I know I do not know for sure.
My hypothesis is food service corps are cheapening their product to try to hold the line on price and portion size in the face of the steady drip of inflation. Which vice is pressing on everyone in all the advanced economies.
Nobody would pay e.g. $12 for a McRib, which is what it would have to cost with a decent meat/fat/filler ratio and a sauce that isn’t simply HFCS & red dye.
As a kid I loved them, but either they were different back then or my taste changed and I was disappointed when I did order one a few years back. It’s very like to other offerings I’ve seen at convenience-gas station stores or supermarket heat and eat sammy’s.
As I understand it McD’s brings it back when market forces makes pork an attractive alternative to their price for beef.
You mean pig parts gathered from the slaughterhouse floor and squeezed into the shape of a patty? No.
The only “McMuffin” I ever have is the bacon and egg McMuffin. I figure that even McDonald’s can’t screw up a fried egg and a couple of bacon slices too badly, And TBH their coffee is actually pretty good, and the thing they call a “hash brown” is tastier than their fries.
When I rented a friend’s cottage some years ago I’d drive out to the local McD’s every morning and enjoy a nice bacon & egg McMuffin and coffee from a site overlooking the picturesque harbour. Not everything McDonald’s makes is complete crap, just 95% of it.
ETA: I should add that my Bernese Mountain Dog, whose taste in food was not particularly sophisticated, absolutely adored the basic McDonald’s cheeseburger (without pickle). I had to hold it for him while he chomped at it, due to the limited dexterity of his paws. But even he much preferred bacon-wrapped rare filet mignon off the grill to anything from McD’s, but he generally only got that on his birthday. 
I’m not a fan of this talk of pig parts and scrap etc in a disdainful sense. If we’re going to sacrifice an animal for our dinner, let’s use as much of the carcass as we can. Sausage meat is good eatin’, and the only difference between offal and muscle from a nutrition point of view is in the fat content. I don’t hear anyone saying chicken wings are icky.
By all means. But I don’t have to be the one eating it. I’m sure my dog, the aficionado of the McDonald’s cheeseburger, would love assorted pig parts ground up and compressed into the shape of a disc.
Why would one? Properly prepared chicken wings make a tasty and healthy snack or even a full dinner. A whole pound of chicken wings contain less than about 12 grams of fat, only about 30% of which is saturated fat, though frying oils may add more. There’s nothing “icky” about them. There’s a reason they’re popular pub fare. Ever since I got an air fryer they’ve been one of my favourite late-night snacks.
Color me surprised it took more than one chomp to finish a standard McD cheeseburger. Unless he was as dainty an eater as he was noble.
We had a Doberman when I was a young kid. Very few things required him to take a second bite.
He wasn’t dainty, but he was indeed noble and trusting. He knew the cheeseburger wasn’t going anywhere, so he savoured every bite about as much as one could expect a dog to do, which wasn’t long. The whole cheeseburger was gone in a matter of maybe 20 or 30 seconds, but he did take distinct individual bites out of it and savoured each one with obvious enjoyment. It was really quite a sweet thing to watch as he chomped at it just like a human, only maybe with a bit more enthusiasm. And this was a dog who, at his peak, weighed in at 120 pounds!
I feel like referring you to the post your replying to.
Did you digest (ho ho) the point I was making?
All this talk of McRibs made me hungry for one, so I had one tonight.
It’s really pretty much exactly as I remember it. The sauce was always sweet, the patty was always molded, and I always remember it having basically that texture. The best thing about it is the bread.
Is it worth eating? Ehh, probably not. You’re not missing out on excellent cuisine. I enjoyed it, though.
McRib is just Spam in a different form with binders and BBQ sauce. It is all Food Science.
So, let us start that first you gotta be a fan of McDs’ burgers, etc
I used to be. Back then, I thought it slightly inferior to the Big Mac.
But if you hate McDs, you will not like the McRib.
This is not true.
Bechamel is butter, flour and milk.
Not even REMOTELY equivalent to ricotta.
People who use bechamel in place of ricotta are abominations.
I’m going to dispute this. It’s a regional style. My cite: I learned how to make pasta in Italy from an Italian restaurant owner.
In the south, the lasagne are assembled including layers of ricotta. In the north, it’s made with layers of a cheese sauce — very similar to a French Mornay, béchamel + Parmigiano. It’s not just béchamel. Also, the lasagne tend to be thinner and more delicate.
They are structurally similar, in terms of pasta + sauce + cheese, but the mouthfeel is entirely different. The cheesy sauce is the correct choice for what the northern style of the dish is going for; the heavy ricotta is the correct choice for what the southern style is going for.
Thanks for what sounds like authoritative information, which I would certainly not try to dispute. But I suspect @Mama_Zappa was just conveying a personal preference. An Italian-owned supermarket near me makes several types of lasagna, one of which is styled “traditional”, made with meat and ricotta, one as “bechamel”, and some others. The bechamel lasagna isn’t bad, but I much prefer the “traditional” and I love the mellow taste of ricotta.
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Sure, preferences are entirely personal. I’m just taking issue with the implication that “substituting” béchamel is wrong somehow. It’s not a substitution because there’s no “correct” version; it’s just a regional difference in how the dish is made. Like it, don’t like it, I can’t argue with that. But “abomination” makes it sound like it’s done in error, a violation of the “true” spirit of lasagne, or something.
Edit to add: And, again, it’s not “just” béchamel — it’s a cheese sauce. If a lasagne dish has just béchamel with no Parmagiano, then, yeah, I’d say that’s wrong, in terms of the Italian originals.
Béchamel is a creamy French white sauce. Béchamel is not a cheese sauce, unless you add cheese.
… I know?
From the link:
Béchamel sauce is one of the mother sauces of French cuisine.
Add cheese it becomes Mornay.
Béchamel is used in dishes such as the lasagne al forno.
Back to the topic, if anyone wants a McRib “out of season” these are available at most DollarTree-type stores.
Much smaller than a McRib, but (obvs.) cheaper. Easily obtainable & convenient.
Pickles and, sadly, onions, are not included.