McDonald's definitely stumbled onto something special with the McRib, that saucy rib-shaped
sandwich that always seems to come and go from the McDonald's menu.
"It's back.
Because you love the taste of barbecued pork with pickles and onions on a homestyle bun."
So, what's the deal with the McRib?
You might think you know what's going on between the buns, but you don't know the whole story.
Food science
Getting a McRib to look like a cute little rack of ribs may seem like modern sorcery,
but its roots actually go way back to the '70s, when animal science professor Roger
Mandigo was approached by The National Pork Producers Council.
You know, the guys behind these commercials.
"Pork.
The other white meat."
They wanted Mandigo to come up with a way to make "shaped pork" out of pork trimmings
to sell in fast food restaurants — specifically McDonald's.
Mandigo basically took the sausage making method and revamped it using salts and other
additives to hold everything in place.
His first concoction was shaped like… a pork chop.
McDonald's asked for something people would actually want on a bun, and requested that
the Franken-pork resemble the boneless part of a backrib.
And thus, the McRib was born.
Rubber ribs
You've probably heard the stories floating around the internet about how the McRib is
made out of the same stuff as a rubber gym mat.
"You work hard.
You do what you're told.
And what does life serve you?
A shame sandwich."
Fortunately, it turns out that's not exactly the case.
Lopez Foods Vice President Kevin Nanke says the McRib contains only a few ingredients.
"It's pork, water, salt, dextrose, which is a type of sugar, and preservatives, which
are BHA, propyl gallate, and citric acid."
Azodicarbonamide, the offending "gym mat" ingredient, isn't in the official ingredients
McDonald's rattles off on their website.
So save your sweating for the actual gym mats, not your lunch.
Back from bedrock
Despite its popularity today, the McRib wasn't always the rousing success you might think.
Due to low sales and rising pork prices, the McRib disappeared from the menu in 1985.
The first real comeback didn't happen until 1994, and it was all thanks to the Flintstones
movie, of all things.
You may recall the closing credits of the cartoon The Flintstones featuring a giant
rack of ribs.
"From the town of Bedrock/they're a page right out of history"
So when the Flintstones movie premiered in 1994, McDonald's had the idea to bring back
their rib sandwich and tie it into the movie's release.
Oh, and pork prices were down again.
That helped too.
Artificial hype
So despite all the hype, why doesn't McDonald's just keep the McRib on the menu all the time?
The bottom line is that McDonald's doesn't sell enough of them to justify the supply
cost.
So McDonald's did what they're very good at — they created an advertising campaign that
made the McRib seem more special than it actually is.
"Lois!
Lois!
It's back!"
"I heard, Peter!
I heard!"
"Kids!
Kids it's happening!
Get your coats!
This is what we practiced for!"
After a few false starts in the early 2000s, McDonald's announced a "farewell tour" for
the McRib with a new strategy.
They created a fake petition website for the McRib and made some commercials for the fictional
Boneless Pig Farmers Association of America.
"Stand up for the boneless pigs, 'cuz they can't stand up for themselves."
Despite how ridiculous it all sounds now, it actually worked.
Laugh all you want, but the success is in the profits, and the McRib is a cult hero
now.
Even better, McDonald's can just roll it out whenever pork prices dip — like in November,
when that usually happens.
"Shout it from the rooftops, America.
The McRib is back."
Salty solution
The McRib is one of the saltiest items McDonald's offers, and there's a reason for that...even
if it's not very appetizing.
The process to "form" the McRib involves using salt to extract proteins and using those to
bind the meats together into a shape.
And it takes a whole lot of salt to pull that trick off.
One McRib will provide you with 36 percent of your daily intake of salt.
Leftover buns
That hoagie style bun may seem like an outlier in the McDonald's family of foods, but it's
actually a leftover from another attempt at making a "non-hamburger" addition to the menu.
A few years before the McRib hit stores, McDonald's tested a chopped beefsteak sandwich — a
concoction of chopped beefsteak and onions on a hoagie style roll.
The beefsteak sandwich never made it out of a small testing stage, despite getting a few
commercials on national TV.
The only thing that remains of the beefsteak is the bun — but now it has sesame seeds
on top and a chunk of pork inside.
The McApp
Despite the tomfoolery McDonald's employed to get it going, the McRib craze is real today.
Now, there's even a website dedicated to finding locations that still carry it.
That way you can drive hundreds of miles to get a pork sandwich.
[Banjo music]
Alternatively, you can download the app and just pull up the location on the fly.
Sure, they aren't exactly the highest rated apps around - but if you're desperate for
a salty, processed McRib, you're probably willing to take a few chances.
"...that people will risk maybe not life and limb, but a barbecue-stained shirt to have
one."
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