Posted on 08/13/2017 10:57:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Malcolm Gladwells latest contrarian position could go over worse than the time he defended Lance Armstrongs doping: McDonalds fries suck, he declares on the latest episode of his Revisionist History podcast.
Before you rush out and declare him un-American, though, realize he means well. Gladwell opens the podcast by telling listeners that McDonalds betrayed me so many years ago when it stopped frying potatoes in beef tallow, so his ultimate goal is to help the fries return to their former glory. But his personal vendetta is woven into the far more interesting story of Phil Sokolof, the drywall magnate who spent millions crusading against saturated fat and cholesterol, and convinced McDonalds to swap the beef fat for vegetable oil.
Megaphone @MegaphonePods Follow Malcolm Gladwell ✔ @Gladwell Episode 9 of Revisionist History is out! In which I take aim at the Golden Arches. McDonalds: You broke my heart. https://megaphone.link/PPY8679820909 9:14 AM - Aug 10, 2017 91 91 Replies 112 112 Retweets 483 483 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy Gladwell talks about how, at Sokolofs insistence, the chain moved to a canola-corn-soy oil mix on July 23, 1990, the day McDonalds changed the recipe of their fries forever, and turned their backs on everything I once held dear. He argues texture and taste suffered, and to prove theres general consensus about this, Gladwell interviews people his age who get nostalgic about the old fries, then feeds a facsimile of them to millennials who are too young to have tried the pre-1990 version. They all agree hes right.
In typical Gladwellian style, the podcast goes to great lengths to explain the dire consequences of McDonalds switch: Fryers started spewing a mist that left McDonalds chairs and tables sticky; workers protective overalls had the propensity to spontaneously combust; the new oil contained a mixture of scary-sounding, possibly unsafe compounds (carboxylic acids, aldehydes, and whatnot).
Yet Gladwells goal is a noble one: This is really just to get his beef-fat fries back. His parents didnt let him eat fast food, so he didnt try McDonalds fries until he was 13. Have you ever seen a puppy encounter snow for the first time? He burrows his nose into it with this look of perplexity and sheer delight because he cant understand where this white thing came from, he says. It was like that for me.
McDonalds, please just do the guy a solid and mail him an old Super Size box of beef-tallow fries Rick and Mortystyle.
Hear, hear! They were SO MUCH BETTER than today’s.
And he was wrong. When frying at high heat, it's healthier to use fully saturated fats in order to avoid the formation of transfats from polyunsaturated fats like with canola oil.
It's like how 40 years ago we were told that margarine is healthier than butter and to eat a low fat high processed carb diet. Wrong.
Gladwell is an American hero. Canola oil and GMO soy are poisons we have been lied into embracing.
He is British.
When I make french fries at home, I grind a beef bullion and add it to a shaker of salt. After frying my fries in peanut oil, I shake my mix over the hot fries. It saves me from having to look all over for beef tallow.
Well... English born but he grew up in Canada after age 6.
I’d be shocked if McD’s ever brought back beef-tallow fries, but, yes, the old fries were way better. The article says July 1990, but I’m not sure if all locations switched right away. I kind of remember my local McD’s switching in 1991. The difference in taste was immediately noticeable. The texture was different too, as the beef-tallow fries were a bit soggier. Now, if you don’t eat McD’s fries right away when they’re still hot, they become hard, almost potato chip-like.
Homemade cornbread with lard spread on it and a shake of salt..yummy!
You can make some very nice bars of soap if you have access to cheap or free lard.
Hogfat and ashes soap is wonderful!
Granny Clampett was right :-)
Beef tallow is healthier than the trans fat veg oils (ie hydrogenated veg oils) they currently use.
Agreed!
FADScience is everywhere. There are popular food agendas such as:
Dietary Fiber
Cholesterol
Omega 3
Calcium
Caffeine
Sugar
Salt
Preservatives
One day the advertisers get in a frenzy for about a year or two and they “push” a food substance saying it’s unhealthy.
A few months or years later they say it’s OK, then there is counter research to the contrary of the contrary. Sound confusing?
Suddenly you’re buying processed foods that have a long list of “No X”, no cholesterol, no sugar, no blah, blah, blah.
Suddenly you see products like Tums with Calcium added or fish sticks with Omega 3.
They’re trying to convince us that what is very unhealthy is indeed healthy and we buy into it.
When you see a product that has a long list of “Does not contain...” you know it’s a farce already.
Buy butter instead of margarine.
Use sugar (in small quantities) instead of an artificial sweetener, eat healthier foods and more importantly, REDUCE the quantities.
Oh no, not carboxylic acids!
You mean things like vinegar or citric acid?
I saw beef tallow in the health food store yesterday and it was expensive! Of course, it was made from grass-fed beef, so that’s probably why.
Margarine. Yech. Whoever thought it was a good idea to feed people a product bacteria can’t eat?
He mentions the drywall guy. Anyone remember the problem some 10 years or so with the Chinese drywall? Is this the guy that was involved in all that? I’m wondering if someone made millions importing toxic crap and then offloaded the problem on the taxpayer.
The drywall magnate threatened to quit supplying McDonald’s with their hamburger “meat.”
Lard makes the best fries...Coconut oil the best popcorn.
Seriously, the reason McDonald’s french fries don’t taste like they used to is because they use far less salt. And adding the salt yourself after they’ve cooled down doesn’t work; the salt has to dissolve into the hot oil to deliver the flavor the same way.
A long, long time ago, I tried using bacon fat instead of oil to fry food one time. I was very disappointed. It tasted EXACTLY the same. Turns out, beef tallow or bacon fat has no flavor on its own. None. Nada. Beef tallow is, however, extremely high in saturated fats.
Modern Twinkies suck because the less-saturated fat formulation they use no longer forms a frosting-like “cream” in the Twinkie, but instead, a mere sweet goo. That’s not a flavor issue, though: that’s a consistency issue. And saturated fats do have a very different consistency than oils and unsaturated fats.
If you think I’m making this up: which tastes better, the fat on the edge of a steak, or the fat on the edge of bacon? NOthing tastes better than a well-marbled steak, but a fatty edge of steak doesn’t taste like all that. The fatty edge of bacon or a pork chop: YUM! Here’s the thing: pork fat is LOWER in saturated fat than beef fat. It’s much more similar to chicken fat or even vegetable oil. That’s why pork gets away with calling itself the other white meat, in spite of being much fattier than chicken breast. The bacon fat tastes better simply because the bacon itself has a stronger flavor.
Of course, he’s British. Americans would’ve named him Happygood.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.