With special sauce and hefty amounts of meat, Big Macs and Quarter Pounders are almost as delicious as can be. However, it’s hard to argue with the feeling that every McDonald’s burger tastes better with a side of the joint’s famous fries. After all, any order seems more complete when served with the beloved shoestring potatoes. Even your homemade meals can benefit from being accompanied by a copycat version of McDonald’s fries, especially when you have the ingredient that brings the starchy dish to life: beef stock.
Making french fries that taste just like McDonald’s is a fairly uncomplicated process once you have the key elements down. This is especially the case if you skip making them from scratch and instead purchase a bag of crispy, thin-cut frozen french fries from your local grocery store to start with. After that, the defining ingredient to add when mimicking the McDonald’s fries is either beef stock or beef bouillon, which will achieve that “natural beef flavor” the original product is described to have on the chain’s website.
How beef flavoring improves french fries
There are several simple ways to cook with beef tallow, and McDonald’s has mastered its primary use of frying foods. For decades, the Golden Arch restaurant’s french fries were originally fried with beef tallow. This is the fat that’s found surrounding the organs and underneath the skin of an animal, such as a cow. It has a high smoke point of around 400 degrees Fahrenheit, allowing it to withstand extreme temperatures without the fat breaking down and, in turn, creating less desirable flavors.
Beef tallow can impart a satisfyingly savory taste to all that it touches, potatoes included. As one can expect, it has a mild beef flavor to it, adding a rich and hearty profile to wherever it’s added. So in 1990, when McDonald’s made the switch from cooking its fries in beef tallow to vegetable oil to be more health conscious (as beef tallow is high in saturated fat), customers were quick to point out that the new recipe doesn’t taste nearly as good and has a less pleasing texture. However, adding beef stock or a beef bouillon cube to your own copycat McDonald’s fries can help imitate that reminiscent flavor.
