28 June 2014

New McCoy’s Firepit Sizzlers Crisps (Waitrose) [By @SpectreUK]


I’ve always enjoyed McCoy's ridge-cut crisps made by KP Snacks. I've found that whatever flavour I eat, which could be anything from Salted flavour to Lamb Vindaloo, or my favourite Flame Grilled Steak flavour, they are always bursting with flavour. McCoy’s already have a few barbecue flavours out like Barbecue Chicken and BBQ Ribs, so when Cinabar brought back these new McCoy’s Smokehouse Inspired Fire Pit Sizzlers I was keen to dig in.


Buffalo Chicken Wings

Of course of heard of Buffalo Chicken Wings, but I've never been sure as to why they’re called Buffalo Chicken Wings. Buffalos don’t have wings, unless it’s derived from a prehistoric chicken which had massive wings? If it was then it probably still couldn’t fly very well, but the Buffalo Chicken’s eggs must have been five times the size of an Emu egg. I'm sure one egg boiled in a huge pot could breakfast a prehistoric family of eighteen and their pet monkey. I'd also bet that the empty egg shell was used as a prehistoric bath, but just don’t ask where the bubbles came from. Though they may have something to do with eating the huge boiled egg!

There was a smoky chicken smell on opening the bag. These crisps had a lovely chicken and rich smoky tangy barbecue sauce flavour. Flavours that stood out amongst the smoky barbecue chicken goodness on eating these orange coloured ridge-cut crisps were paprika, and also hints of sage and onion. I enjoyed the smokiness in the barbecue flavour which mixed well with the chicken. I’d certainly have this Buffalo Chicken Wings flavour again.

Information on the packet;
30g bag with 159 calories, 9g of fat and 0.8g of sugar. Ingredients see photograph.



Hickory Smoked BBQ Ribs

I’ve always loved a good rack of barbecue ribs in a restaurant. If I see barbecue ribs on the menu I will generally pick them out to have a try. To me it’s like trying the lasagna in an Italian restaurant. If the lasagna isn’t burnt to a crisp on the outside and dry in the middle, the chef generally knows what they’re doing. Some restaurants do a rack of sizzling ribs that can turn out to be burnt to a crisp, dry and almost inedible. Others do a full rack with juicy sweet barbecue sauce smeared all over it, with chips or potato fries and some salad on the side. This is the best way to enjoy a rack of barbecue ribs in my opinion.

There was a deep woody hickory smoked barbecue smell on opening the bag, which made my mouth water for the crunchy ridge-cut crisps inside. I was surprised at the initial bacon taste on eating these orange coloured crisps. This flavour was almost replaced by a sweet barbeque sauce flavour, which was sadly not very smoky or bursting with the flavour I’ve always been accustomed to where McCoy’s crisps are concerned. This barbecue flavour was quiet subtle with no taste of the hickory that had tickled my nostrils on opening the bag. Don't get me wrong, I certainly didn't dislike these crisps at all. However these crisps were not as sweet, tangy and tasty as the BBQ Ribs flavour in McCoy’s range, and out of the two flavours reviewed in this blog, I’d pick the Buffalo Chicken Wings flavour any day. MOOO… BUCK… BUCK… BUCK!

Information on the packet;
30g bag with 159 calories, 9g of fat and 1.1g of sugar. Ingredients see photograph.

4 comments:

bob said...

The city of Buffalo in 'upstate' New York (Or a suburb of Toronto as Canadians claim.) is the birthplace of it's only namesake contribution to gastronomy. If there was something called a 'Buffalo Biscuit' at one time, no doubt it would have been quickly given a new moniker to something more appealing.
Desperate Dan had already copyrighted 'Cow Pies', so that wouldn't have worked either.
To make a long story short (I sometimes have trouble doing that!) They were invented in a bar there that decided to make things a bit more posh with the addition of some innovative pub food. Baked, or sometimes fried chicken wings bathed in a healthy dose of Frank's Red-Hot sauce. Beware those who try to substitute Frank's poor cousin, Texas Pete for Red-Hot. It's akin to an establishment that hands you Tesco's Gin in your tonic when you were expecting Tanqueray.

cinabar said...

Thanks for explaining about Buffalo, and yep it is Frank's Red-Hot sauce all the way. :-)

rkl said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
cinabar said...

rkl - thanks for your comments... I will test out the chargrilled ones at the same time as the firept ones and see if I can spot any difference.
On your second point, we did spot the grilled cheese ones but just didn't feel inspired enough to blog about them! :-D