Check Out These New Meatless Baby Ribs With Edible Bones

Written by the VEGPRENEUR Team

Juicy Marbles ushers plant-based meat into a new, more mature chapter with the brand-new product: Baby Ribs

New York, NY (July 24th, 2024) - Today, July 24th Juicy Marbles, the cult brand and pioneer of 100% plant-based whole cuts, known for creating the world's first marbled plant-based steak and a formidable 750g tenderloin, launched a rack of plant-based Baby Ribs with edible bones. The Baby Ribs feature a similar groundbreaking texture their products are known for, but this time with a new recipe under the codename “Marble 3.0,” which is one of the cleanest labels in the plant-based space.

Marble 3.0 - A wholesome new recipe & clean label

Following a year of selling limited drops of the ribs to their community online and gathering feedback, today, July 24th, Juicy Marbles launches a retail-ready version of their plant-based ribs. Here are the key features of the new recipe:

32g of protein/serving (complete amino acid profile)
No thickeners & binders (methylcellulose and carrageenan)
Essential micronutrients: iron, zinc, selenium, B vitamins, vitamin b12
No preservatives & additives
100% non-GMO ingredients
Nutri score: A

Vladimir Mićković, Co-Founder & Chief Brand Officer, shares: “For years, we’ve gathered feedback from thousands of curious eaters. Since more than half of our customers aren’t vegan, the research showed us a stupidly simple truth about food: we all want our food to be tasty, but we want it to be nutritionally sensible as well. We want to eat foods that do our bodies good, and that’s what food companies should provide.” These updates respond to the skepticism that plant-based meats only mimic the taste and texture of animal meats but don’t actually provide the nutrients that animal meats do.

Vladimir continues: “People want products with ingredients they understand. A lot of people are adding plant-based meats to their “protein portfolio,” and we want them to rest assured that they’re not eating something that’s just mimicking the sensory aspects of meat, but also provides the essential micronutrients our bodies need to function. The food equivalent of “style and substance.” The rest of the Juicy Marbles portfolio will also graduate to the “Marble 3.0” recipe by the end of the year.

Fall off-the-bone tender in minutes. Not hours.

One key difference between animal ribs and Juicy Marbles plant-based Baby Ribs is that succulent, off-the-bone tender. Marbles' ribs take a mere 15-20 minutes to prepare, as opposed to 5+ hours with actual pork. Making gourmet-style pork ribs requires patience and time. It’s usually reserved for special occasions. With Juicy Marbles ribs, we aim to make the experience of ribs more accessible, even to beginner cooks.

Bones made of pure plant protein

To nail the primal eating experience ribs are known for, Juicy Marbles developed their own plant-based bones made from pure plant protein. The bones have sparked a fierce online debate since Juicy Marbles first teased the Ribs on Instagram, with the following sentiment looming: why even imitate bones in a completely vegan product?

Mićković continues: “We are aware that making bones out of plants may seem irrational, but some of the best things about our food culture are completely irrational. “Baby Ribs” are meant to be a fun product that you eat with your hands and, while doing that, obtain an ungodly amount of protein and then some. The experience of meat doesn’t end with flavor. There is a culture of celebration, sharing, and belonging around meat—part of a food culture thousands of years in the making. We wanted Baby Ribs to continue that tradition.”

Juicy Marbles also took care to make the bones 100% compostable and, for more adventurous home cooks, even edible. Once you’ve devoured your last rib, you can bake, fry, or air-fry the bones into puffed, crispy snacks that sport as much protein as beef jerky or cook them to make hearty stock.

Juicy Marbles continuously strives to reduce waste from the production process. For the bones and use an excess sidestream of protein from producing the “meat” part of Baby Ribs and other products. Protein that is perfectly fine and edible and might otherwise end up as waste.

The least vegan “vegan product.”

Juicy Marbles often faced backlash from the vegan community because they are open about not promoting veganism but rather nuanced diets and diverse cooking. They believe that fixing a broken food system shouldn’t mean breaking the existing food culture.

Vladimir Mićković comments: “The experience of meat doesn’t end with flavor. There is a culture of celebration, sharing, and belonging around meat—part of a food culture thousands of years in the making. People want to protect that, and rightfully so. We want to make products that add to the rich history of food, not take anything away from it.”

Juicy Marbles gained notoriety as the first company to make a complex, whole-cut-like texture. Their products have even been deemed as “too realistic” by some vegans. But they claim that they don’t even make food for vegans. Mićković continues, “There is a common misconception that plant-based food is only intended for people who don’t eat meat. That was never the case, both in the past and present. We may have a skewed view of what people are actually like, thanks to the extremization of our online discourse. But as soon as we log off and talk to people, we can see that most folks are way more chill than we might gather from the internet. Trying new foods was historically always a source of excitement, and foods that made us feel good, stuck around for good.”

With Baby Ribs, Juicy Marbles continues with its mission to create meats from plants that serve as ingredients and enable home chefs to cook diversely.

The company’s Instagram account sports a wall of hundreds of recipes sent in by fans. Additionally, the company website provides recipes for everything from “Jamaican patties,” to “Beef bourguignon,” to “Gochujang Beef Chunks”—all prepared using Juicy Marbles plant-based meat.

Juicy Marbles hopes its ‘Baby Ribs’ will inspire a similar outburst of creativity from its customers, and provide yet another entry-point into its whole cut universe.

When can you try Baby Ribs?

For US customers, they are available today, July 24th on www.JuicyMarbles.com

Pricing:

$59 for 2-pack ($15 shipping fee)
$94 for 4-pack ($15 shipping fee)
$139 for 6-pack (free shipping)

EU & UK will see Baby Ribs gradually roll out in retail by the end of the year.

About Juicy Marbles

Juicy Marbles is a collective of creators at the intersection of food, science, and art and also one of the most hyped brands in the plant-based space. They are behind the world’s first marbled 100% plant-based steak and ribs with bones. JM was founded in 2020 by a cat and artist formerly known as Michael T. Marbles, who now goes by Mr. Marbles.

Juicy Marbles is an independent company that makes premium plant-based whole cuts. They believe that changing the food system begins in home kitchens, which informs the way they approach making their products. Marbles’ meats are unseasoned and can be used as ingredients to recreate anything from classical French cuisine to southern barbeque or even fine dining.

They have received multiple awards, both for their products and the brand. They are also the fastest-selling plant-based meat product in the UK since 2024. All of these accolades are completely meaningless, and yet they still love to parade them around. When they aren’t innovating, they make stupid videos and satirical essays. They like food culture, cooking for their diabolical friends, and long walks on the beach.