Review: On-Cor Boneless Rib Shaped Patties

I was obviously detecting some change in the force when I grabbed these on a whim recently. No sooner had I got these rib patties home, than McDonald’s announced the brief return of their popular McRib sandwich. Tis the season for reformed ribs apparently. Well rib-esque in all fairness. These are as far removed from an actual specific animal part as you can get; indeed they comprise both chicken and pork. The words institutional, industrial and utilitarian spring to mind when you gaze at the perfectly stamped out faux rib shaped chunks. Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for junk food.

My initial disappointment came when I firth opened the package to peek inside (see below) – each of the rib patties comes frozen together as a whole. There’s no consideration of those who might want to cook the patties over several meals. I suppose you could saw the frozen block into a half or thirds, but honestly for the price of the product it’s really not worth it.

Sadly, I can’t say things improved on tasting. The texture is as you’d expect, a highly processed melange of mystery. The flavor is lackluster, certainly not unpleasant in that lovingly junky way, but nothing even the most hardened fat and salt lover will crave. The BBQ sauce, which comes by the bucketload is largely a sweet goop.

Despite all of this, I certainly managed to chow down on two or three, the addition of a little piquant from onion and pickle (see below) to emulate the McRib did help enormously. Still, you have to ask some fairly soul searching questions should you find yourself trying to emulate the McRib in the first place.

On-Cor Boneless Rib Shaped Patties – what’s in the box

Six patties come frozen in a block of BBQ sauce. Everything is contained in an oven proof cardboard box, with a plastic seal. There’s no way to separate the contents for piecemeal cooking, you’ll need to cook the whole slab at once.

On-Cor Boneless Rib Shaped Patties

Here are the ribs fresh from the oven, not pictured is the cardboard tray with at least a pint of BBQ sauce. Seriously, there’s way more sauce here than most folks will ever need. After that a close up cross section shot of a rib patty, and then my finished product, an homage to the McRib:

On-Cor Boneless Rib Shaped Patties cooking instructions, nutrition, ingredients

The product offers both the microwave and oven as ways to cooky the patties. I decided to go with the oven technique, as this more often than not yields better results over microwave cooking. I was a little let down with this method, even after a full hour at 375F (longer than the stated cooking time) the product was merely warmed through – certainly not bubbling hot. To assure myself the product was thoroughly cooked I ended up cooking the ribs a little longer in the microwave as well.

On-Cor Boneless Rib Shaped Patties – what’s a fair price

I paid $2.48 at my local Walmart which is obviously exceptionally cheap.

Stuart Melling

Hi, I’m Stuart, nice to meet you!  I’m the founder, writer and wrangler at Gastronomic SLC – Utah’s biggest and oldest online food magazine; I’m also a former restaurant critic of more than five years, working for the Salt Lake Tribune.  I’ve worked extensively with multiple local publications from Visit Salt Lake to Salt Lake Magazine, not least helped to consult on national TV shows.

I’m a multiple-award winning journalist and have covered the Utah dining scene for the better part of fifteen years.   I’m largely fueled by a critical obsession with rice, alliteration and the use of big words I don’t understand.   I started Shop Smart to catalogue my adventures in the grocery store and kitchen.  Follow along on Instagram too!