This Is Why McDonald's Burgers Are So Delicious

McDonald's is famous for its burgers, selling approximately 75 every second. Of course, this means that the fast food giant must be doing something right when sandwiching their signature all-beef patties inside of a simple bun. But what makes these burgers so delicious? Here's the secret. Contrary to widespread rumor, all of their patties are actually made from 100 percent USDA-inspected beef. Prior to 2011, like many other fast food chain restaurants in the United States, McDonald's did use the meat-based filler commonly known as pink slime in their burgers. The substance in question was beef, but only technically. Pink slime is actually made from finely textured beef trimmings that are then treated with ammonia before being ground up into a pink paste. Is it gross? Yes, but thankfully pink slime is no longer an ingredient in McDonald's hamburgers. In 2014, as part of a widespread effort to debunk the negative consumer perceptions that surrounded their beef products, the company hired former MythBuster Grant Imahara to prove to customers that their well-known claim to serve all-beef patties was true. Imahara went to the Cargill Processing Plant in Fresno, California to see for himself what goes into a McDonald's 100 percent beef patty. In the end, he found that McDonald's patties are indeed 100 percent beef as claimed. You may have heard that McDonald's burgers are made from entire cows that are put through a meat grinder. However, many media outlets, including Snopes, have gone on to prove that this is not in fact the case. The process could not be more different from what the public might perceive. Here is my hot and fresh quarter pounder with cheese. Oh, that looks good." McDonald's makes their patties out of a few specific cuts of beef, which is crucial to ensuring that their products are of a high enough quality to compete in today's market. While you won't find any of the fanciest butcher's cuts in your McDonald's burgers, they do use the trimmings from cuts like chuck, round, and even sirloin to create the familiar flavor profile of their signature beef blend. And while they don't boast their meat as being grass-fed, the cows they use are for the most part fed on grass for the first half of their lives, before being finished on a diet of grass, minerals, and grain. Immediately after the ground beef blend is formed into patties in the processing plant, there's another important step that contributes to the classic flavor we've come to know and love from the Golden Arches. The standard McDonald's burger is flash-frozen immediately after shaping, in order to ensure that it is as fresh as possible when it hits the grill at your local restaurant. Unlike slower freezing processes, which can cause larger ice crystals to form in foods, flash-freezing can chill foods to temperatures below zero degrees Fahrenheit in just minutes. The flash-freezing process has changed the way Americans eat, and it's been used for a long time. It was developed by Clarence Birdseye, the founder of Birdseye Frozen Foods, in 1924, and is responsible for much of the convenience food we enjoy today. As McDonald's explained, it typically takes between two to three weeks from the day a burger patty is formed in a processing plant to the day it is served to a customer. As such, flash-freezing is one way that McDonald's ensures they're serving hamburgers that taste as fresh as they possibly can for each and every customer. Even though flash-freezing is a very effective way to get fresh-tasting, delicious burgers in the hands of customers, it is not without some serious drawbacks. Over the years, McDonald's has come under fire multiple times for the practice. Even rival fast food burger chain Wendy's has repeatedly taunted McDonald's for their use of frozen beef patties in ad campaigns. In an effort to combat the negative perceptions about their burgers and to compete within the Better Burger space pioneered by higher-end fast food chains like Shake Shack, McDonald's made a commitment to make all of their quarter pounders with fresh beef that is cooked to order by mid-2018. The reception to the change was overwhelmingly positive, with even Food & Wine magazine saying that the freshly made quarter pounder patty is surprisingly good. Just one year after making the change, QSR magazine reported that McDonald's had sold more than 40 million more quarter pounders than the previous year. "...cheeseburger, cheeseburger, two Pepsi, one chip!" McDonald's really prides itself on the fact that their burgers, both fresh and frozen alike, are made with beef, salt, pepper, and absolutely nothing else. But they don't stop at a short list of ingredients. They actually take things a step further. At McDonald's, seasonings aren't added at all until the burgers reach their local grills, where the cooks add salt and pepper as the patties are grilled to order. According to McDonald's, this brings out all that great beef taste. Interestingly, there's some leeway in how McDonald's restaurants season their signature burgers. McDonald's representatives told Business Insider that they actually adjust the seasoning based on the country that the burgers are being served in, because some countries prefer their burgers a little more on the salty side than others. Unsurprisingly, American customers have a tendency to like their fast food on the salty side. Reuters reported that one order of McDonald's chicken nuggets served in the United States contains 1.5 grams of salt, compared with only 0.6 grams of salt in the UK. The salt content in burgers doesn't vary nearly as much, though. They found, "...overall, fast food burgers served up an average of 1.3 grams of salt, or 520 grams of sodium, across all countries, with only small national differences." McDonald's makes a serious effort to use locally produced beef whenever it is possible. According to the fast food chain's website, the beef used in the burgers served in the United States comes from a handful of producers within the country, a practice that makes the fast food giant one of the largest purchasers of USDA-inspected beef in the entire country. However, they also supplement their stock with meat from USDA-approved producers in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. According to Business