The Weird Reality Behind McDonald’s McRib Is Concerning Many Fast Food Fans

Whether or not you indulge in it yourself, you can’t deny that our society absolutely loves McDonald’s. Customers can’t get enough of those Big Macs, chicken nuggets, and on certain occasions, the elusive McRib sandwich. It’s not unusual to see lines out the door when it suddenly returns.

The McRib is one of those sandwiches you probably heard of, but maybe never had the chance to try. It’s not often McRib season rolls around, and the only reason it does is actually thanks to one of McDonald’s most popular items.

The McRib owes all of its popularity to chicken nuggets. Nuggets were a huge hit right out of the gate in 1979, but a suffering poultry industry meant a huge shortage. So, a creative chef stepped in to help.

Chef Rene Arend, McDonald’s very first executive chef, was tasked with ending the frustration customers and franchises felt about the lack of nuggets. He didn’t have a solution right away, but he knew what direction he wanted to take it.

He drew his inspiration from Southern cuisine, particularly barbecue. He grew up enjoying pulled pork sandwiches from South Carolina, but he realized he had to modify his creation to allow for less mess and massive scale production.

After some thought, he decided a pork patty basted in a rich barbecue sauce was the way to go. Not long afterward, the McRib was born. Interesting choice of name, however, considering there’s no rib meat in sight.

So, what’s in it? “Primarily, it’s shoulder meat. The pork meat is chopped up, seasoned, then formed into shape. Then we flash-freeze it,” said Rob Cannell (right), the director of McDonald’s United States supply chain. But remember, Cannell used the word “primarily.”

Many times, in order to cut costs, places will add lower-valued and undesirable meat trimmings to their mixtures. It’s not exactly an appetizing thought, but if methods that like weren’t used, the McRib would never have existed.

McDonald’s franchises all over the country couldn’t wait to test out Chef Arend’s new creation, which would hopefully hit the ground running. The first shipments of frozen McRib patties went public in 1981.

Nearly half of all McDonald’s franchises began slinging up the McRib in the initial testing period. They dumped plenty of money into the marketing campaign, and people came storming through the doors to get their McRib on. And their reaction?

The new sandwich had such excitement surrounding it that the advertising manager at the time, Niel Perry, was absolutely “confident it’s going to make it.” The customers came, they bought, they tried, and they gave a resounding… “Eh.”

McDonald’s brand-spankin’ new pork-tastic treat just didn’t wow the taste buds off their customers like they’d hoped. There were two main aspects that deterred people from falling in love: the sandwich’s taste and its messiness.

It was a big McFlop, similar to other failed items such as the chopped beefsteak sandwich and onion nuggets. In 1985, McDonald’s yanked the pork dud off the menu to save face. However, this was not the end of the McRib.

A few years later, McDonald’s revived the sandwich for a limited time only. They poured some money into television marketing campaigns in the hopes that maybe customers longed for the banished item. Almost immediately, McDonald’s noticed a fascinating development.

Even though the sandwich wasn’t the nationwide hit they thought it’d be, there clearly was a group of dedicated McRib-ites who loved the flavor and didn’t mind the messiness. This was the demographic they needed to tap into.

Anyone in the restaurant industry knows you can’t please everyone, but McDonald’s was more than happy to release the sandwich on rare occasions to keep their loyal McRib fans coming back to spend more money. Then, The Simpsons even got involved.

In 2003, an episode of the show aired where Homer and his pals become obsessed with a special sandwich called the “Ribwich,” which was clearly meant to parody the McRib. This only brought more craze to the McDonald’s item.

Once the internet came about, McRib love spread through online communities as well. A guy named Alan Klein created a website where people could locate McRibs around the country! Like many fast-food products, however, negative attention also followed.

Were these pork patties actually made from pig butts? News stories like this one shed light on the potentially nasty sides of buying cheap meat products. Despite glaring headlines, the McRib was still a favorite among many. Fans are curious to see what its future holds.

You never know quite when or where a McRib will pop up, and that’s what makes it so intriguing. Its tumultuous history is surprising, but that falls right in line with McDonald’s own unusual origins.