My favorite thing about the McRib sandwich is its aesthetic.
It appears to have bones, but it does not, a remarkable and wholly Fastfoodian illusion.
Sue Martin might argue that this is only because I’ve never actually tasted one.
“It’s hard to describe unless you’ve eaten one,” says Martin, a McDonald’s owner/operator with three locations in New Smyrna Beach, “but the toasted roll is fabulous, the barbecue sauce is just sweet and smoky and tangy. And then you’ve got the crunch of the onions and the pickles. It’s one of those things that once you have one, you’re just hooked.”
I’ll have my chance on Dec. 2, when for the first time since 2012 the fast-food behemoth will be putting the McRib back in stores nationwide.
When the news dropped awhile back, it prompted quite a bit of online discussion on the Orlando Sentinel’s food forum, Let’s Eat, Orlando, some in simple emoji form: heart or barf — a neat parody of the 2020 presidential election banter, without the name-calling and venom-spitting.
Fast food might be garbage food, but no one seemed above it. Least of all the talent behind some of Orlando’s hottest kitchens, who cited Whataburger and Burger King among their fast-food crushes, and jumped at the chance to do their own version of the McRib when the idea struck me: An Orlando Indie Rib Crawl — five restaurants, five McRib-inspired sandwiches, all timed to drop at the same time.
I was pretty proud of myself until Eliot Hillis told me they’d already done a sandwich like that at Orlando Meats. I cheered up when he told me it was called the McDowell’s. (My first apartment was a few blocks up Queens Boulevard from the Wendy’s they transformed into McDowell’s, the fast-food restaurant featured in 1988’s “Coming to America.”)
Like many of the Meats’ team’s ideas, this one was borne of random conversation, a hit they’re pulling out of retirement for the occasion, despite the labor intensity.
The ribs are smoked, then individually wrapped by portion and placed in the circulator. Once out, bones are removed one by one and they’re re-wrapped to preserve the integrity. It’s arduous, but worth it, fans would say, for the Chinese roast pork flavor.
Hillis hits Krystal when he gets the fast-food jones. “Every time,” he says.
When I bring the idea up to Git-N-Messy BBQ’s Chuck Cobb, he cites a few, but one is baked into the heart of his youth.
“Fazioli’s breadsticks!” he says. “I remember seeing that tomato all over town once, and then it went away.” Indeed, the chain’s website lists only one Florida location in Plant City. “Those breadsticks were bombdiggity. If you had a box, I’d be getting in on that!”
That’s what everyone else says about Cobb’s barbecue, now smoking up at the Red-Eye Sports Tavern in Winter Springs.
“There’s a psychology behind the popularity of something like the McRib,” he says. “They bring it out and give everybody what they want and as the customers begin to tire of it, they pull it back.”
He may not be far off.
Martin admits the sandwich — which returns to Central Florida McDonald’s locations annually — has a sales curve. Traditionally, and depending on the location, the McRib sticks around for 4-to-7 weeks.
“In past years we’ve tried to keep it longer, but then sales drop off,” she says. “But by next year, they’re clamoring to have it again.”
Chef Jen Ross of DaJen Eats says it makes the business side of her brain whir.
“You’re creating that scarcity, right? You’re limiting supply. Popeyes did that with the chicken sandwich and drove the demand. ‘Oh my God, it’s here for a limited time! I have to get one!’ And if you’re young when you had it for the first time, there’s that nostalgia…”
Marketing is something McDonald’s has mastered, says Matt Hinckley. “A ton of it is geared toward kids — the playground, the Happy Meal toys. They get you in there when you’re a child and you form all these great memories around the food.”
The only thing that comes close for the chef/owner of Hinckley’s Fancy Meats is Beefy King. “It’s what we ate in college,” he says. In fact, he hasn’t eaten a drop of fast food since reading Eric Schlosser’s “Fast Food Nation” not long after it published in 2001.
“I’ve driven through food deserts, along highways in Alaska, and I’d still only get a Clif bar,” he says. But despite all the reasons he has for abstaining, he’s not throwing McDonald’s under the bus.
“If you look at Chicken McNuggets or the McRib from the perspective of someone buying meat in Whole Foods, the prospect is gross,” he reasons, “but you could also look at it through the lens of someone who’s being responsible with nose-to-tail consumption … It’s one of those things you don’t want to like, but at the same time you have to reason that it’s making use of the animal in its entirety.”
It’s hard to say.
