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OCEANUS
Nomad
Posts: 139
Registered: 10-11-2008
Location: Dana Point; L.A. Bay
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I enjoy the fries at The Habit and wonder why they were not included in the study.
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BornFisher
Super Nomad
Posts: 2103
Registered: 1-11-2005
Location: K-38 Santa Martha/Encinitas
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I like my fries with tartar sauce. When in Encinitas, go to Capt. Kenos for a dive bar and the fish and chips. Yummmm! Love it on rainy days, might
hit it tomorrow haha!!
"When you catch a fish, you open the door of happiness."
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21656
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Out and About
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Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
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Euro Dip
Mayonnaise is great.
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mtgoat666
Select Nomad
Posts: 17294
Registered: 9-16-2006
Location: San Diego
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Mood: Hot n spicy
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Good fries are double fried. First in low temp oil to cook the potato, then second time in very hot oil to crisp the fry.
I like my fries topped with gravy and fried eggs, with a side of bacon.
Fries topped with chili is pretty good (though chili atop Fritos is better)
I prefer McDonald’s fries.
However, bad fries can be improved with condiments (or gravy)
Fries in a California burrito, yummy too.
Woke!
“...ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.” “My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America
will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.”
Prefered gender pronoun: the royal we
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64479
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Well, I didn't see Smash Burger listed either! LOL (Sadly, the Smash Burgers nearest me closed up... the 'San Diego Smash' was the best burger ever,
avocado, onion, lime, and cilantro, on a torta bun!)
They had Smash Fries and regular fries.
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Russ
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6741
Registered: 7-4-2004
Location: Punta Chivato
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Just had a double cheese and twice cook fries from In & Out. Fries double cooked are really nice compared to the limp fries else where. I've been
good and haven't eaten fast food until yesterday. Almost two months. Hope to head home before the end of the month. Cancer free....
Bahia Concepcion where life starts...given a chance!
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weebray
Super Nomad
Posts: 1094
Registered: 7-19-2010
Location: La Paz
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Mood: lleno
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In-n-Out is a cult supported myth of what once was a decent chain. The last time we visited the other side of the wall we were jonesing for their
food. Uggg, Totally changed from the original concept. I mean really bad. Gone the way of Sylvania TV's.
Every beautiful beach in the world needs a few condo towers - NOT.
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John Harper
Super Nomad
Posts: 2289
Registered: 3-9-2017
Location: SoCal
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Quote: Originally posted by BornFisher  | | I like my fries with tartar sauce. When in Encinitas, go to Capt. Kenos for a dive bar and the fish and chips. Yummmm! Love it on rainy days, might
hit it tomorrow haha!! |
Great for breakfast too. Although I wish they had hash browns. I used to order fries with my breakfast instead and they obliged me a couple times.
Next time I went in there was a sign saying "no fries until 11AM." I guess my early orders forced them to fire up the fryer too early. Rats, foiled
again.
John
[Edited on 2-14-2019 by John Harper]
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21656
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Out and About
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Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
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A GREAT French Fry is a SCIENCE ?
Why McDonald's French Fries Used to Taste a Lot Better
Danny Jensen MSN.com 2/19/2018
If you're a fan of McDonald's crisp, golden french fries, you've likely wondered if something changed about the flavor of those famous fries over the
years -- rest assured, you're not alone in your suspicions. Over the decades, the fast-food giant has changed the oil used to cook those signature
fries, often in response to public pressure for a "healthier" french fry, resulting in a product that many swear doesn't taste quite as good as it
once did (not that we've stopped eating them, mind you). To understand what changed, we decided to explore why McDonald's french fries used to taste a
lot better.
A Franchise Founded on Fries
To better understand how McDonald's fries changed over the years, we have to go back to the early golden years of the Golden Arches. As much as a
burger may come to mind when you think of McDonald's, it was really the restaurant's French fries that were the main attraction from the beginning. At
their drive-in hamburger stand in San Bernardino, California, brothers Dick and Mac McDonald drew big crowds for fries, burgers, and shakes with cheap
prices and quick service, beginning in 1940.
It was the restaurant's fries, in particular, that caught the attention of Ray Kroc, who would go on to bring the McDonald's franchise to the world.
"The McDonald's french fry was in an entirely different league," Kroc explains in his memoir, "Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's." "They
lavished attention on it. I didn't know it then, but one day I would, too. The french fry would become almost sacrosanct for me, its preparation a
ritual to be followed religiously."
Taking Time To Make Fries;
Two major factors made those original French fries irresistible: texture and tallow. Kroc quickly realized that what helped keep McDonald's fries from
getting mushy after the frying process was maintaining the right amount of moisture and starch in the fries. Even the reliable Russet Burbank potatoes
-- the large, oblong variety that McDonald's uses to this day among others -- can vary in moisture content depending on where and how it's grown. To
maintain consistency, Kroc had suppliers use hydrometers to ensure an optimal moisture content.
