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Why is it that McDonald's has such a distinct smell?

88keys

88keys

Golden Member
I haven't eaten their food in a couple of years but some coworkers brought some McDonald's food in the other day and I could smell it before they even walked in the door. Other fast food chains like burger king just smells like burgers and fries that could be from virtually anywhere.
 
They put an additive in the food so wherever you go in the world you recognize the smell as being McDonalds. Everything is heavily processed. With normal food it would be very difficult for it to taste exactly the same no matter where or when it was cooked. McDonalds is always the same because everything is processed.
 
Actually, Burger King DOES have a distinctive smell too. I can detect a Whopper smell on someone hours after they have eaten it (it permeates the hands and requires a really good washing).

For McDonald's you were either smelling the fries or McNuggets. They have a special recipe for each and even a special variety of potatoes.

Grooveriding said:
They put an additive in the food so wherever you go in the world you recognize the smell as being McDonalds. Everything is heavily processed. With normal food it would be very difficult for it to taste exactly the same no matter where or when it was cooked. McDonalds is always the same because everything is processed.
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🙄 THIS crap again?! It's no more "processed" than any other hamburger. Cooked food is "processed food." Grinding up the leftover beef and making hamburger is "processing." Just what did you think hamburger was? It doesn't matter if you kIlled a cow with your bare hands and, it's "processing."

I love how people use the word "processed" like it meant "artificial with no nutritional value" or something. It's kinda funny, actually.
 
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I think you're being overly technical about it. Everybody knows what we're talking about when we refer to foods as being 'processed' and in that sense most of us know that it's really bad for you. Particularly added sugar, and saturated fats and the loss of dietary fiber and other nutrients.
 
The Sauce said:
Two words: pink slime.
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Not at McDonald's. Even if it were still there, that's just a disgusting name someone gave that part of the process to make gullible people act disgusted. As it turns out, they almost universally don't realize what ground beef is: the bits and pieces you couldn't sell any other way, mashed up into a paste and made edible. I could call the rest of the beef that isn't fit for steaks "pink slime" if I wanted to and that's what hamburger is made of no matter where you get it.
 
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88keys said:
I think you're being overly technical about it. Everybody knows what we're talking about when we refer to foods as being 'processed' and in that sense most of us know that it's really bad for you. Particularly added sugar, and saturated fats and the loss of dietary fiber and other nutrients.
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Nope gullible idiots act like gullible idiots and continue talking like that until a word takes on the wrong connotations. That's exactly what happened here and now it it retconning your perception of what McDonald's does. McDonald's has shown time and time again that they don't do anything any worse than your neighborhood burger joint unless you want to compare them to hippie places where everything is organic and food animals are kept happy instead of factory farms.
 
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I've always thought they added some secret ingredient to their meat and fries to make you co-dependent and addicted to their food, and just smelling it triggers those sensors! 😛

tin-foil-hat.jpg
 
88keys said:
I think you're being overly technical about it. Everybody knows what we're talking about when we refer to foods as being 'processed' and in that sense most of us know that it's really bad for you. Particularly added sugar, and saturated fats and the loss of dietary fiber and other nutrients.
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Newsflash: it's no worse for you than any other hamburger. I know exactly what you mean and it's all processed the same way. It's all fatty reject pieces of beef that went through a grinder. The leaner it is, the less tasty it is. It has nothing to do with what McDonald's did or didn't do to it.

People getting all snobby about their reject meat mushes amuses me. It's like the people recommending Bose over Beats when they both suck: it only demonstrates your ignorance.
 
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Markbnj said:
Do they still use beef lard to cook the fries? That could be it.
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Wow. The controversy was because it had a trace beef product in such small quantities that it wasn't even necessary to list ("Natural Flavors"), but that doesn't matter to vegans and Hindus, so it was removed long ago. For that to be twisted into thinking that they were fried in beef lard shows exactly how people develops mental distortions about how "processed" their food it. Don't delude yourself. You're smarter than that

Go ahead and make your own fries and burgers. They will cost a lot more and will not be any better for you. At best, it'll taste better because you cared and the meat jockey behind the grill didn't.
 
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CZroe said:
Newsflash: it's no worse for you than any other hamburger. I know exactly what you mean and it's all processed the same way. It's all fatty reject pieces of beef that went through a grinder. The leaner it is, the less tasty it is. It has nothing to do with what McDonald's did or didn't do to it.

