Get your Big Macs while you can

[Rich Engelhardt]

I have a soft spot for Big Macs mostly because they were a departure from the traditional McDonalds w/it's limited menu of only burgers and fries - the no seating/no carhop walk-up window and the fact that going to a McDonalds was a very rare treat!

[Scott Shepherd]

Just to be fair, because I, too, made thousands of Big Macs back in the day: those burgers are 100% beef. That doesn't mean that it's good beef, nor that it's not over-ground.

If that's 100% real beef, then someone should be put in jail for doing whatever they do to that beef to make it taste like that That's surely a crime against humanity

[Jim Becker]

Mickie Dees is pairing their menu, but not taking it THAT far! (and yea...I don't eat there if I can avoid it. Five Guys is first choice and BK is second when it comes to burgers from "fast food" places. But I'll take Chipotle any day... )

[Jason Roehl]

stop bragging

More bragging on my in-laws' beef-raising methods than my burger-making, though I do doctor up the ground beef a bit and grill it over hardwood charcoal with some hickory chunks thrown in.

[Jason Roehl]

If that's 100% real beef, then someone should be put in jail for doing whatever they do to that beef to make it taste like that That's surely a crime against humanity

Factory-farm-raised beef, I'm sure (tasteless, like the stuff from most grocery stores), plus the aforementioned cook-to-death-and-then-some approach, and it's no surprise they are what they are.

Like Jim, I'm more likely to go to BK in a fast-food situation, but even those are way over-cooked and not very flavorful. (I do like Chipotle, too--I get the steak bowl with just about everything in it). Wendy's? Nope--burgers were made to be round, not square. And they have a funny taste (made from clown cows?) Sonic--ick. Five guys--not impressed. Rally's, I like, but they're not local, so they're a rare treat when I'm on the road. White Castle's is okay, but the next-day cost is too high.

[Mike Cutler]

Jason

You definitely "flipped" for the Golden Arches after I did.
I worked for "Ronald" in the 1974-1976 time frame.
McDonald's hadn't started doing breakfast yet, and the burgers were wrapped in paper, not styrofoam.
The Big Mac's were in a paper ring in a box,and let me tell you, it was a trick to learn to stack that burger in that paper ring, six at a time, coming off the grill.
I remember the last summer I worked there, when we started making breakfasts. I'd been making burgers for a few years, but I knew nothing about cooking an egg. Those Egg McMuffin's were a pain. Simultaneously breaking 6 eggs, into hot metal rings on a grill. I must have burned my knuckles on every one I made for the first week or two.
We had a lot of fun working there. A bunch high school kids, cooking for the masses. What were they thinking?

[Pat Barry]

I have never enjoyed a Big Mac. Maybe if I could get it without the pickles and special sauce. I'm more of a Quarterpounder with cheese guy.

[Paul McGaha]

Just to be fair, because I, too, made thousands of Big Macs back in the day: those burgers are 100% beef. That doesn't mean that it's good beef, nor that it's not over-ground. McD's has two main beef patties: 10:1 and 4:1. That's 1/10 of a pound per patty and 1/4 of a pound per patty, pre-cooked weight. The Big Mac gets 2 of the 10:1 patties, and due to several high-profile food poisoning incidents over the years, they get cooked beyond all recognition. When I started there, they used gas-fired clam-shell grills that cooked the 10:1 patties for 42 seconds at something like 375ºF, the 4:1 got (IIRC) 66 seconds. That left the patties still somewhat moist, but S.O.P. was then to put the patties in a steam cabinet for up to an hour to be used at any time within that hour. When a tray was pulled from the cabinet, any pooled grease/water (from the steam) was poured off before the sandwich was assembled. I'd say the burgers were borderline back then ('92-ish), but I know they have since increased the cooking times, and possibly temperatures, at least a couple times to get them to the flavorless leather they now are.

I'm just glad we have a local brewpub that serves burgers cooked to order. I usually order them cooked medium, just to be safe. Occasionally, I've gotten one that was medium rare, but I don't send those back--they're pretty good that way! If I got a rare one, I'd send that back.

And, as good as those burgers are, they don't hold a candle to the burgers I make at home--made from beef raised on my in-laws' farm--far more flavorful than any ground beef I've ever had from any store or restaurant.

Do you remember which years you worked at a McDonalds Jason? I worked at one in 1975 and 1976. This was before the clam shell grills. We had regular open grills, If I remember correctly when busy we used to keep about 60 of the small patties cooking and I think about 24 of the 1/4 pound patties. It was plenty enough to keep you busy.

Mostly I worked at the french fry section. At the time our store had just converted from fresh potatoes to frozen potatoes for the fries.

Working at a place like that is not a bad job for a teenager really. I'm sure there are better jobs out there to be sure but I found it to not be that bad.

PHM

[Jason Roehl]

Summer/fall of 1992. First job. I started the day before my 18th birthday, got my birthday off. If I remember, they installed the clam shells on my birthday, so they really didn't even have me do much on my first day. I worked opening all summer (had to be there at 4:30 AM--made for a screwy sleep schedule, as I went to bed about 1 AM, being a teen and all), then my parents moved out of state near the end of summer, so I left for about a month with them (worked for a moving company then). I came back to go to college (Purdue), and worked closing for a couple months until I got tired of biking back to the dorm at 1:30 AM and quit. At one point, biking home (no lights), I almost got run over by a cop on a call doing about 70 in a 30. I heard him pop his siren right behind me--I think I went high enough for him to go underneath me. It probably scared him as much as me...

[Rick Potter]

5 Guys is not bad. It's not In N Out, mind you, but not bad.

I picked up a couple Arkansas college friends of my daughter at the airport years ago. They said they were hungry, and insisted we stop at In N Out before going on to visit the daughter.

[Richard McComas]

Grind your own bugger.

Here's how

http://amazingribs.com/recipes/hambu...amburgers.html

[Mike Cutler]

5 Guys is not bad. It's not In N Out, mind you, but not bad.

I picked up a couple Arkansas college friends of my daughter at the airport years ago. They said they were hungry, and insisted we stop at In N Out before going on to visit the daughter.

Rick

Oh yeah, In & Out Burgers. Used to hit the one on Colima, off the 60 Freeway in Rowland Heights, on the way home many nights.

Their old bumper stickers used to say "Get an In & Out Burger Today". Being little smart aleck kids we used to white out the "B" and "r" in burger.

I worked at the Mickey D's on North Garey Avenue in Pomona. Used to have kids from Claremont, Pomona, and Ganesha High School working there.

[Brian Elfert]

I never buy burgers at any fast food place. When I do occasionally have a burger it will be at a real sit down restaurant. If I do have fast food it will most often be Jimmy Johns or Subway. I do on rare occasion eat breakfast at McDonald's.

Years ago I was camping at an event where they supplied food for us to cook. They gave us hamburger patties 1/8" thick. They gave us thin patties so they would cook well done to avoid food poisoning. They mostly tasted like shoe leather.

[Rick Potter]

Mike,

That must have been a while back. High school kids are hard to find in fast food places around here. Now, all the 'kids' are from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. My brother has a rental house just over the back fence of that store.

[Jim Becker]

Jason, while the burgers at Five Guys are just "ok", it's the fries that shine. IMHO, the best fries on the market. Made with actual potatoes delivered in bags, cut in the store and fried in clean peanut oil. They even taste like potatoes.