Kroc also found that by curing the potatoes -- storing them in warm temperatures for a few weeks -- helped convert the sugars in a fresh potato into
starch, which made for a crisper fry that didn't caramelize and brown. He also hired an electrical engineer named Louis Martino to develop a "potato
computer" to determine the optimal cooking time for the fries. But it was the beef tallow used to cook the fries that ultimately made them a worldwide
hit.
The Flavor Secrets of Formula 47
It was beef tallow -- the rendered form of beef fat that's solid at room temperature -- which gave McDonald's fries their signature, rich and buttery
flavor. But it was initially used because it was the cheaper, more convenient option. Interstate, the fry oil supplier for the McDonald brothers'
burger stand, was too small of an operation to afford the expensive hydrogenation equipment to produce partially hydrogenated vegetable oil -- the
most popular frying oil at the time. Instead, Interstate provided McDonald's with a blend of 7% vegetable oil and 93% beef tallow, sourced from the
stockyards of Chicago, which could extend the life of the oil without expensive equipment. It also happened to make the fries taste incredibly
delicious.
The special beef tallow and oil blend for McDonald's fries became known as Formula 47, named after the combined cost of the restaurant's "All-American
meal" at the time, which included a 15-cent burger, 12-cent fries, and a 20-cent shake. Kroc insisted that all of the McDonald's franchises used
Formula 47, ensuring that the rest of the country -- and eventually the world -- would come to love the taste of McDonald's french fries.
In his memoir, Kroc explains how important those fries were to the success of McDonald's, "One of my suppliers told me 'Ray, you know you aren't in
the hamburger business at all. You're in the french-fry business. I don't know how the livin' hell you do it, but you've got the best french fries in
town, and that's what's selling folks on your place.'" He goes on to say, "The quality of our french fries was a large part of McDonald's success."
A Change Of Heart
The buttery, beef tallow flavor would continue to be a hallmark of McDonald's fries for decades, adored by the millions -- and later billions --
served. But eventually concerns were raised that the saturated fat in beef tallow raises cholesterol levels to potentially dangerous heights, which
eventually prompted a change in the recipe. In 1966, self-made millionaire Phil Sokolof had a nearly life-ending heart attack at age 43, prompting him
to create the National Heart Savers Association to campaign against fat and cholesterol in the American diet. A self-admitted "student in the greasy
hamburger school of nutrition" prior to his heart attack, Sokolof went on to launch a multi-million dollar campaign, including full-page newspaper
ads, contending that McDonald's and other fast-food chains were threatening lives with high-cholesterol menus.
Then in 1990, faced with Sokolof's campaign and growing public concerns about health, McDonald's gave in. Beef tallow was eliminated from the famous
french fry formula and replaced with 100 percent vegetable oil. The results were French fries with zero cholesterol and 45 percent less fat per
serving than before, but also a plummet in stock prices and countless consumers saddened by a drop in flavor.
Trying To Bring Back The Flavor
In an effort to bring back some of the flavor lost by removing beef tallow, McDonald's began adding "beef flavoring" to their fries. However, the
company was forced to settle lawsuits from vegetarians and Hindus who abstain from eating beef, before it disclosed the added ingredient. The company
now lists "natural beef flavor" of which the starting ingredients are hydrolyzed wheat and milk proteins, which are thought to be a source of
"meaty-tasting" amino acids. Many customers also thought that the fries at the time lost much of the balance between a crisp, crunchy exterior, and a
soft interior with the change.
Oil Change
To make matters worse, the new oil blend eventually began raising health concerns of its own as people became aware of the risks posed by trans fats
in hydrogenated vegetable oil. So in 2002 the company changed the formula again to a new soy-corn oil, designed to cut the amount of trans fats by
half, while also increasing the amount of healthy polyunsaturated fats.
Then in 2007, McDonald's announced yet another new oil blend for their fries, this time a healthier trans-fat-free oil -- in part a response to New
York City's ban on trans fats. So while the McDonald's french fry may be healthier now than it was decades ago, we also may have sacrificed a lot of
taste along the way.
Of course, many of us still enjoy McDonald's french fries, perhaps just not as much as we used to. The fries still have that golden, crispy exterior
and tender interior. They still offer that delicious sweet-salty combo, thanks to a spray of dextrose after they've been blanched during processing,
and the salt sprinkled on after frying.
And for those wondering if we remember the original version of McDonald's fries as better tasting only because of nostalgia, author Malcolm Gladwell
dispels that idea in his Revisionist History podcast, "McDonald's Broke My Heart." In the podcast, which is worth a listen, Gladwell laments the
change that McDonald's fries underwent when the ompany stopped using beef tallow in 1990. He even goes so far as to have the country's leading food
scientists recreate the original recipe for a taste test against the modern ones. It's no contest, the original recipe wins, and Gladwell concludes,
"My heart is full of sadness again to think about how many millions and millions and millions of people around the world have never tasted that."