Insider, the company also works hard to ensure that the cows they use for meat are slaughtered in their country of origin, as this helps to reduce the need to transport livestock across long distances, which also helps keep a focus on locally sourced ingredients. At McDonald's, a burger bun is more than just a vehicle for a great sandwich. It is also a critical part of ensuring burger perfection. Take the chain's signature Big Mac, for example. Oftentimes, when you are served a burger that contains two or even three patties, you are still only going to get two pieces of bread. The imbalance between bread and meat in a larger burger can easily lead to what Business Insider writer Hollis Johnson referred to as beef overload. The Big Mac is different from its competitors' Mega Burgers thanks in part to the club bun, that third piece of bread sandwiched between the Big Mac's double patties. Like McDonald's other deluxe-style burgers, including the Quarter Pounder and the Double Quarter Pounder, the bun is toasted and topped with sesame seeds. However, not all sandwiches get the sesame seed treatment. The chain's standard hamburger, cheeseburger, and double cheeseburgers are all served on a regular toasted bun, as are some non-burger sandwiches, like the McChicken. The Filet-O-Fish, on the other hand, is in a league of its own, with its plain steamed bun. There's one more thing at work here, too, the perfect toast. In 2015, McDonald's decided that in order to ensure juicier, hotter burgers, they would toast their buns for an additional five seconds, which would lead to their burgers being 15 degrees hotter overall. Another change came along with the addition of fresh beef to the Quarter Pounder, which gets a bun that has been toasted for a total of approximately 22 seconds. The components that make up a McDonald's hamburger, such as beef patties and buns, are not made on site in local stores. Because of that, the company has to rely on a select few trusted vendors to produce ingredients for them. Since their production is so spread out, not only across the United States but all over the world, the chain requires vendors to adhere to a long list of strict quality control standards that help to ensure a consistent product. Each box of frozen patties, for example, is labeled with such a high level of detail that they can trace any individual burger back to the cow it came from. The company details an extensive food safety and quality management system, including how they hold their vendors accountable, on their website. And according to the Orange County Register, there are no second chances for vendors whose work isn't up to snuff. Todd Bacon, head of the fast food chain's U.S. supply chain management, told the publication, "...there's too much at stake for us not to do everything we can." McDonald's has been taking major steps to make their menu seem appealing to a more health-conscious demographic for years. In 2016, the company announced that they were planning to remove high-fructose corn syrup from all of their buns, replacing it with sucrose, according to Business Insider. Even though sucrose is just the scientific name for plain white table sugar, the change in ingredients added to the perception that McDonald's was getting healthier. That same year, according to Fortune, McDonald's also removed artificial preservatives from their chicken nuggets. Then, in 2018, McDonald's announced that they were finally going to make changes to their burgers. How? By removing all artificial ingredients. Although this in itself doesn't make a McDonald's burger a healthy choice, removing artificial ingredients is an important step to take in terms of both consumer perception and food quality. After the change, the company proudly stated on its menu that the only component of the burgers that contains any artificial ingredients are the pickles, advising customers to, quote, skip the pickle if you like. And another thing. Some say hold the pickles. We say hold them in your arms and thank them for helping the Quarter Pounder achieve full deliciousness." It shouldn't come as a surprise that people are passionate about what particular burgers they like best — and which ones they would not be rushing to eat again. Yes, people love to rank McDonald's sandwiches, citing the subtle differences between the classic hamburger and the classic cheeseburger — and whether or not a Big Mac is better than a Quarter Pounder with cheese. The main difference between the burgers, aside from the fact that the Quarter Pounder series is made with fresh beef, resulting in a thicker patty, is the toppings. Even a cursory glance at their menu will show you that a Double Quarter Pounder with cheese is very, very different from a Big Mac. While the Quarter Pounder with cheese boasts ketchup, mustard, pickles, onions, and cheese, the Big Mac swaps out ketchup and mustard for its signature Big Mac sauce, and adds shredded lettuce for extra crunch. At this point, you might think that McDonald's has a tendency to micromanage the production of their burgers — and that would not be too far from the truth. In fact, the fast food giant is so obsessive about making sure their burgers will have the consistent great taste their customers expect, they actually build replica test kitchens at their processing plants, in order to further monitor quality control. Before a batch of burgers can be sent off to its destination, someone at the processing plant is tasked with cooking up some of the patties in the replica kitchen. There, a series of comprehensive tests for quality are conducted, including ensuring optimal fat content and flavor. Once the patties have passed the test, they're cleared to be sent to your local McDonald's restaurant. This is just one component of the chain's overall commitment to quality. According to McDonald's, some of the other steps the chain is taking include a commitment to sustainably sourced beef, rigorous policies concerning the use of antibiotics in livestock, and a back-to-basics approach that manages to stick to the company's roots without eschewing innovation. And for the customer, that all just means a more delicious burger. Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Mashed videos about your favorite foods are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.