Did the Army invent the McRib?

| June 20, 2022

Now that I’ve learned they essentially did, it does make a lot of sense. Only the US Army could conjure up some unholy concoction of offal and gelatin pressed into a vaguely familiar shape and slathered with BBQ sauce to feed the salivating masses.

From Sandboxx.us;

Each year, the fast-food chain McDonald’s re-introduces its highly popular McRib sandwich for a short period of time, spurring a flurry of social media engagement and stories in the press about the barbecue-sauce-laden delicacy… But did you know that the McRib’s roots might actually trace back to the U.S. Army’s efforts to feed its troops in the field?

You might be surprised to learn that, despite being invented in the 1970s, there’s still a fair bit of debate about who’s really responsible for the McRib — which really speaks to how we’ve managed to lose so many interesting facts about our own history to time. The McRib might only be as old as the Star Wars franchise, but like Stonehenge, it seems to be the result of efforts from more than one group over an undetermined span of time… This makes it hard to say for sure who the primary craftsman was.

Yeah, that’s right, I just compared the McRib to Stonehenge. I stand by that.

There’s a solid argument to be made that Dr. Roger Mandigo, an animal science professor from the University of Nebraska concocted the BBQ sandwich for the National Pork Producers Council, as a part of the council’s efforts to pitch another pork-product to McDonald’s. However, Mandigo himself shies away from the honor, highlighting that he really just used existing technology to mush meat together into the shape of a Porkchop, and McDonald’s changed things up from there. Where did he get the idea, you ask? Well, according to him, “the military allowed us to use the processes they [had] developed.”

That’s right, if you really want to give credit for the McRib to the right person, the story goes back just a bit further… to a 1960s effort at the Natick Soldier Center for Research and Development to make a more appealing meal for troops in the field out of inexpensive (in other words, pretty gross) meat products.

Read the rest of the story at the link.

 

Category: Army, Historical

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Anonymous

Well, that figures…

Sparks

Better than ham n motherfuckers.

jeff LPH 3 63-66

took the words out of my mouth on the C Rat ham and lima beans

Anonymous

…or Chicken al a Schwing

Animal

Definitely better than Omelet with Ham. Especially chilled and congealed Omelet with Ham.

Anonymous

True:
comment image

Eric (the OC Tanker)

Or beef and shrapnel.

USMC Steve

They can be sort of addictive.

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

Make sure you put lots of pickles on the mo’fo, the only way to make it taste decent.

Hooah! 🙂

Last edited 1 year ago by Anonymous
Claw

Army SPAM: 8905-00-126-4020 6lb Canned Luncheon Meat (Beef & Pork), not to be confused with:

5410-01-003-2933 Shelter, Expandable, Shop, Portable, Aircraft Maintenance (SPAM)/s

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

 😂 

RGR 4-78

Claw, is the Shop, Portable, Aircraft Maintenance transported in a metal shipping container?

Claw

Nope, doesn’t appear to be. TM 10-5410-224-14 Feb 1977, says it fits on a 463L pallet for air transport and for land movement in a truck, flat bed trailer, or forklift/dolly. It has grab hooks on each corner for lifting/moving.

RGR 4-78

Dammit, I was hoping for Spam in a can. 😃 

jeff LPH 3 63-66

We had canned spam onboard with 1940’s dates on the cans.

KoB

S(pecial)P(rocess)A(rmy)M(eat), and just like a McRib is…

Anonymous

A large pig McNugget basically…

ninja

Somehow, we just knew it that our Supply Daddy would come on board with that info…😉

SPAM Musabi. Anyone ever stationed in Hawaii knows what we are talking about.

Thank You, Claw…and Thank You, Mason, for the article. The irony of this story is that the guy who created McRibs from Natick served in the US Navy….😉

SFC D

Had a Hawaiian IT contractor in Iraq that introduced me to spam musabi. Excellent stuff!

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

Ummmmm…..😊😊😊😊😊😊
Spam musabi…..
Love it.

26Limabeans

Natick Labs came up with a lot of weird stuff.
My first gf lived down the road from the place.
She was kinda weird.

President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

Was she developed at Natick Labs?

