Earlier this month Vox reported on a program at the Natick Soldier Center for Research and Development responsible for making food products for feeding troops in combat situations. As part of the research, the team was tasked with coming up with a less expensive steak option. As part of this research, they devised technology to restructure meat products to look more steak like for the soldiers. As is typical of innovations here, it appears the technology found commercial application and the McRib was a later product.

The full story can be read here: The McRib industrial complex: how the Army made the world’s weirdest meat