is tangy and tastes like BBQ sauce should, which was a nice surprise. My only criticism is that of the amount of sauce, which in my opinion, is just not enough.

Despite the damper than I would like roll, which didn't taste freshly baked, and the dried out looking meat, the sub tasted good and I did enjoy it.

****Longetivity****

The rib is nothing more than a snack, despite the high amount of calories, carbs, fat and everything else. It is definitely no substitute for a meal since it doesn't fill you up, although after I had eaten the rib I felt stuffed. Maybe I had eaten it too fast or maybe I just had an overload of all things bad, but whatever it was I didn't want anything else to eat and I felt uncomfortably full for about 10 minutes and was then hungry again.

****Price and availability****

Like all products in the Rustlers range the price varies greatly from outlet to outlet. Most of the major supermarkets often have deals on them and these are the places to go first, where they can picked up for as little as £0.99. I have seen them as much as £2.39 in a service station so the price differential is vast.

Availability wise the Rustlers range are stocked by almost every retail outlet t you can think of including supermarkets (the main contenders and the smaller ones), convenience stores and small shops, grocers, garages etc. etc. Getting hold of one of these should pose no problems at all.

****Conclusion****

If you have a severe case of the munchies, need a quick fix and now and can't be bothered to cook anything or go to a take away then I would recommend this BBQ rib as it does fill a hole for a bit, and by a bit I mean a matter of minutes. This is not a problem with the drunken munchies as you can eat and then fall asleep before the hunger returns.

I thought the BBQ rib tasted quite nice, artificial, fake and not authentic in any way, but very nice nonetheless and I would recommend it. It is a shame the roll went a bit soggy but I am sure if I tinker with the cooking times and temperatures this can be overcome in time.

I would not recommend eating them regularly because they are so nutritionally bad for you I think you can do your body some serious damage, but once in a blue moon is fine.

Summary: A great convenience food the drunken munchies