This week I reached out for a Baby Back Rib Thickburger from the Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s fast-food co-op, with 3,800 restaurants, combined, across the land.

And when Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s promise baby back ribs, they mean actual baby backs — not what McDonald’s passes off as ribs in its wildly popular chewed ‘n’ glued, chopped pork patty McRib sandwich. You don’t want to see the “before” photos of a McRib.

You might have caught the episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank” where Bubba’s Q restaurant of Ohio lured a deal from Daymond John. Bubba’s Q annual sales at the time were about $154,000. After “Shark Tank” … $16 million a year. Now Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s want a taste of the action.

Here’s the Baby Back Rib Thickburger breakdown: a 1/3-pound charbroiled Black Angus beef patty topped with real boneless baby back pork ribs, crunchy onion strings, pickles and Cattlemen’s BBQ sauce on a brioche bun.

Total calories: 940. Fat grams: 48. Sodium: 1,400 mg. Carbs: 87 g. Dietary fiber: 3 g. Protein: 41 g. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price: $6.79.

There’s also a 1/4-pound regular beef patty version for $5.59 and a double-patty model for $6.79. The recommendation here is to go with the Black Angus Thickburger.

This is an interspecies pork-and-beef monster sandwich. There’s a lot of meat … period. Because we’ve been burger’d to the limit, the star attraction is the boneless ribs. Bubba’s Q has an ingenious technique of extracting the bones from a rack of baby backs without wrecking the taste or appearance of the ribs. And make no mistake — baby backs are the Cadillac of ribs: meaty, lean and delicious. Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s give you a nice-size slab, too.

Normal pork ribs may be bigger, but there’s a whole lot of fat, and the flavor just doesn’t compare to baby backs. Think of the Baby Back Rib Thickburger as a Quarter Pounder meets a McRib, only everything is cranked up to 10.

By themselves, Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s Thickburgers are terrific drive-thru burgers, made with 100 percent Black Angus patties. Now add real baby back ribs, smoky-sweet Cattlemen’s BBQ sauce (you know how we respect supermarket brand labels), crispy onions and snappy pickles on a bun that was baked in-store that day. This is a combo burger that other fast-food joints can’t match.

Just be aware, when you’ve got two big hunks of meat — pork and beef — and sweet sauce and deep-fried onion strings on a billowy bun … this isn’t fitting into your diet. It’s nearly 1,000 calories. Here’s where I normally say, “Hold the mayo,” which cuts way down on calories and fat. But this sandwich doesn’t have mayo — and the sauce isn’t the villain here. It hurts me to say … you may have to forget the fries if you want in on the Baby Back Rib Thickburger.