Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good | Hacker News Reader

Why McDonald's Fries Taste So Good

rense.com

52 pointsrms33 comments

Very interesting. Seemed to be pretty balanced too, contrary to the popular 'food additives == evil' meme. I was actually surprised at the extent of natural ingredients this industry relies on.

I liked this piece:

"A typical artificial strawberry flavor, like the kind found in a Burger King strawberry milk shake, contains the following ingredients:

amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, anisyl formate, benzyl acetate, benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate, ethyl amyl ketone, ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenylglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxyphenyl-2-butanone (10 percent solution in alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl naphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, g-undecalactone, vanillin, and solvent."

i love the taste of g-undecalactone. and the sweet, slightly citrusy overtones remind me of freedom.

isobutyl anthranilate is only so-so though.

Yeah, but natural strawberry flavor, you know, the flavor of strawberries contains a lot of these chemicals as well.

Why are we posting articles from Rense? It's a known nutjob conspiracy site:

"Fort Stockton, Texas - A Football Field Sized Boomerang Shaped UFO"

http://www.rense.com/general76/footufo.htm

"War On Iran: The Perfect Storm From Hell"

http://www.rense.com/general82/perf.htm

"Need A Cooker? Use Your Cell Phone" (Describes using a cell phone to cook an egg.)

http://www.rense.com/general72/cellcook.htm

"Rense UFO DataPage"

http://www.rense.com/ufo/ufo.htm

Because even nutjobs are right some of the time.

Yes, but it's pretty tough to figure out which times.

Though I suppose the fact that this article is actually just copied (plagiarized?) from The Atlantic may lend it some credibility...

It was credited.

Would you feel better if the article was posted on the Atlantic Monthly site instead? Or printed in a best-selling book?

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2001/01/index.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_Food_Nation

Some years ago, I saw a tv documental that was almost identical to this text: McDonalds' fries, natural vs. artificial aromas, the New Jersey hub of fragance companies... I thought that this was a transcript of the show, except the tv version included interviews. Anyway, it doesn't seem conspiratory at all.

This actually is an excerpt from a very good book called Fast Food Nation.

Something I read in there makes me want to buy a bottle and visit local swimming pools..... :)

What a waste of words in that article. I've rarely encountered fries that taste worse than McDonald's Fries.

As the article says, "taste" (mostly smell, really) is highly subjective and influenced by experience and the tastes of people around you, especially as a child. Many people seem to be trained such that they perceive McDonald's as tasting good. Personally, I agree with you on its taste though.

I don't find McDonald's fries particularly smell of anything. I don't really dislike the taste, but for me the texture is poor. I was born and raised in England, so I had Fish & Chips and the invariable logic where I lived was the bigger the better so you could literally find a 'fry' that was half an inch thick and instead of being deep fried they're only fried until they're cooked and crisp on the outside.

My wife thinks McDonalds fries have the perfect texture, me personally I think they're sticks of fried vegetable fat with the potato extracted.

The problem with thick fries (sometimes called "steak fries") is that they radiate heat very slowly. You can pick up a thin, crunchy fry, blow on it, and it will be ready to eat in seconds. The thick fries, while delicious, have burnt me many times.

food staying hot is a feature not a bug

"burnt me many times" - sounds like a bug to me

may I suggest you use an alternative product - a packet of potato chips. They are tasty, salty, delicious, cooked in oil and bad for your heart - all the properties of fries but without the objectionable burning sensation that is an intrinsic property of hot foods.

To the contrary, perceiving McDonald's food as tasty is the natural state, that's why children love McDonald's. Only later some of them become liberal intellectuals and train themselves into not liking it.

I remember one of the first times taking my son to McDonald's, explicitly thinking that we were going to get some unhealthy food, but, hey kids love McDonald's, and it's just this once.

I got him a burger and fries. He tried them, but was not interested at all. (The milkshake on the other hand...)

I found myself going into dinner time Daddy mode: "You shouldn't waste that food, here, take a few more bites..."

When it hit me...what the Hell was I doing? I was trying to force my kid to like McDonald's. What kind of awful parent was I turning into?

So we got up, took the milkshake with us, and left.

(Since then, I think he has been socialized into liking McDonald's by peer and grandparent influence. But I dispute the contention that liking McDonald's food is a "natural" state.)

A lot of very credible food writers disagree with you; for instance, when Jeffrey Steingarten wrote an essay comparing gourmet ketchups to Heinz, he used McDonalds fries as the vehicle for them because of their high quality. I don't love them either, but still.

I worked at two McDonald's off and on while in high school and university, for about a total of three years combined, and I have to say that, unfortunately, I still love the way their burgers taste better than any other restaurant chain. It's something I've enjoyed every since I can remember, and that's probably a large influence.

However, I will agree that while I still like their fries, I much prefer the fries sold at Burger King and other various "local" chains, like Steak 'n Shake, etc...

mmm... steak n shake. Perhaps the best after-bar food ever. Ironically, their fries suck.

Two words: Five Guys.

Five Guys is really blowing up right now. I'd like to see the figures on exactly how fast they're growing, but I see new Five Guys chains popping up everywhere and they seem to be extremely popular.

I used to live in DC and miss it so much. It's a family owned business (last time I checked) and when the founders' kids were about to graduate from high school he gave them the choice: start Five Guys or go to college.

From the looks of it, they made the right decision.

Too inconsistent... the DC area ones are great but the burgers are always a little dried out at my local one.

Great fries and the best thin-style burgers in the world.

However, if you're looking for the best thick-burgers in the world, you have to live in Atlanta and patronize the Vortex.

Formatted for an iPhone or just a throw back to when 640x480 was the common res? Either way, widen your content table!

<TABLE WIDTH="415" etc etc

Looks like it's a throwback, considering the 90s styling of the site.

Last-Modified: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 04:50:03 GMT

Good article. Makes me want Jelly Bellies.

I hate the way McDonalds consistently undercooks their fries. They come in the bag limp and chewy instead of crunchy. I too prefer fries elsewhere, Dicks Drive-In in Seattle has delicious fries, for example.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com