[1]: https://youtube.com/watch?v=IVRlYugm69Y
Just to be clear, are you trying to mimic the burger as it was made before this new system was introduced? Because that was just a frozen puck...
That resting process gives them some time to meld together, I presume. To me, a good burger is a messy, fused together thing that looks as if someone has taken a nap on them.
With made-to-order, McDonalds not only lost the "fast" in "fast food", but the result is just some stack of components that is so lukewarm, half of the time the cheese hasn't even melted.
Regarding fresh vs. frozen - I honestly do not know whether they have changed anything there, at least here in DE. If they did, I cannot taste the difference, and I regularly grind my own meat at home.
Also did you follow procedures for cooking like they do? (mainly crushing the patty on a grill).
>That resting process gives them some time to meld together, I presume. To me, a good burger is a messy, fused together thing that looks as if someone has taken a nap on them.
You can do that today by just putting the crushed patty into a warming bin. But its got to be something in the meat mixture that causes all that grease and taste you are looking for.
You might be able to find that seasoning on eBay or make friends with someone who works at a mcDonalds and have them sneak out some of the seasoning or some of the uncooked patties so you can compare.
At least that should be the proper thinking. If you watch all the videos in the channel above they essentially show every item being made. Its various combinations of mostly the same ingredients. My first job out of school was at a Wendys and I saw the same thing there. Small set of SKUs and all the menu items were various combinations of the same things.
The old non freshly made patties have got to be similar to their regular cheeseburger/big mac patties because this is a fast food place so they must be keeping unique SKUs to a minimum. Wikipedia does state that the change in 2018 was a move to fresh beef with "preservatives removed".
The way i'd start is by first ordering two items, a big mac with nothing but the meat as well as a quarter pounder with no meat. Then quickly put the patty on the quarter pounder(or just ask them to do this lol). Start with that as a taste test.
In the video they use a seasoning that looks like it is more than salt (maybe salt + black pepper?). Maybe combine a big mac patty with that seasoning and you might get close to the original Quarter pounder?
And the warming bin effect can be faked by wrapping it in grease paper and microwaving them for ten, fifteen seconds.
Thanks for the link to the channel! I'll give some of the other videos a watch. I'm pretty sure though that German burgers have never used preservatives or fillers — the former would not have been legal and the latter because they were always steadfast that the patties were 100% plain German beef.
And the taste test with everything else removed is a good idea, too! I'll give that a shot.
Man, now I really want to make another batch. Maybe together with the beef tallow fried fries I have always wanted to try...