Soldato
Would prefer the big tasty on the menu permanently tbh
McDonald’s general discussion
- Thread starter Stu999
- Start date
Associate
As with most McDonalds, it needs more sauce.
they also need to bring back the hot dog.
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Soldato
Went on a group pick with the Litter Wombles this evening. On the way back home, got a McDs, double cheeseburger with extra pickles. Won £5 on the fries.
Associate
When did they do a hot dog? I cant recall ever seeing one
Caporegime
They’d have to make it with beef. They can’t cook pork at the same time they are cooking beef, that’s why they’ve never brought the McRib back
Soldato
So how do McDs prevent cross contamination of breakfast (meat all pork) to rest of the day? They could have just one section in the kitchens dedicated to pork all day
About hot dogs - around 1999/2001 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc7Y8L-RBNo vaguely remember this advert
Nothing really, pork sausage is booked on the exact same grill as the beef. At the end of the day, it’s all throughly cooked so I’m not sure what risk of cross contamination you are thinking of. If you go into a proper restaurant, they’d be cooking chicken, beef and pork on the same equipment all day.
At the end of breakfast service, the grill will get a good scrape (the pork leaves a lot of carbon residue and needs a good scraping after every batch to ensure you don’t get carbon build up on the surface of the grill), it gets a quick wipe down with a clean cloth to remove any pork fat/grease. The utensils (tongs and spatula) are swapped for a clean set and you start banging out the beef.
During the swap over time between breakfast and main menu, you’ve literally got 2-3 minutes to clean down, swap the meat in the freezer next to the grill and start cooking again. At the end of the day customers don’t tolerate a wait, if you stop breakfast, they expect a cheese burger within minutes.
The sausage is held in hot cabinets and had a decent hot shelf life but you tend to cook small batches right up until the end to reduce/eliminate waste and avoid the risk of running out. As much as these places make a ton of money, it’s only on the volume. The margins are razer thin so food waste was a huge focus.
Back when I worked there food was the biggest cost with labour a close second, the two things were tightly controlled.
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Soldato
I dunno if this is under that category or not but I once had a smokehouse burger, it was awful, tasted like a normal burger but with way too much pepper, was expensive and not that big, never again
Agree, I don't know why they don't, easily the best burger they make, I don't go to McDonald's often but I might go a little more often if I knew I could get one of these.
I'd love to know the actual cost to the franchisee for the food.
Associate
2002.
Associate
What? Why?
It’s probably more than you’d think, the ingredients are extremely consistent (the tolerance on a meat patty is near zero or it won’t cook properly on the equipment) and pretty decent quality and that costs money.
It’s been a long time since I worked there so individual line items will be well out of date but I can’t see that the business fundamentals would be that different. Food cost was in the region of 30% of sales, labour costs were 18-20% (lower on a busy day, higher on a quieter day).
The margins on different products varies quite a lot. Fizzy drinks, milkshakes and any ‘adders’ like iced cream have high gross margins, kids meals were basically sold at cost once you factor in the labour and indirect costs. There are also things that you might not consider like coffee cup and lids being really expensive, costing more than the coffee in the cup.
As mentioned these costs are tightly controlled. If your labour cost was >20%, questions would be being asked as to why it’s not in the target zone.
Caporegime
Because they don’t have enough grill space in uk restaurants for separate dedicated grills and they can’t cook different meats together on the same grill due to potential food safety problems. So they can only do pork at breakfast and beef the rest of the day.
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Not necessarily true.
I worked in a mcds from 2006 to 2012 and done pretty much everything that can be done within that job.
Within the stores i worked for, when it came to the end of breakfast, a big run of sausage would be cooked to ensure there is enough to continue serving whilst the grill was cleaned.
The grill was then properly cleaned as if it would be in the evening, this wold involve additional chemicals to ensure cleaning and removal of carbon etc.
Only once it has been thoroughly cleaned and al utensils changed over would you then be allowed to cook a normal burger run and undertake testing on the pattys before throwing them away and restarting with burgers able to then serve.
Does this happen in all stores, probably not as it comes down to the care from managers and communication of importance.
The packaging or production of the food costs more than the ingredient.
Take a large coca cola, the lid and cup costs more than the product you consume.
Of course this differs per product, ice cream costs more to keep the machine on, than it does to produce the ice cream with its ingredients.
As Born2 said aswell, if you think this is bonkers, wait till you hear about the hot cups and lids....
Margins are extremely tight and every bit of waste has to be counted and verified.
They don’t cook different meats together. It’s not a food safety issue, it is that they fundamentally wouldn’t work.
