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Home › Forums › Miscellaneous Forums › Fast Food Franchises & Non-Roadfood Chains › Was McDonalds much better in the 1960s?

This topic contains 40 replies, has 0 voices, and was last updated by senor boogie woogie senor boogie woogie 13 years, 3 months ago.

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  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432105
    JRPfeff
    JRPfeff
    Member

    I don’t know about the comparative quality of then and now. I have never gone to McD’s for the dining experience and the food was never very memorable.

    I do know I ate a lot more bagged food in the 60’s and 70’s. I think it is more a matter of better taste in food now, than it is that the food tasted better then.

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432106
    ann peeples
    ann peeples
    Member

    As we were traveling out of town in 1968, Mom talked dad into stopping at Mcdonalds for a meal "to go".My memory was of my dad flinging his burger out of the car window after one bite-murmuring something I didnt hear…[xx(][;)]

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432107
    salindgren
    salindgren
    Member

    Well, I don’t know about the ’60s, but I was eating there a lot in the early ’70s, and yes, it was all better. The Cokes probably were made with cane sugar. The fries in beef tallow were great (although I suspect they were not fresh cut), and I loved ordering a 1/4 pounder medium rare, and plain. Really tasted like a burger.
    When I was in Japan in 1985, I ate a lot of McDonald’s, and that was also very good, not over-cooked meat. They don’t call them french fries there, they are "Mac-Fry Potato".
    -Scott Lindgren

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432108
    Mack184
    Mack184
    Member

    Another thing to remember then, is the all of the various burger chains didn’t cook their burgers until they were tougher than shoe leather. After the great cry from the various "nanny" groups that required that all burgers be cooked until totally dead, nothing tasted right any more. If you would remember, the meat at any of the chains was more juicy, because they cooked them less.

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432109
    MiamiDon
    MiamiDon
    Member

    Sometime back in the ’80s, they started cooking the burgers in a press-like thing that cooks both sides at the same time. (no more burger flippers!) I think that it sort of steams them a little, being pressed like that. Also, they then nuke the burgers to heat them for your order. There is nothing toxic about them, but it sure is not the ideal way to cook a burger.

    Frozen fries can be OK, but not when single-fried, which is what McDonald’s does. So, fresh to frozen, and tallow to veg. oil, that surely has made a difference.

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432110
    Neesie
    Neesie
    Member

    It was better in the 60’s just because of the reason that fast food was a "treat" to be had only once a month or so….

    I remember their red & white tile building with the picnic benches outside. No seating inside. Large trash containers at the exits. I grew up in a medium-size midwest city and can only remember one McDonald’s at that time.

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432111
    tfrielin
    tfrielin
    Member

    quote:

    Originally posted by MetroplexJim

    Was McDonalds much better in the 1960s?

    Yes.

    And remember when root beer was a McDonald’s staple as well as their great french fries?

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432112
    MetroplexJim
    MetroplexJim
    Member

    Was McDonalds much better in the 1960s?

    Yes.

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432113
    Wistah
    Wistah
    Member

    quote:

    Originally posted by Robearjr

    I imagine back in the 60’s cod was used for the fish sandwich. Who knows what fish they are using now.

    Alaskan pollock is what I was told – I visited the plant in Gloucester, Mass and thats what I was told.

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432114
    Robearjr
    Robearjr
    Member

    I imagine back in the 60’s cod was used for the fish sandwich. Who knows what fish they are using now.

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432115
    cornfed
    cornfed
    Member

    Fish Filet was definitely tastier. There was a very specific taste to the whole thing. Now it’s just bland.

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432116
    brittneal
    brittneal
    Member

    Much better. Same with Burger King. The best was the Teen Burger at A&W.
    britt

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432117
    mountain traveler
    mountain traveler
    Member

    McDonald’s in the 60’s was awesome. The food was much tastier and you could get a whole sack of burgers and fries for a buck. I do like the double quarter pounder with cheese now. But the cheeseburgers 40 some years ago were excellent compared to today. They can’t even melt the cheese anymore. I hate that.

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432118
    MilwFoodlovers
    MilwFoodlovers
    Member

    I hated McDonalds then, I hate them now. I’ll grant that the fries probably were better then but then I prefered a lard or tallow fried much browner colored crinkle cut fry served on a grey pressed paperboard plate. I never understood the Mickey D appeal.

  • October 2, 2007 at 9:04 am #2432119
    tfrielin
    tfrielin
    Member

    quote:

    Originally posted by mjambro

    Without a doubt, their french fries were superior 40 yras ago (fresh cut – not the frozen, compressed cardboard scraps they fry these days).

    Then again, they do have a wider menu today.

    I second that–I worked at McDonald’s in 1971-2 and we made the french fries from real russet potatoes. They had a machine that skinned them, taking most of the skin off, but leaving traces. Then we washed them six (yes, six) times with a drain between each wash to remove the starch (or else they would all stick together when you fried them).

    Then they were fried in that beef tallow and they were absolutely the best. Kids today have no idea that the frozen, tasteless crap they are being sold nowis just that–crap and bear no comparison to the fresh french fries that were once the hallmark of McDonald’s.

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