So...


what's the deal on those fries huh? What's in them? How do they come out so damn good?


I know yall got sum kinda secret!

They're 45% polystyrene! I'm not sure what the rest is but it ain't potato!

Id rather know KFC's secret recipe. If i worked there, i'd be stealing that shit and cooking with it at home.

the fries are soaked with water in a salt mixture then freeze them.

i worked with a guy who worked there in high school, they are pretty secretive about it

I don't know whether it is true or not, but I've heard that they use sugar in the oil or sugar on the fries somehow.

wow all of these sound pretty suspicious. Maybe it is all of those!

Some1 knows the truth!

the saltwater mixture? How do i do that?

sugar in the oil? good idea..

I think it's something to do with that weird solid vegetable oil that they scoop into the fryers in the early morning. It used to be beef fat but got changed a few years back (at least it did in the UK)

I should know as i read 'fast food nation', but honestly can't remember, there is a chapter titled 'Why do the fries taste so good' or something like that. Apparently 1 in 8 Americans have worked in Mcdonalds at some point, so somebody'll know.

McDonald's® Famous French Fries


Special Tools



Deep fryer

French Fry Cutter

(or patience for cutting potatoes)





Ingredients:



2 large Idaho russett potatoes

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons corn syrup

1½-2 cups hot water

6 cups Crisco® shortening

1/4 cup beef lard (or save the fat from previously cooked burgers)

salt



Preparing your french fries



Peel the potatoes. In a large mixing bowl, combine sugar, corn syrup, and hot water. Make sure the sugar is dissolved. Using a french fry slicer, cut the peeled potatoes into shoestrings. The potatoes should be 1/4" x 1/4" in thickness, and about 4" to 6" long. (You can do this with a knife, but it is alot of work)



Place the shoestringed potatoes into the bowl of sugar-water, and refrigerate. Let them soak about 30 minutes.



While they're soaking, pack the shortening into the deep fryer. Crank up the temperature to "full". The shortening has to pre-heat for a very long time. It will eventually liquify. After it has liquified and is at least 375°, drain the potatoes and dump them into the fryer. (be careful, it will be ferocious)



After 1 to 1½ minutes, remove the potatoes and place them on a paper towel lined plate. Let them cool 8 to 10 minutes in the refrigerator.



While they're cooling, add the lard or beef drippings to the hot Crisco®. Again, crank the temperature to full. Stir in the lard as it melts into the oil. It will blend in.



After the deep fryer is reheated to 375°-400°, add the potatoes and deep fry again. This time for 5-7 minutes until golden brown. Remove and place in a large bowl.



Sprinkle generously with salt, then "toss" the fries to mix the salt evenly. ( I suggest about 1 teaspoon of salt, maybe slightly more)



Serve hot, serve immediately, and enjoy! Depending upon the size of the potatoes, this recipe make about 2 medium sized fries.

Marrk said:

http://www.rense.com/general7/whyy.htm

"The taste of a french fry is largely determined by the cooking oil. For decades McDonald's cooked its french fries in a mixture of about seven percent cottonseed oil and 93 percent beef tallow. The mixture gave the fries their unique flavor -- and more saturated beef fat per ounce than a McDonald's hamburger.

In 1990, amid a barrage of criticism over the amount of cholesterol in its fries, McDonald's switched to pure vegetable oil. This presented the company with a challenge: how to make fries that subtly taste like beef without cooking them in beef tallow. A look at the ingredients in McDonald's french fries suggests how the problem was solved. Toward the end of the list is a seemingly innocuous yet oddly mysterious phrase: "natural flavor." That ingredient helps to explain not only why the fries taste so good but also why most fast food -- indeed, most of the food Americans eat today -- tastes the way it does.

