Which Ribs are Right for You?
Nothing draws a crowd better than the promise of tantalizing, lip smacking ribs. Prepared just right, the taste of a savory sauce, and made from of course, tender juicy ribs calls out to Canadians strongest with the end of winter hibernation and heading back outdoors to the barbecue. Barbeque, the cooking format where all things good meet at the same place, at the same time.
The ability to bring ribs to the menu across the entirety of the Foodservice marketplace is what has enhanced the greatest in the past decade. According to MenuMonitor data, the dish appeared in 46.4% of pork entrees in the back half of 2010, more than twice that of the next common listing. The most authentic end users have the capabilities to slow cook for extended periods, the skilled labour in the back to ensure quality and consistency, and a customer base that realizes the end goal of great ribs comes with a speed of delivery to the table that requires a wait period. In the world of authentic barbecue, it’s long been understood that not unlike hockey players, snow storms, and comedians the best place to start is with Canadian raw ribs. The ratio of meat to bone, desired tenderness and consistency of pork side and back ribs in all their size and trim variations come from Canada, and they bring the eating experience and value in the minds of the customers that they will go from ‘trying the ribs’ when dining out to repeat customers.
Ribs are also built for the future of full service dining in our diverse marketplace. Barbeque as a cooking format crosses cultures around the world, as everyone has long understood the flavor enhancement slow cooking brings to meat. For the better, ribs are much like a blank canvas providing an artistic license to all that wish to make the finished product their own. From Korean, Pan Asian to South American and well defined sauces and rubs in North American tastes, rib menu incidence and growth in consumption points to a great win for end users and customers alike.
To make ribs at home as good, requires a lot of personal effort, time and clean up that lend towards indulging on a super rack of ribs when dining out. When a good raw material is well prepared, seasoned in a great signature rub or sauce, it provides a value proposition customers can sink their teeth. When you offer something people want and deliver on your value promise, people will seek it out repeatedly.
If your establishments kitchen was not built for authentic slow cooked barbecue in recent years entry into the barbecue segment has opened up with the creation of consistent fully cooked formats for many cuts, but definitely ribs. Fully cooked ribs answer the macro issues of speed of service, back of house skilled labour, food safety, and consistency on delivery both across stores and with repeat purchasers. When they start with the exact same quality raw materials, consistently prepared to a final cook, appearance, tenderness, and individually wrapped for ease of use and reconstitution on many cooking formats quickly all can provide a high quality offering. They are provided unsauced and ready for each and every end user to make a signature item they can serve as their own. Cost controlled combination plates can be offered with other cuts as four bone formats are offered by suppliers or racks cut down in the restaurant to side by side with cuts chicken or other offerings.
Barbecue, due to its reward of taking the work and preparation out of the home to the restaurant is now striking different parts of the menu and ribs are fitting in. Appetizers of signature single bone ribs or a cut St. Louis rack feed the rib appetite and are a profitable opportunity to grow eater cheque. Some stretch as far as alternative pork cut offerings that speak to a rib appetizer experience such and tail ends and button bones.
To learn more about Flanagan’s full line up of pork rib offerings, contact your sales representative.