People getting all snobby about their reject meat mushes amuses me. It's like the people recommending Bose over Beats when they both suck: it only demonstrates your ignorance.
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Thank goodness you are here to educate us ignorant plebs. So how long have you worked in a McDonalds food plant anyways? Is the pay good?
 
natto fire said:
Thank goodness you are here to educate us ignorant plebs. So how long have you worked in a McDonalds food plant anyways? Is the pay good?
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I enjoy being less ignorant than you and not simply repeating what I heard to join a bandwagon. There isn't much profit in it. The personal satisfaction and pride is what motivates me.
 
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CZroe said:
Newsflash: it's no worse for you than any other hamburger. I know exactly what you mean and it's all processed the same way. It's all fatty reject pieces of beef that went through a grinder. The leaner it is, the less tasty it is. It has nothing to do with what McDonald's did or didn't do to it.

People getting all snobby about their reject meat mushes amuses me. It's like the people recommending Bose over Beats when they both suck: it only demonstrates your ignorance.
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Well, not quite the same.

Pink Slime is a title only applied to Mechanically Separated Meat, especially of the chicken variety.

There are laws in place to prevent the sale of Mechanically Separated Beef from being sold to consumers, at least in the US. So, no, that is not what is going on with the meat in hamburgers.
But it is close - it is various scraps as well as whole cuts, I'm sure McD's actually has contract for large portions of whole butcher product, probably entire output of some butchers, not just the leftovers. McD's is too big to survive on leftovers I reckon. Leftovers is common for animal feed as well, especially pet food and treats, so the market already supports leftovers from most butchers.

For what scraps are used, it never gets as close as the various mechanically recovered processes utilize, so you aren't getting the small bits of connective tissue that cling to bones.
 
destrekor said:
Well, not quite the same.

Pink Slime is a title only applied to Mechanically Separated Meat, especially of the chicken variety.

There are laws in place to prevent the sale of Mechanically Separated Beef from being sold to consumers, at least in the US. So, no, that is not what is going on with the meat in hamburgers.
But it is close - it is various scraps as well as whole cuts, I'm sure McD's actually has contract for large portions of whole butcher product, probably entire output of some butchers, not just the leftovers. McD's is too big to survive on leftovers I reckon. Leftovers is common for animal feed as well, especially pet food and treats, so the market already supports leftovers from most butchers.

For what scraps are used, it never gets as close as the various mechanically recovered processes utilize, so you aren't getting the small bits of connective tissue that cling to bones.
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McDonald's stopped putting "pink slime" in their burgers when people got all outraged. What they were calling "pink slime" was a beef product made edible with ammonia to kill the bacteria. Many, if not most, we're putting it into their hamburgers. The problem was that people thought that "putting it into" equates to "doesn't normally belong in" their hamburgers, which is just ignorant. They didn't realize that the very existence of hamburgers and hotdogs comes from trying to find a way to sell cuts and scraps of meat that are otherwise unsellable. Sure, demand dictates that we get situations like you describe where all parts, good and bad, end up in the mix, but it's really all about having a certain fat content to make it taste good. They literally trim more fat off the other cuts and toss it into the grinder if the mixture is too low.

As for the term normally applying to chicken, that's kind of my point: people started calling this particular part of ground beef "pink slime." I can start calling any disgusting looking raw meat "pink slime" if they can. The difference is that the process for making it went viral, disgusting many who thought their meat paste was some kind of pure natural unprocessed thing that shouldn't be corrupted by this nasty processed stuff, and outrage ensued.

My older brother is a conspiracy nut who went down this "do you know what they been putting in this stuff?!" rabbit hole. The kind of people who go on and on about McDonald's food being more processed and bad for you than the equivalent from anywhere else don't even realize that they are every bit as gullible as the anti-vaxxers. They read it from a slanted source attempting to concern them, they got concerned, and they tried to spread their concern, all without even considering if it is true. Sheep.
 
CZroe said:
Nope gullible idiots act like gullible idiots and continue talking like that until a word takes on the wrong connotations. That's exactly what happened here and now it it retconning your perception of what McDonald's does. McDonald's has shown time and time again that they don't do anything any worse than your neighborhood burger joint unless you want to compare them to hippie places where everything is organic and food animals are kept happy instead of factory farms.
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I never said McDonald's was guilty of making their products less healthy than your average fast food chain. All I said was that processed foods in general are bad for you, and yes I know that cooking is a "process" but that isn't what we're referring to and everybody knows that. The argument is simply that ground beef or ground chicken or ground whatever is worse than their fully intact counterparts. This is regardless of the source. The same goes for refined foods or anything that removes essential nutrients that were once present. Even something as simple as taking oranges and making orange juice makes the product less nutritious. It may contain about the same amount of sugar, but much of the fiber is lost which helps your body process the sugar. However, not all processed foods are 'bad'. Nut anytime you add sugars, preservatives while removing essential nutrients; you are essentially making that product nutritionally worse than it's raw or intact counterpart.


