I’m old enough to remember when McDonald’s switched over to vegatable oil for their fries. Hasn’t been the same since.
I think I remember as well.
Preferred Wendy’s fries over McDonalds ever since.
I worked at McDonald’s when they used beef tallow. French Fries tasted great. We also used to BLANCH the french fries.
We would dip the basket in the fryer for 30 then pull it out and hang it up on the basket rack. This flash fried the outer skin of the french fry so when you cooked a basket of them, the flavor was sealed in, the outer skin would be fully cooked and stiff while the inside stayed soft. They also stayed fresher for longer while in the fry station where we bagged them up as needed.
If you don’t blanch them, the french fry gets soaked with oil inside and out. The fries then are soggy or if fried long enough to get past soggy, the whole fry is hard as a rock inside and out.