Open your refrigerator, your freezer, your kitchen cupboards, and look at the labels on your food. You'll find "natural flavor" or "artificial flavor" in just about every list of ingredients. The similarities between these two broad categories are far more significant than the differences. Both are man-made additives that give most processed food most of its taste. People usually buy a food item the first time because of its packaging or appearance. Taste usually determines whether they buy it again. About 90 percent of the money that Americans now spend on food goes to buy processed food. The canning, freezing, and dehydrating techniques used in processing destroy most of food's flavor -- and so a vast industry has arisen in the United States to make processed food palatable. Without this flavor industry today's fast food would not exist. The names of the leading American fast-food chains and their best-selling menu items have become embedded in our popular culture and famous worldwide. But few people can name the companies that manufacture fast food's taste.

The flavor industry is highly secretive. Its leading companies will not divulge the precise formulas of flavor compounds or the identities of clients. The secrecy is deemed essential for protecting the reputations of beloved brands. The fast-food chains, understandably, would like the public to believe that the flavors of the food they sell somehow originate in their restaurant kitchens, not in distant factories run by other firms. A McDonald's french fry is one of countless foods whose flavor is just a component in a complex manufacturing process. The look and the taste of what we eat now are frequently deceiving -- by design."

VinaBlue said:

Yeah, i'd forgotten how freaky that was. I mean the last few paragraphs of that chapter says it all. It reads like you could have a Hamburger flavoured aftershave and a chicken nugget that smells like Estee Lauder. That's fucked up.

The book did put me off Fast Food for awhile, i might have it once a month but to be honest unless you just have organic food, you're fighting a losing battle. Food is just full of weird stuff that companies like IFF put in it. Weird and scary. Who really knows what anything really tastes like?

DAMMIT!!!!

This thread made me crave a BigMac. I only
eat a Big Mac about once a year. And today is
the day!

They always give me cold or lukewarm fries, with way too much salt.

I prefer Wendy's fries.

AzureStarr said:

U said it all and now i shall follow these directions like a cult!

Thankk You thank u so much!

AzureStarr said:

couldn't be in the oil, sugar would go black it burns so easily

Marrk said:

I was making some fried chicken once, and it tasted just like KFC. It made me think maybe it isn't 11 herbs and spices, but II (like 2) as in simply salt and pepper, cause that's all I put on mine.

gross

The milkshake is like mashed potato, you turn blue sucking it up that straw.

...
[This message was edited Thu Jun 10 18:13:13 2004 by Lleena]

AzureStarr said:

McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's all list dextrose (sugar) in the ingredients of their fries. I recall reading that the sugar caramelizes during cooking and helps give the fries that golden-brown color.

I'm partial to the ones at Long John Silver's. They got the best fast food cole slaw too!

i was a burger king girl well...as far as where i worked

but i had a great freind who was my boss...so it wasnt soo bad for the 3 years that i was there....even though it was a freaking grease pit!!

McDonalds was my first job. I was 16 at the time and only worked there for 2 months. I don't know about the fries because I dont remember being to concerned with them. I havent actually eaten at McDonald's since I was 15.

I'd like to order some secret fries. thank you drive thru.....

My sister used to work at McDonalds.

Uh, the service has to improve junior high peeps. They forget the straws, condiments, and sometimes do not fill the order (miss my chicken mcgrill). I have to now check my order to make sure what I ordered is there, plus needed amount of straws. Customer service sucks big time.

luv4u said:

nastiest thing you've ever found in your "MC Meal"?

Christopher said:

A filet of fish burger was in my bag one time (and I did not order it). When I arrived home with 3 hungry kids, we had to get back in the car and I went to the drive through and got it replaced. I even make them repeat back what I ordered but it's the counter crew who fuck it up

luv4u said:

free fries were in order i believe.
/

and well one time i found a rock in my sausage egg mcmuffin

Lleena said:

Thats because it is mashed potato Lleena.

Christopher said:

a rock in your egg mcmuffin?? Then I would have taken it to the manager and showed him the evidence. Sometimes I wanna write to the head office so I can get free stuff for a year.