What makes McDonalds potatoes so good?

What I read a while back is you have to put the fresh slices of potato in some sort of sugar water. Then deep fry them. I think it was in vegetable shortening, but possibly that is against the law now, or maybe McDonald’s chose not to use it anymore on their own, or maybe they still use it, I don’t know. I know some fast food places stopped using it. Then they refrigerate the fries. Then they refry them, and I am not sure if it is in hydrogenated fat again or possibly lard. I don’t know if they claim the fries are vegetarian or not. What I read was not an insider from McDonald’s, but one of those at home copycat type recipes.

I do remember one of our jellies here used to work at McDonald’s and she said the fries do have sugar in/on them. Hopefully, she will see this Q, I don’t remember her name.

McDonalds new transparency policy and the 17 ingredients in its French fries (caveat emptor):

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/shocking-ingredients-in-mcdonalds-french-fries.html

(…“the potatoes are washed, peeled and cut. They’re also blanched to “remove natural sugars’ that would cause colour variations, then soaked in dextrose for an even colour. There’s also an ingredient to prevent greying, drying to remove excess moisture and a quick-fry for 45 to 60 seconds before the fries are frozen for shipping”…).

Read More: http://www.trueactivist.com/mcdonalds-transparency-campaign-revealed-17-ingredients-in-their-french-fries/

It probably isn’t about what is inside them, but how much fat and salt content there is. Are your home fries as thin as McDonalds’? Ours aren’t. The thinner they are, the more fat and salt will be consumed with each fry.

@gailcalled There is so much false hysteria and misinformation in that care2 link, I’m reminded of why I never read their articles.

The information from McDonald’s on their ingredients is here. You have to click on the item you want ingredients for, and click the “i” for more information.

If you want an explanation of the fry-making process, you can find one here that is free of shrill fear-mongering. Click on the slideshow buttons until you reach fries, which are on page 4 of 17. From that page,

”‘Once the potatoes are cut, we push the strips to a blancher to remove the natural sugars from the strips,’ Mario Dupuis, the production manager for McCain, a fries supplier for McDonald’s Canada, says in the video. ‘This will prevent some variation in our colour once we re-cook the product.

‘Following the blanching process we add a a dextrose solution to have that nice even coat that we see in the restaurants. We also add an ingredient to our strips to make sure that we prevent the graying of our product throughout the process.’

Next, moisture is removed from the strips before they are fried, frozen, and packaged for shipping.

Here are the ingredients in the fries, as listed on McDonald’s website: Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavour, citric acid), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintains colour), salt. Once the fries arrive at the restaurants, they are prepared in vegetable oil (canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil and dimethylpolysiloxane.”

They put sugar on them to make them caramelize, a combination of fat and sugar makes them tasty and addictive.

Notice they taste like crap if they get cold. Good high quality french fries (like In’n’Out) taste good even when they cool.

(Dextrose is sugar.)

The baked potatoe wedges I make at home trump Mc Donald’s easily!

Next mansion party @longgone brings the potato wedges.

^ Gladly :)