Frozen Friday: Claim Jumper - Baby Back Pork Ribs

In a rather curious decision, Claim Jumper sells a full rack (about 14 - 16 ribs) of Baby Back Pork Ribs with barbecue sauce in the frozen food section for $14.99(!) at my local supermarket.  Normally, I wouldn't even thinking of spending that much in the frozen food aisle, but since it was free courtesy of Claim Jumper, I thought it would be interesting to try.

I would hope that maybe it goes on sale for a lot less, because at $14.99, you're at the low limit for a rack of ribs at a sitdown restaurant.  Baby back ribs do tend to be pricier by the pound; even on sale, they're still $3.99 or so according to the local supermarket ads.

One of the key tenets of frozen food is convenience.  Inconveniently, you have to thaw these ribs before you can cook them, which can take anywhere between 9 minutes in the microwave to overnight in the fridge.  Not exactly the time frame I look for in a frozen meal.

While there were instructions for microwave preparation, there was not way I was going to microwave a full rack of ribs, so I followed the conventional oven instructions which call for about 25 minutes of cooking.

So how were the ribs?  They were just okay.  I like a bit more sweetness (molasses or honey preferably) on my barbecue and the sauce was a bit muted with a slight smoke flavor.  While the meat was tender, it wasn't "fall-off-the-bone" tender.  It probably would have been better if I finished the ribs under a broiler or on the grill, but I was going for the whole frozen food experience.

I think Claim Jumper would be better served using spare ribs to lower the price of its ribs to something more palatable to the frozen food diner.  If you're cooking it in the microwave or the oven, I don't think it would make that much a different, if any, and a lower price would be much more appealing.  It would be nice if they had grill marks as well like in the picture.

To be fair, I don't think any pre-made frozen ribs are going to turn out great unless, you finish them under a broiler or on a grill to get some decent charring.  But if you're going to go through all the trouble, you might as well just buy some ribs from the market and make your own.

Nutritional Info - 5 servings per box - 3 ribs per serving (140g)
Calories - 210 (from Fat - 120)
Fat - 14g (Saturated Fat - 5g)
Sodium - 430mg
Carbs - 8g (Sugar - 7g)
Protein - 14g