Get ready for a McFlurry of changes as McDonald’s changes how they make their burgers. With a spring ad campaign promising the fast food titan’s “best burger ever” the new initiative seeks to make the bunned delights much more juicy with over 50 modifications. “We can do it quick, fast and safe, but it doesn’t necessarily taste great. So, we want to incorporate quality into where we’re at,” Chris Young, McDonald’s senior director of global menu strategy said. These changes are going into effect due to pressure from the burgeoning burger market, particularly an expedited process recently implemented at Five Guys.
Some of the changes that will be made include: six patties will be grilled at a time instead of eight for the auto-cooking mechanism to apply less pressure and retain more burger patty juices, big macs will get more sauce, buttery brioche buns will be used and sliced with a thicker bottom to retain heat, Sesame seeds will be more randomly scattered on buns to give a homier look, Cheese will be taken out of refrigerators sooner so it melts more during cooking, onions will be rehydrated after purchase for more juiciness, and lettuce and pickles will be stored in smaller containers so they must be refreshed more often.
The test kitchen at the McDonald’s Chicago headquarters served as the proverbial Los Alamos, where chef Chad Schafer had been tinkering with a new methodology for burger flipping. He made a double cheeseburger in it’s standard way and than tried a new style. “One is hotter…It looks meltier. Look at how my fingers sink into the bun. Smell it and you can smell a big difference,” Schafer said about the burger cooked the new way. “This one is kind of dry. It cracks…And this is the best-case example at headquarters,” he said about the current way to cook the burgers.
The new version was tested in Australia and is being rolled out at the chain’s 13,460 U.S. locations, starting with the West Coast and the Midwest. The plan is to have all US stores ketchup by early 2024.
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