Snackshot Of The Day: The McRib

The Daily Meal's editors, contributors, and readers dig into some pretty great restaurants, festivals, and meals. There's not always enough time to give a full review of a restaurant or describe in depth why a place, its food, and the people who prepare it are noteworthy, so Snackshot of the Day does what photographs do best, rely on the image to do most of the talking. Today's Snackshot is McDonald's McRib (shot 10/24/2011).

It's getting close to that time of year, when McDonald's dusts off those McRib boxes and trots out their 500-calorie cult classic pork shoulder and organ meat sandwich: the McRib. (It has already been spotted six times in the past month on McRib Locator.)

What is the McRib? According to a Maxim article quoting Rob Cannell, director of McDonald's U.S. supply chain, "The pork meat is chopped up, then seasoned, then formed into that shape that looks like a rib back. Then we flash-freeze it. The whole process from fresh pork to frozen McRib takes about 45 minutes."

That McRib pork patty is completely coated with McRib sauce (identifiable ingredients include: corn syrup, tomato paste, vinegar, molasses, natural smoke flavor, spices, onion powder, garlic powder, chile pepper, beet powder), and hen topped with pickle slices and slivered onions.

Before you groan with disgust and judge, ask yourself if you've tried one lately. It's actually pretty good. While they are super sweet, even the biggest food snobs out there would probably admit that if they didn't know where they were and just closed their eyes to avoid seeing the packaging and just bit in, they'd probably say that what they were eating was pretty tasty. It's the kind of thing that if some upscale chef hasn't riffed on yet, they surely will soon.

Read more about The Daily Meal's Snackshot feature. To submit a photo, email jbruce[at]thedailymeal.com, subject: "Snackshots."

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