Yes, McDonald's French fries are fried twice, once at the processing plant (a partial fry) to create the crispy exterior, and then a second time at the restaurant to cook them to a perfect golden brown, resulting in their signature fluffy inside and crunchy outside. The first fry locks in moisture and prepares them for freezing, while the second fry finishes them for serving.
The fries are then flash-frozen and packaged to lock in that flavor and freshness. From here, they're transported in temperature-controlled vehicles to McDonald's restaurants. Before being served, the fries undergo a second frying.
They are cooked in oil that is separate to the oil used for meat products and filtered on a separate system.
At what temperature do McDonald's cook their fries and for how long? Our Answer We cook each batch of our famous French fries for approximately 3 minutes in a fryer, heated to about 168°C.
The unhealthiest item at McDonald's is often cited as the Big Breakfast with Hotcakes, due to its massive calories, sodium, sugar, and saturated fat content (over 1300 calories and 122% of daily saturated fat). Other contenders for least healthy include large burgers like the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, large fries, shakes, and some breakfast wraps, packed with fat, salt, and refined carbs.
Some of this oil will be absorbed by the potato on cooking. The cooked Fries will therefore end up being approximately 86% potato - the remaining 14% being vegetable oil.
The suppliers we work with first peel, cut and blanche the potatoes. They then dry, partially fry and quickly freeze the fries for our restaurants. Once in our kitchens, we cook them in our canola-blend oil so you can have them crispy and hot—just the way you like them.
Now that the sting of miracle french fries has passed, you may be wondering, “But what about the fries?” As we mentioned before dimethylpolysiloxane (or PDMS) is the silicone compound McDonald's uses in its french fries to prevent the oil from foaming.
Once in our McCain factory, the potatoes are sorted by size, steam peeled, and quickly blanched in water. The potatoes are then cut into fries, expertly cooked, and quickly frozen.
In the United States, McDonald's french fries are made using 19 ingredients, which include dextrose, TBHQ, polydimethylsiloxane, citric acid, and sodium acid pyrophosphate. The restaurant uses non-GMO russet and Shepody potatoes.
The Key to Crispy Homemade French Fries
Allow the potatoes to cool before frying them a second time. Let cook until golden brown, then blot with a paper towel and salt before serving. Double-frying guarantees a wonderful crunch that will keep you coming back for more.
So yes, officially each McDonald's restaurant is supposed to check and filter the oil every day. Filtering is when you use some mesh to clear out the debris to keep oil usable for longer, until it can't just be filtered anymore and needs to actually be changed out.
Five Guys has by far the least healthy fries in our study, while KFC is the fifth least healthy, with significantly fewer calories and lower saturated fat than Five Guys fries. French Fries have high salt and fat levels, which can tip an already unhealthy fast-food main into the danger zone.
(Both restaurants acknowledge that their fries are cooked in the same oil as other meat or fish products.) McDonald's fries, however, are made with a flavoring that includes hydrolyzed milk — a non-vegan ingredient.
Fast-forward four decades, and the beef-tallow-to-vegetable-oil switch yielded a noticeably different taste and texture. Now, McDonald's fries had (and continue to have) a more neutral flavor than the rich, savory, buttery taste that foodies pre-1990 had come to know and expect.
The unhealthiest item at McDonald's is often cited as the Big Breakfast with Hotcakes, due to its massive calories, sodium, sugar, and saturated fat content (over 1300 calories and 122% of daily saturated fat). Other contenders for least healthy include large burgers like the Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, large fries, shakes, and some breakfast wraps, packed with fat, salt, and refined carbs.
Silly Putty Silicone (Dimethylpolysiloxane)
It is the secret ingredient that keeps fryer oil from foaming. McDonald's Filet-O-Fish and French fries have it, as do Wendy's Natural-Cut Fries With Sea Salt. In fact, most fast-food items that bathe in a deep-fat fryer are imbued with a hint of dimethylpolysiloxane.
Macca's Australia fries contain potato, canola oil, dextrose and mineral salt. There may be traces of sulphites (less than 10 milligrams per kilogram). Golden Arches fries in Australia are cooked in a canola oil blend of containing canola oil, high oleic canola oil, sunflower oil, and a small amount of palm oil.
"The error everyone makes is closing the top of the bag that contains the [fries]," Bouchet, who worked at McDonald's as a teenager, told WOMI. He added that while you may think closing the bag keeps your fries hot, it actually traps in steam which creates moisture inside the bag — and thus, mushy fries.
So what's the secret behind McDonald's french fries? Beef flavoring. Yes, McDonald's spuds are flavored with more than just salt and oil. The chain actually adds in beef flavoring to its fry oil in order to produce a richer flavor.
Did you know that McDonald's used to use beef tallow to make their fries from 1940 until phasing it out in favor of seed oils in 1990? This switch was made because saturated animal fats were thought to be unhealthy, but we have since discovered that seed oils are one of the driving causes of the obesity epidemic.
Lawsuits were brought against the McDonald's Corporation in the early 1990s for including beef in its US French fries despite claims that the fries were vegetarian. In fact, beef flavoring is added to the fries during the production phase.
Every single day. According to NBC News, McDonald's uses more than 3.4 billion pounds of U.S.-grown potatoes every year. They're the biggest buyer of potatoes in the entire world. More mind-blowing facts about McDonald's right this way.