Yesterday we took a look at what a McRib looks like “fresh” out of the box. It’s a frozen meat patty, not unlike other meat patties the customer doesn’t see before it’s transformed into a sandwich butterfly. But perhaps it’s comforting/unsettling to know that it’s not like this is anything new — that’s what the McRib looked like to a Consumerist reader who worked there over 20 years ago.

“People need to know this stuff before they get their food,” the ex-Mickey D’s worker writes of the frozen patty photo. He adds that while perhaps the process for cooking McRibs is a little different now, back when he was slinging burgers between 1992 and 1994 the McRib looked exactly the same.

“The preparation of the McRib consisted of grilling the frozen patties, then placing them into a large container full of McRib sauce for the remainder of the day,” he writes. “This process would take place in the morning, so that our lunch customers would be able to have meat that had been marinating for at least an hour. By the end of the night we had usually run out of meat.”

He adds that the only food he’d ever eat while at work was the quarter-pound burgers, as those patties were the only thing cooked to order.

And as if peeking behind the pork patty curtain weren’t enough, our tipster threw in a bit of extra fast food advice. So very generous, our readers!

“Most people probably don’t know this, but if you feel like your fries are always too old when you get them, the best way around that is to just ask for fries with no salt,” he explains. “They will cook you up a fresh batch. It will take a little longer but they’ll be nice and fresh and you can put as much or as little salt as you want on them.”

Mmm, salt. And while we’re at it, we always welcome any interesting insights from fast food workers, past and present. If you’ve got something to share — food history, horror stories, tips for customers —  we’re all ears at tips@consumerist.com.

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