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.

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(][;)]

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

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.

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.

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.

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?

Was McDonalds much better in the 1960s?

Yes.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.