Mythbusters host Grant Imahara asks the French fry makers to answer questions everyone asks themselves, like, "Are French fries made of mashed potato goo?" (A: No, they're made from real Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet, Umatilla Russet, and Shepody potatoes), and, "How do you get the perfectly shaped French fry?" (A: You ...
French Fries
Ingredients: Potatoes, Vegetable Oil (canola Oil, Corn Oil, Soybean Oil, Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Natural Beef Flavor [wheat And Milk Derivatives]*), Dextrose, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate (maintain Color), Salt.
Our World Famous Fries® are made from quality potatoes, including Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet, Umatilla Russet and the Shepody. The suppliers we work with first peel, cut and blanche the potatoes.
Yes, McDonald's fries are made from real potatoes. The fast-food giant uses what they call "premium potatoes" to make their fries. The potatoes consist of different varieties, like Russet Burbank, Russet Ranger, Umatilla Russet, and Shepody.
Macca's Australia fries contain potato, canola oil, dextrose and mineral salt. There may be traces of sulphites (less than 10 milligrams per kilogram). Golden Arches fries in Australia are cooked in a canola oil blend of containing canola oil, high oleic canola oil, sunflower oil, and a small amount of palm oil.
"It's because McDonald's cooks their fries with beef flavoring mixed within their vegetable oil," divulged the content creator.
Yep. The most common potatoes we use for McDonald's fries include the Russet Burbank, Russet Ranger, Umatilla Russet and the Shepody—varieties known for producing a flavorful fry that's crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.
Once at the restaurant, our fries are simply cooked in dedicated frying vats in a non-hydrogenated blend of sunflower and rapeseed oil which is 100 percent suitable for vegetarians. In fact, McDonald's French Fries are officially accredited by the Vegetarian Society.
Like most fried foods, McDonald's fries are cooked in canola oil. But this didn't used to be the case. Beef tallow was initially used because the supplier for the chain couldn't afford vegetable oil. As health concerns over saturated fat grew in the 1990s, McDonald's finally made the switch to vegetable oil.
McDonald's cooked its fries in beef tallow for decades
Founded in 1940, McDonald's initially used 93% beef fat tallow for their French fries in an effort to save money, according to a piece on the origins of the favored fast food item published by Atlas Obscura.
We use a blend including canola and sunflower oils to cook with. Like all vegetable oils, it's cholesterol free. We use only 100% Aussie grown beef to serve you the best beef burgers, sourced from farmers across the country. Our Angus beef is 100% Aussie grown.
The US McDonald's fries are not vegan, but the process still involves the highest FDA safety regulations. Besides the potatoes and salt for flavoring, the cooking involves vegetable oils like corn, soybean, and canola. They also have chemical preservatives and natural beef additives from milk and wheat.
It is commonly used to represent French fries, fast food, or specifically the fast food chain McDonald's.
Here are the 17 Ingredients: Potatoes, canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, safflower oil, natural flavor (vegetable source), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), citric acid (preservative), dimethylpolysiloxane (antifoaming agent) and cooked in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, ...
They're flash frozen before they get to the store
Before being packaged, the fries are dried, partially cooked and flash frozen. This maintains the color and crunch. They're then sent out to McDonald's franchises around the country. Love their McNuggets, too?
Over time, McDonald's and other fast-food joints made the beef fat part of their signature fry flavors. But in the 1980s, fast-food restaurants took the ingredient out when health advocates criticized how much “bad” saturated fat it added.
The taste will be familiar to Americans 40 and older who visited fast-food restaurants before 1990, the year McDonald's stopped using animal lard to cook its popular fries.
The switch was all because of a man named Phil Sokolof. After having a heart attack in 1966, Sokolof began lobbying against cholesterol and fat in fast food, specifically targeting McDonald's. He eventually got the company's attention, leading the chain to stop cooking its fries in beef tallow in 1990.
Fried foods contain extra trans fats
That oil likely contains trans fats, an especially unhealthy kind of fat that's cheap to make and helps food last a long time. Trans fats are overwhelmingly bad for your health, so much so that the FDA banned them in 2015.
McCain Foods make McDonald's French fries to our gold standard specifications, which means that they are not quite the same McCain fries you find in the freezer section of your grocery store. Our cooking process is also different from how you might cook fries at home.
100 Circle Farms grows potatoes in circles so big they're visible from space. Then our trusted processor, Lamb Weston, cuts them into fries at 70 miles per hour.
Typically, restaurants get their soda syrups in plastic bags, but Coca-Cola does something different for McDonald's. The fast-food chain gets its Coke syrup delivered in stainless steel tanks. According to the New York Times, the material keeps the soda fresher, and your tongue can taste the difference.
With their high starch content, fries absorb plenty of moisture when cooked at high temperatures, which leads to their signature puffiness and crispy exterior. When left out, the fries continue to absorb moisture from the air, which eventually leads to them turning soggy.
In 1990, the company announced that they would replace the beef tallow with 100 percent vegetable oil. After the announcement, McDonald's stock fell 8.3 percent. The new fry didn't stack up. As it turns out, the beef tallow had added more than just cholesterol to the signature french fry.