The grills are like giant George Forman’s but flat like a panini press. They are pretty sophisticated these days and automatically detect what’s on the grill by its thickness and cook it accordingly.
You can’t put products with a different thickness on the same grill as the top element cannot come down and make contact with the meat.
Most restaurants only have 2 grills, during breakfast one will be poaching eggs and the other sausage. They’ll then swap to beef products.
Back when I worked there they briefly also used to do grilled chicken in them but they were done in bags.
The thing about mixing products is more to respect belief structures (be that religious or vegetarian/vegan), not food safety. Likewise you don’t want your beef tasting like pork because there was a bit of pork grease left on the grill.
There is no fundamental safety issue with using a grill to cook beef, and then pork and then beef again followed by a bit of chicken.
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This is the same reason as to why Fries, nuggets, fillet o fish and apple pies are not all cooked in the same oil.
Sort of but also sort of not really.
Nuggets, fillet, veggie and pies used to be cooked in the same set of friers. The oil was separated but it’s ultimately filtered through the same mechanism and there is a certain amount of mixing of the oil when this happens so there are traces of meat in the pie, fish and veggie friers.
They redesigned the veggie products so they could be cooked in the frier used only for chips which operates at a lower temperature. When they did this, the product was then approved by the vegan/vegetarian society. The pies are not as they are cooked in the same set of friers as the chicken and fish.
Most vegetarians are generally not concerned though and accept their are limitations to how far one can go in a kitchen that produces meat products. Occasionally mistakes also happen and things get into the wrong oil.
Nuggets, fillet, veggie and pies used to be cooked in the same set of friers. The oil was separated but it’s ultimately filtered through the same mechanism and there is a certain amount of mixing of the oil when this happens so there are traces of meat in the pie, fish and veggie friers.
They redesigned the veggie products so they could be cooked in the frier used only for chips which operates at a lower temperature. When they did this, the product was then approved by the vegan/vegetarian society. The pies are not as they are cooked in the same set of friers as the chicken and fish.
Most vegetarians are generally not concerned though and accept their are limitations to how far one can go in a kitchen that produces meat products. Occasionally mistakes also happen and things get into the wrong oil.
Soldato
Not sure if it's still the same now but when burger king started doing the impossible burger they couldn't call it vegan as it was cooked on the same grill as the beef burgers.
I Know no one asked but i feel like sharing my thoughts.
Just to try and highlight some of the benefits of the 3 for £3 deal. Its best use would be for Chicken Nuggets.
3x 4 Chick Nuggs = 12 Nuggets for £3. Considering 6 nuggets are 4.29, and 9 nuggets are £4.99.
If you wanted 20 nuggets, instead get 2 £3 Mixes for a total of 24 nuggets for the 1p more. £5.99 vs £6.
Food for thought.
The McChicken share box is 6 selects | 12 nuggets for £10.59.
5 Selects on their own and 12 Nuggets (Mix n Match) for £8.69 (1 less select for almost £2 saving)
9 Selects and 12 Nuggets (Mix and Match) for £11.49 (3 More selects for 90p extra.)
You get the gist. Just give your order some thought to utilise the deal is all im saying. Nothing stopping you getting three cheeseburgers for 1p more than a single triple cheeseburger. Or 2 cheeseburgers and a mayo and slapping them all into one burger. Go nuts.
Prices based on Stoke Norton branch prices, your milage may vary.
Just to try and highlight some of the benefits of the 3 for £3 deal. Its best use would be for Chicken Nuggets.
3x 4 Chick Nuggs = 12 Nuggets for £3. Considering 6 nuggets are 4.29, and 9 nuggets are £4.99.
If you wanted 20 nuggets, instead get 2 £3 Mixes for a total of 24 nuggets for the 1p more. £5.99 vs £6.
Food for thought.
The McChicken share box is 6 selects | 12 nuggets for £10.59.
5 Selects on their own and 12 Nuggets (Mix n Match) for £8.69 (1 less select for almost £2 saving)
9 Selects and 12 Nuggets (Mix and Match) for £11.49 (3 More selects for 90p extra.)
You get the gist. Just give your order some thought to utilise the deal is all im saying. Nothing stopping you getting three cheeseburgers for 1p more than a single triple cheeseburger. Or 2 cheeseburgers and a mayo and slapping them all into one burger. Go nuts.
Prices based on Stoke Norton branch prices, your milage may vary.
Plus lets not forget, that the products are prepared on the same production line as meat products, so even with all that care, separate gloves and utensils they still used to carry a disclaimer saying it can't be truly ensured vegetarian due to potential cross contamination. At least when i was last behind that line myself anyway.