STSC(SW/SS)

I wish McDonalds would get back to decent hamburgers, fries and real milkshakes. Leave the mystery meat to Jack in the Box.

Messkit

Personally………………….I really liked the MRE “pork rib”. Mix it in with the “tomato penne” along with the jalapeno squeeze cheese and the Tobasco? Now your eatin’ in the neighborhood!

ninja

From the article:

“the folks at Natick Labs, most notably a food scientist named John Secrist, teamed up with a meat-flaking company out of Ohio to grind all this unwanted meat up
together and use the mush that came out to form patties into shapes people might actually be willing to eat.”

The US Navy is the REAL culprit behind McRibs….

https://www.eatonfuneralhomes.com/obituary/John-Secrist

GO ARMY! BEAT NAVY!!!

gabn/hbtd/rtr

ninja

Am now going to say it.

Am now having MORE doubts about West Point…This is NOT the same Lloyd Austin that we served with:

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/west-point-cadets-taught-critical-race-theory-addressing-whiteness-docs-show

I think these folks forgot MLK Jr. Speech about having a dream…The Irony…

Anonymous

MLK, Jr. is an evil white supremacist RethugliKKKan for insisting people behave themselves and be judged individually (horrors!) and not blaming and attacking Whitey for everything, Anti-racists today will have you know!

Last edited 1 year ago by Anonymous
Anonymous

No, really, that’s how the “woke” Leftist crowd feel about him today. Read “anti-racist” Ibrahm X. Kendi’s book– slams “I have a dream” right up front.

KoB

McRib…M(ickey) c(an) R(eally) in(sult) b(bq)…Spelled out for our acronym challenged, beloved AW1Ed.

That “food scientist” musta really lost that lovin’ feelin’ for palates, maybe thought his goose was cooked unless he could come up with something. Shoulda put those ideas on ice, man and not gone into that danger zone.

gabn/rtr/hbtd

ninja

😆😅🤣😂😆😅😂😆😅🤣😂

AW1Ed

Thanks. Still hate you.

AW1Ed

A true Southern Gentleman would have exactly nothing to do with the Mickey-Dee thing. It’s faux-q.

Graybeard

Testify!

KoB

Word! Feeding a dog on them things would be classified as animal abuse.

ninja

And all of God’s Children said “AMEN!!”

The US Navy STILL is the REAL culprit behind McRibs.

Have to admit their chow was a wee bit better when I did Joint duty on a ship.

Just a wee bit.

BTW…Who still has their P-38?

As a joke, I asked some Soldiers who never had C-Rats if they found a P-38 in their MREs…😆😅🤣😂

Graybeard

ninja: My P-38 is on my keyring, Mrs. GBs is on her keyring.
Don’t leave home without it.

Claw

I still have mine on my keyring, and I’m talking about the original moldy oldie issued one from Basic Training at Fort Campbell in February 1971.

7330-242-3506 Opener, Can, Hand, Folding, Type I (P-38)

ninja

Graybeard and Claw:

We still have our first one…Have lost track of time…I think around 1972? 😉

Same here with the keyrings. As Graybeard said “Don’t Leave Home Without It…”

Thank You, Claw, for that additional information!!

BTW…Had to throw this in here since we are talking about the early 70s…

This is Paul McCarthy who just turned 80…80!!! Performing about 2 weeks ago at Fenway Park…

Suddenly, we are feeling old:

https://youtu.be/f6H1xoq-b24

ninja

And we remember him from the 1960s…

Anyone else beside us catch him with the other 3 Live on the Ed Sullivan show in the 1960s?

Carlton

The McRib sucks.

Anonymous

Lots of pickles helps…

timactual

I had a McRib once—I would rather eat C rations.

Green Thumb

Yeah.

Both would make a dead man shit.

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Sailorcurt

They are awesome! The only time I go to McDonalds is when they have McRibs on the menu. Their other food is tolerable (although they ruined their fries when they stopped cooking them in lard), but the terrible service isn’t worth it and the shake machine is always broken, so unless they can hook me up with a McRib, I’ll go elsewhere to meet my fast food needs.

Anonymous

Fries cooked w/ beef tallow kicked ass– both Kosher and Halal, too, and vegan don’t matter if you’re doing McD’s anyway, so what the heck was the issue?