CZroe said:
Newsflash: it's no worse for you than any other hamburger. I know exactly what you mean and it's all processed the same way. It's all fatty reject pieces of beef that went through a grinder. The leaner it is, the less tasty it is. It has nothing to do with what McDonald's did or didn't do to it.

People getting all snobby about their reject meat mushes amuses me. It's like the people recommending Bose over Beats when they both suck: it only demonstrates your ignorance.
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Again, I never said that they were. You're just putting words into my mouth. Although a McDonalds burger does contain slightly more sugar and sodium that a typical homemade burger.
 
88keys said:
I never said McDonald's was guilty of making their products less healthy than your average fast food chain. All I said was that processed foods in general are bad for you, and yes I know that cooking is a "process" but that isn't what we're referring to and everybody knows that. The argument is simply that ground beef or ground chicken or ground whatever is worse than their fully intact counterparts. This is regardless of the source. The same goes for refined foods or anything that removes essential nutrients that were once present. Even something as simple as taking oranges and making orange juice makes the product less nutritious. It may contain about the same amount of sugar, but much of the fiber is lost which helps your body process the sugar. However, not all processed foods are 'bad'. Nut anytime you add sugars, preservatives while removing essential nutrients; you are essentially making that product nutritionally worse than it's raw or intact counterpart.



Again, I never said that they were. You're just putting words into my mouth. Although a McDonalds burger does contain slightly more sugar and sodium that a typical homemade burger.
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:thumbsup:

Exactly. McDonald's is pure garbage food and you might as well eat a shoe if you're going to have that crap. Even stepping away from all the additives and processing they do on their food, if you believe that they are using the same quality of beef as you yourself can choose to use at home in a burger, you're off your nut. D:

There are 10 ingredients in their 'french fries' not counting the 6 or 7 ingredients added by the oil they fry it in. A french fry is a potato cut in pieces and fried in oil, not that garbage.
 
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CZroe said:
Wow. The controversy was because it had a trace beef product in such small quantities that it wasn't even necessary to list ("Natural Flavors")
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No, the french fries were originally cooked in a mix of cottonseed oil and beef tallow, and I believe it was more than 90% tallow.

Also, chill. I have nothing against fries cooked in cow fat. I think cow fat tastes awesome.
 
Markbnj said:
No, the french fries were originally cooked in a mix of cottonseed oil and beef tallow, and I believe it was more than 90% tallow.

Also, chill. I have nothing against fries cooked in cow fat. I think cow fat tastes awesome.
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It makes sense. Maybe I don't really notice the scent of other fast food chains because I didn't frequent them nearly as often in my younger days.
There was a time that I used to like McDonald's but then I stopped eating the food for about a year or so. Then one day I decided to include a weekly treat of a burger and fries (which is something I do to this day). The first thing I wanted was a Big Mac because I used to love them and so I ordered one. To my surprise, it didn't taste at all like I had remembered. I first thought it might have been sitting out too long so I walked in and ordered another and it tasted the same. My tastes have changed in the past and I've noticed that the more healthy foods and self prepared meals I incorporate into my diet, the less I desire to eat trashy foods. Now, I keep eating out down to a minimum and I won't eat out for the sake of laziness or whatever because I'm going to eat bad, I at least want it to taste good and have it be made from better quality ingredients. So I generally stick to mid/higher end casual dining like Longhorn. The only exceptions are my weekly burger and fries run which usually comes from Hardee's or Five Guys because I feel like they are the closest you'll get to a restaurant style burger without actually going to a restaurant.
 
I worked there in the 90's (as well as BK). I think one of their most distinctive smells is the dehydrated onions. Everything else is pretty universal, but after a long shift slapping burgers together, that smell clung to your fingers like nicotine.

I don't miss it, but man, those years were also a simpler and fun time in my life. 😛
 
I always wondered that too, it seems most fast food places have their own distinct smell. There's a local place here that also has a distinct smell, it's funny. They're a pizza place that also makes awesome poutine, whenever we order it as soon as someone walks in "did you guys order from there again?" before they even see the food.

I guess it's whatever "secret" spices these places use in their recipe, though that smell tends to be present no matter what you order, so it's kinda odd.
 
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