No. It’s a ground, formed patty.
Yep, but with lots of sauce–so much that I don’t really remember tasting the meat.
As for why I got it: it was just something different. The fact that it is something different that actually returns is nice. It’s not that amazing, but it doesn’t have to be. Just good enough to be something I might want again. And the timing of it coming back gives me an excuse.
Or, at least, it used to. My diet is far more restrictive than ever due to acid reflux. It’s too fatty and too acidic.
That sounds hellla fun.
There used to be a cooking show (years ago in Food Tv’s beginnings) where they sent people into a convenience store to buy pork rinds, cheese sticks, hot dogs, things like that, to make ‘real’ dishes. Not ‘Chopped’.
Every time McRib comes around again, there’s a thread on it.
Prior art:
My own experience and opinion: I tried McRib exactly once, a few years ago. I thought it was substantially flavorless, and the meat was substantially the same ground cardboard as their other delicacies.
KFC has BBQ chicken every now and then, which is vastly better. It’s chicken thoroughly saturated and dripping with thick BBQ sauce, that actually tastes like BBQ sauce. You’ll need a hundred napkins. They should give the chicken away free and sell the napkins. Profit!
In my town, however, there’s a two-off BBQ chicken place that has that all the time.
This thread is not about its return though. There are many more delicious sandwiches and things that taste of sauce. Hence my confusion.
My town has many summer festivals which are substantially similar. It also has a rib competition all of which are vastly better than this mediocre product. It would be better still if they allowed variations on sweet tomato sauce, but all the available vendors just offer that. Still good though.
I wonder where the idea for McRib came from. Do any of our famous BBQ regions serve boneless BBQ rib meat on a sandwich?
The info on Wikipedia is interesting.
The McRib made its debut in the United States in 1981, as a limited-time item. It was developed by McDonald’s first Executive Chef René Arend, a native of Luxembourg who invented Chicken McNuggets in 1979. “The McNuggets were so well received that every franchise wanted them,” said Arend in a 2009 interview. “There wasn’t a system to supply enough chicken. We had to come up with something to give the other franchises as a new product. So the McRib came about because of the shortage of chickens.” It was his inspiration to shape the McRib patty “like a slab of ribs,” despite the fact that a round patty would have been cheaper to manufacture and serve on standard hamburger buns.
It was a part of the permanent menu, but it sold poorly and was discontinued after a handful of years. It was brought back for a limited time then removed, and McDonald’s has continued that trend since.
I hadn’t realized the sandwich was that old. Last year was its 40 year anniversary.
actually my local junior high made ersatz mc ribs for years … and so does the AM/PM mini-market chain in so cal
I can confirm this. I ordered it once or twice but stopped when I realized that it wasn’t simply a deboned pork rib but more of a Formfleisch patty made of reconstituted meat. If there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s when restaurants and cafeterias offer “Schnitzel” that isn’t made from a single slice of meat but rather some conglomerated slurry. Since I loves me some Schnitzel, I always ask now if it’s Formfleisch before ordering from a new downscale place.
You and i have different tastes. Two things i don’t care for: BBQ sauce in excess (just a hint is okay) and sandwiches that make a mess. The whole POINT of the sandwich was so the Earl didn’t need to take a break from his card game.
But the McRib seems like an obvious menu item to me. They have beef patties, fish patties (an actual slab of fish!), chicken patties and chunks. Why not a pork patty? And BBQ sauce is popular on pork. The only thing that’s surprising is that they don’t carry it all the time.
So i think the answer to the op is, “it’s their least popular item”.
Occasionally I get handed a chicken teriyaki burger from that place up the highway. Because it is such a heaping mess, I have named it the “sinkburger”: the only practical way to eat it is leaning over the sink. It could be eaten by cutting it into small wedges, but that is the method I reserve for a good mushroom swiss.
I used to work within walking distance of a mom & pop deli that had a great BBQ beef sandwich, served open-faced on a big sesame bun. I typically ate it with a knife & fork but sometimes they didn’t put so much sauce on and it could be closed & eaten as a typical sandwich.
One day, that sandwich was suddenly was a shadow of its former self. I can only assume they had started using a cheaper source of beef.
Not ground. I have eaten them, they have some meat muscle texture. “Reformed” is the term, I guess.
Have you been alive long enough to get KFC bbq ribs? Fantastic.
paul - February 08, 2009 - Report this comment
I worked for Kentucky Fried Chicken from 1973 into 1975 when I was in high school. During this time, we started selling pork ribs. After briefly using a brand of ribs I can’t remember, we switched to Jimmy Dean and they were consistently good. The secret to the fantastic flavor was that the ribs were floured up with the original recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken flour and then fried under pressure. We would then saturate them with barbeque sauce and leave them in the warmer for a while to let the sauce properly soak in. They were great! I wish they would bring them back.
I’ve had them, too, ya know. This says the pork goes in a grinder:
The pork starts off in a vat on a pallet, which is then hoisted up in the air and dumped into the grinder, where it comes out as normal-looking ground pork — as you’d see in any supermarket, but in a giant pile.
À chacun son goût. The more McRib for you, the more baked chicken marinated in BBQ Sauce there is for me! Yeah, it gets messy, but if one wants the Sauce, that comes with the territory. It’s not a sandwich I had in mind – it’s whole chicken pieces with BBQ sauce. And LOTS of napkins. Yum! (Not necessarily suitable for card games.)
Sounds worth a try! Where exactly is this place, may I ask? Perhaps somewhere in my neck of the wilderness?
Been alive long enough (a child of the '50s), but no recollection of KFC BBQ ribs. I was referring to their occasional BBQ chicken pieces (regular full pieces) slathered in BBQ sauce. I first recall knowing of that in the late 1990s or so, and I don’t know how often they’ve had it since. No matter to me – as I noted, there’s a local two-shop chain near me that has it all the time. And the pieces come so thickly drooling in thick BBQ sauce, I know I’ll have no competition from @puzzlegal ( 
) to get my share!
Haven’t had a McRib in decades but I remember liking the combo of BBQ sauce, onion and pickles. I use that combo on occasion when cooking for myself.
I’ve never actually had a McRib. As a child, i hated hated hated my first McDonald’s burger (probably because it had mustard on it) and have mostly avoided the place ever since. Although i sometimes buy a filet-o-fish (light tartar sauce) at an airport McDonald’s. The filet-o-fish is a bit bland, but tastes nicely of fried and i usually enjoy it.
A hole-in-the-wall place on Main in Buckley (sadly, the excellent wine bar that used to be across the street is long gone).
I like the Filet-O-Fish because unlike other fish sandwiches, it tastes slightly of fish.
Yes, it does taste of fish, as well as of fried. And also of bread. 