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Comment by KC8ZKF | Hacker News Reader

McDonald's main problem is that they sacrifice quality for consistency. I can understand why a chain restaurant would want that. I can even understand why a customer would want that. What I can't understand is why a home cook would want that.

Pommes frites are fresh potatoes cooked in animal fat, and seasoned with salt and rosemary. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/4205683848/

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If you read the article, he actually tries to improve on McDonalds fries. He says they get soggy too quickly, and tinkers with the recipe to achieve longer crispness.

"McDonald's used to fry their potatoes in beef tallow, giving them extra flavor and making them extra crisp, but they stopped doing that years ago."

Something home cooks can still do.

I am pretty curious about what the effect would be on flavour. Animal fat is pretty bad for you though, and probably much cheaper to come by so I imagine those are just a few reasons to go with vegetable oil over animal fat.

In retrospect the beef lard was probably no worse than the trans-fat oil they replaced it with (they have since eliminated the trans fats).

But the prior poster is correct... McDonalds fries have never been as good since they stopped using the beef tallow.

Actually "I read somewhere" years ago, mainstream publication citing a then-new study, that trans-fat oil works in the body in some meaningful way 30x worse than animal fat. The details are too snore-inducing to remember. Just eat lots of vegetables and it won't matter if you eat a small bit of whatever.

I've never fried anything in tallow, and while I keep good lard (and bacon fat) for confit, I never fry with it. However, I do fry things in duck fat, and it makes an enormous difference, both in flavor and mouthfeel.

The "best" french fries are, it's said, fried in horse fat (I first read than in Steingarten, a dubious source, but have heard it backed up repeatedly). If you Google, there's an article with someone actually tracking down horse fat and frying frites in it.

Anything fried in duck fat is better :)

In fact, now that I think about it the only thing I do with my carefully hoarded supply is use it for frying and confit. I wonder how well it works for tasks that otherwise are better with lard (e.g. pastry pie crusts, etc.)

Ever use it in place of lard for a baking task?

No. I really ought to. My understanding is that it plays approximately the same role as 50/50 oil/butter would.

(Eggs. I also do eggs in duck fat.)

You probably already know about it, but there is a place in the chicago area called "hot doug's" that makes duck fat french fries on fridays and saturdays. They also have wonderful sausages.

Hot Doug's is awesome, but the line is reliably 40 minutes long. You can phone orders ahead, but Hot Dougs doesn't keep well. If you're going to go out to Avondale for a sausage and some fries, you might as well suck it up and stand in line.

The Publican, at Fulton Market, makes duck fat fries. It too fills up quickly, but they open at 3.30P every day and don't get crowded 'til 5.30 or so. And: absolutely fantastic beer list. So that's your best bet in Chicago.

You're right about the cost. I worked for McD's during the transition to vege oil, which drove down the profit margin of fried products considerably. Given that you need a handfull of high gross profit products (fries, coke, coffee, etc.) on the menu to alleviate the burden of low gross profit products (happy meals, anything healthy, etc.) the decision to switch really hurt.

Didn't affect the flavour much though. Not a single customer approached us about it at the store I worked in. Though if you took fries from two different batches, each cooked in different oil, and concentrated really hard, you could just make out the difference.

I am pretty sure they stopped doing that when trans-fat became really unpopular, and it also might have to do with making their fries edible to people who keep kosher, vegetarians, etc. -- that's the tough thing about literally serving billions of people

They stopped doing that when saturated fats became unpopular. Beef tallow doesn't contain trans fats. They stopped using beef tallow long before most people even heard of trans fats. If you are going to recite nutritional dogma at least get it right.

sorry, I think its dumb dogma

I worked at McDonalds at various times during the 1970s and 1980s. What went into the fry vats was labeled "100% vegetable shortening." It looked exactly like Crisco - execpt it came in large bricks instead of cans.

I did remember hearing folks claiming they used beef tallow back then as well.

Some people - me included, rarely as I eat them - prefer McDonald's fries to most others.

I used to prefer McDonald's fries, and I still prefer them over other fast food, but most bars and sit-down restaurants seem to have better fries to me now. (And, unlike McDonald's, they will give you barbecue sauce.)

I've never had a McDonald's refuse me barbecue sauce, mcchicken sauce, etc. whenever I ask for it, regardless of what my order was.

More recently they will only give you one bbq sauce with their chicken nuggets, and even asking for an extra one isn't free. Asking for bbq sauce w/ fries is an extra charge.

I agree. I don't each fast food much at all, but the only craving I get is for McDs fries. When they are done right they very tasty regardless of how unhealthy they might be :)

Responding to you first two sentences, I don't think that's actually a bad thing. It's very far from being the best food ever but it has a consistent quality - you can walk into any McDonald's restaurant anywhere in the world and you will know exactly what you will get. Sometimes (especially when you travel) you don't have that many options when it comes to food and you know that at least you won't get food poisoning at McDonald's.

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