If you'd like to do a taste test yourself, you may want to try making a batch of fries with the original beef tallow recipe.
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Don Jorge
Senior Nomad
Posts: 638
Registered: 8-29-2003
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That is great news! Safe travels!
�And it never failed that during the dry years the people forgot about the rich years, and during the wet years they lost all memory of the dry
years. It was always that way.�― John Steinbeck
"All models are wrong, but some are useful." George E.P. Box
"Nature bats last." Doug "Hayduke" Peac-ck
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Lee
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3455
Registered: 10-2-2006
Location: High in the Colorado Rockies
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| Quote: Originally posted by John Harper |
Next time I went in there was a sign saying "no fries until 11AM." I guess my early orders forced them to fire up the fryer too early. Rats, foiled
again.
John
[Edited on 2-14-2019 by John Harper] |
Wouldn't the fryer have been on already if they were frying hash browns?
On ski trips to Tahoe early 60s, we'd stop in Sacramento at the Arches, or, Golden Arches. Egg white delight is a favorite breakfast now. Day
old is great too. Always had good coffee at McDonalds.
US Marines: providing enemies of America an opportunity to die for their country since 1775.
What I say before any important decision.
F*ck it.
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TMW
Select Nomad
Posts: 10659
Registered: 9-1-2003
Location: Bakersfield, CA
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["Then in 1990, faced with Sokolof's campaign and growing public concerns about health, McDonald's gave in. Beef tallow was eliminated from the famous
french fry formula and replaced with 100 percent vegetable oil. The results were French fries with zero cholesterol and 45 percent less fat per
serving than before, but also a plummet in stock prices and countless consumers saddened by a drop in flavor."]
Yep that did it. I think the same thing happened to KFC chicken. To me it doesn't taste as good as it once did.
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AKgringo
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5807
Registered: 9-20-2014
Location: Anchorage, AK (no mas!)
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Mood: Retireded
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I have always been a fan of Carl's Jr, but they discontinued their chili cheese fries. Not finger food, but tasty!
If you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much space!
"Could do better if he tried!" Report card comments from most of my grade school teachers. Sadly, still true!
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drzura
Nomad
Posts: 320
Registered: 7-1-2006
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I am moving back to the Oceanside area from Northern California in the near future. I remember going to Captain Kenos as a kid with my parents. I
love fish n chips.
| Quote: Originally posted by BornFisher | | I like my fries with tartar sauce. When in Encinitas, go to Capt. Kenos for a dive bar and the fish and chips. Yummmm! Love it on rainy days, might
hit it tomorrow haha!! |
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64479
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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| Quote: Originally posted by drzura | I am moving back to the Oceanside area from Northern California in the near future. I remember going to Captain Kenos as a kid with my parents. I
love fish n chips.
| Quote: Originally posted by BornFisher | | I like my fries with tartar sauce. When in Encinitas, go to Capt. Kenos for a dive bar and the fish and chips. Yummmm! Love it on rainy days, might
hit it tomorrow haha!! |
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A sad bit of restaurant news in Oceanside... Davina's (on Mission Ave. near the airport) has closed and Kim retired after many years of excellent
Mexican meals prepared in her kitchen. This just happened like last month... I learned this when I was going to meet Nomad 'ncampion' for lunch there,
last week. We ended up at another fantastic place, but not Mexican food, at Cassidy and 101, Beach Break Cafe (breakfast and lunch). I lived in
Oceanside from 1998 to 2013, near the mission and El Camino Real, naturally!
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bajabuddha
Banned
Posts: 4024
Registered: 4-12-2013
Location: Baja New Mexico
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Mood: Always cranky unless medicated
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For fries I gotta have Arctic Circle Fry Sauce. Originated in the '60s at Arctic Circle hamburger chain in Utah, was nothing more than 50/50 ketchup
and mayonnaise. You can now buy it commercially prepared; Heinz has it on the shelves called MAYOCHUP.
I don't have a BUCKET LIST, but I do have a F***- IT LIST a mile long!
86 - 45*
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64479
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Reminds me of Red Robin's onion ring 'Campfire' sauce (Mayo and BBQ sauce, + chipotle spice).
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John Harper
Super Nomad
Posts: 2289
Registered: 3-9-2017
Location: SoCal
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They don't do hash browns at Keno's, only small cubed potatoes done on the grill. Real hash browns are done in a pan or on the grill. JMHO.
John
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John Harper
Super Nomad
Posts: 2289
Registered: 3-9-2017
Location: SoCal
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I'll treat you to breakfast at Keno's when you do.
John
[Edited on 2-14-2019 by John Harper]
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drzura
Nomad
Posts: 320
Registered: 7-1-2006
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I’ll take you up on that offer. I am really getting the itch to move back down... just waiting for the final stages of my new job position to go
through.
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