The Ribwich Sandwich Recipe

The Ribwich is the limited-time Krusty Burger sandwich from "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" (Season 14, Episode 12). It's a slab of meat pressed into the shape of a rack of ribs, with barbecue sauce, on a bun. The box advertises it as "Now without lettuce!" This Ribwich recipe makes the same thing at home with pork.

The Simpsons t-shirts are over here, for anyone who'd rather wear the reference.

What the Ribwich is

The episode never names the animal. That's the joke the whole B-plot builds to, so the closest honest version is pork mince shaped into a rib rack. Smoked paprika and liquid smoke in the mix give it the barbecue flavour before it touches the grill. A sweet, sticky glaze goes on at the end.

Press rib lines into each patty with the back of a knife before it goes in the fridge. They hold through cooking and catch the glaze.

The glaze

Brush it on only in the last minute. Barbecue sauce is mostly sugar, so it burns if it goes on early. You want it to bubble and darken at the edges, not blacken.

Tips

Chill the shaped patties before cooking. Soft pork mince sags on a hot grill.

Use long, soft rolls. A crusty roll pushes the patty out the end when you bite.

Raw onion and sharp pickles cut through the sweetness, so don't skip them.

The patties shrink a little, so shape them slightly longer than the rolls.

The episode

"I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" aired on 16 February 2003. Lisa goes to the Spellympics. Homer tries the Ribwich, gets hooked and, when it sells out, follows a crowd of fans who chase the sandwich's test-market tour around the country. The episode calls them Ribheads, after the Deadheads who followed the Grateful Dead.

At the last stop, Krusty tells the crowd the Ribwich is finished:

"The animal we made 'em from is now extinct."

Someone guesses the pig. Someone else guesses the cow. Krusty's answer: "You're way off-- think smaller, think more legs." The crowd goes "Eww."

Krusty throws the last one into the crowd and Homer catches it. He swaps it with another Ribhead for the lease on his car, and makes it to the Spellympics final in time to see Lisa compete. Critic Keith Plocek called the Ribwich "an obvious nod to McDonald's McRib", which is fair.

The extinction didn't stick. The Simpsons Wiki lists later Ribwich appearances in "Highway to Well" and "Bottle Episode", and the Krusty Burger at Universal Studios Hollywood sells one in real life.

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More fast food: the Krusty Burger, or the Good Morning Burger for breakfast. The rest are in the Simpsons recipes index.