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A
Good Ribbing
Fully Cooked Barbecue Goodies Delivered Overnight
by
Jeff Hoyt
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| Boneless
BBQ Pork Chops |
When temperatures heat up, Americans heat up their grills, but a legendary
restaurant wants to make sure that barbecue season
never ends. Carson's
Ribs, a Chicago
institution, offers overnight delivery of their fully
cooked barbecue products from coast to coast in special
containers, so they are ready to heat and eat.
In
our sample, the styrofoam broke during shipping, but
the contents were still intact. According to spokesperson
Donna Giannis, dry ice keeps the meat frozen for up
to 48 hours. Our large package, dubbed the Lifesaver
Combo Feast, left Chicago at 6 p.m. local time Thursday,
and arrived at our Los
Angeles office the next afternoon, less than 24
hours later, with the dry ice still doing its job.
We put everything but the two demibaguettes of bread
in the fridge, where the meat could thaw and the fixings
could stay cool.
Different
packages are available, but the star of this show
is a slab of just over 1-3/4 lb. pounds of fully
cooked pork loin back ribs sealed in plastic and soaking
in barbecue sauce that can be reheated on the grill
or in the oven. After basting them on the grill with
more sauce, the ribs were meaty and tender. The saucy
package of two ½-pound fully-cooked center
cut boneless barbecue pork chops, after basting and
grilling, were substantial, their meat flavor standing
up to the sauce. Besides soaking in it en route, the
meat came with an additional pint bottle of Carson’s
signature barbecue sauce, which surprisingly contains
anchovies. The concoction, labeled “Art in a
Bottle,” is sweet at first, but not cloyingly
so, and has a satisfying vinegary aftertaste. “I
don’t know if it’s the vinegar in the
sauce, but the meat ships so well,” says Giannis
proudly.
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| Baby
Back Pork BBQ Ribs |
The
heat-and-serve bread is a fine accompaniment, and
can be used to sop up dripping barbecue sauce. Only
the pound of frozen au gratin potatoes didn’t
stand out. Despite their satisfying texture, they
were very bland. Instead, splurge on a $5.25 side order
of a pint of “homemade” cole slaw, which
was tangy and tasty, and repeated the vinegar themes
from the barbecue sauce. Dessert consists of a pair
of hearty, thick, chewy extra-large chocolate espresso
brownies from La Mousse, a Los Angeles-based bakery.
The
Lifesaver Combo Feast, which serves two to four people
and includes everything above except the cole slaw
for $99.75 delivered, even came with four bibs, and
they certainly came in handy. And after the meat was
gone, the bottle of sauce proved to be a valuable
addition to our pantry.
Fully Cooked Carson's Barbecue delivered overnight.
Different packages are available. To order, visit
www.ribs.com
or call 888-999-RIBS.
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