Some accounts of the McRib’s ingredients, like one in Chicago Magazine, speak of its creation from off-cuts by using “restructured meat technology,” a binding process pioneered in part by Roger Mandigo, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln professor and meat scientist. Tripe, heart and scalded stomach are among those Mandigo cited.
McDonald’s lists pork, water, salt, dextrose and rosemary extract.
An ABC News video showcased a hopper of boneless pork shoulder in a 2014 video called “Here’s How Your McRib is Made,” and I didn’t see any offal on those sparkling conveyors.
It wouldn’t make Hinckley squeamish. When he uses hearts — and he does, often — he puts that front-and-center, so folks know it. He employed a buffalo chopper, a food processor with a vertical-spinning blade and a rotating bowl, to roughly chop and emulsify pork shoulder and off-cuts in order to mimic the texture of the McRib for his version.
“When I place orders at Broken Arrow Ranch, I often ask what they’re heavy on in the cooler. I’ll buy any surplus they have of elk, antelope, venison and boar offal — liver, hearts, etc. — to help them move through it. Probably not much different than McDonald’s if they are, in fact, cleaning out the coolers of the pork industry to run their specials. Just on a much smaller scale.”
Way different than what you’ll find at DaJen Eats, though, a strictly vegan eatery. Jamaican, too. Her Irie Rib Sandwich — made with seitan and mushroom — does capture the thing that makes a sandwich like the McRib appealing.
“That flavor palette hits everything,” she says. “Sugar from the barbecue, the briny saltiness from the pickles and nothing beats smokiness … It drives home the essence of meat — and I know that sounds strange coming from a vegan.”
Her version brings in some island essence, with mango and Scotch bonnet peppers.
“It brings back easy, summer days when someone’s barbecuing. It brings back family.”
The same could be said over at Nikki’s Place in Parramore, a mainstay for soul food — and definitely family. Right down to the staff.
“He’s always wanted to have a special sandwich for the restaurant,” says general manager Shannea Akins, daughter of chef/owner Nick Aiken, Jr. “So, when you dropped this idea, he was interested.”
Nikki’s is well known for ribs already, which made for a natural evolution into what will henceforth be known as the Nick Rib, a mic-drop of a name even before I asked Aiken for further comment.
“I’m going to say it with the sandwich,” he told me.
Fans of the McRib are far mouthier.
“Oh, my goodness, did we get taken to the woodshed the one year we didn’t have it!” says Martin, who also serves as co-president of the Central Florida McDonald’s Operators Association.
The limited-time-only thing tends to get people a little crazy, I guess.
“I mean, when they do a parody of your sandwich on the Simpsons, when you’re that much a part of pop culture, you’ve made it, right?” Martin asks rhetorically.
And I suppose that’s inspirational.
“Part of it is taking something that’s familiar and making it over-the-top, which is a deep tradition in restaurant culture,” says Hillis. “But this is more like doing a cover, just better than the original artist.”
McDonald’s makes an impressive Bob Dylan. Our Orlando indies, though? Straight-up Hendrix.
If you go
DaJen Eats: 323 E. Kennedy Blvd. in Eatonville; 407-775-5791 or dajeneats.com/. The Irie Rib Sandwich will be available Dec. 2–9; $15 combo with fries and a drink.
Git-N-Messy BBQ: (inside Red-Eye Sports Grill) 855 FL. 434 East in Winter Springs; 407-542-7728 or gitnmessy.com/. Special rib sandwich available Dec. 2–9; $6 sandwich only.
Hinckley’s Fancy Meats: (located inside East End Market) 3201 Corrine Drive in Orlando; 786-671-1023 or hinckleymeats.com/. Special sandwich available Dec. 2-9; $13, sandwich only. Add kettle chips for $1.
Nikki’s Place: 742 Carter St. in Orlando; 407-425-5301 or nikkisplace.net/. The Nick Rib will be available Saturdays only, beginning Dec. 5, through the end of the month; $7, includes potato salad side.
Orlando Meats: 728 Virginia Drive in Orlando; 407-598-0700 or orlandomeats.com/. The McDowell’s will be available Dec. 2 “until whenever we get bored; a few weeks,” says chef Eliot Hillis. $13, sandwich only.
Want to reach out? Find me on Twitter or Instagram @amydroo or on the OSFoodie Instagram account @orlando.foodie. Email: amthompson@orlandosentinel.com. Join the conversation at the Orlando Sentinel’s new Facebook Forum, Let’s Eat, Orlando.
