We all know them and we’ve all tried them. The fast food burgers from McDonald’s and Burger King. You may love them or hate them but they are tough to ignore because of their enormous size and influence.

Fast food burgers are in most cases made from the larger burger franchises in the US and the World. There are many places other than McDonald’s and Burger King but these two are known World Wide and make an effort to make the experience good and cheap, and at the same time serve as many as possible.

Big Mac from McDonald's

The fast food burger concept is very simple. Feed your guests the fastest possible way and get them out so you can get more guests in. It’s all about volume and less about the food. I am not saying that burgers from these places are bad, they are actually very good. The large franchises spend tons of money on research so that they can deliver the best possible product to the consumer in the fastest possible time. All fast food burger places have a drive-thru that allows the customer to get their meal without even getting out of the car. It can’t get any faster than that. Customer in and out in 2 minutes!

McDonald’s is the largest purchaser of beef in North America and they use 80% lean beef in all their burgers. All beef that arrive at a McDonald’s restaurant is frozen and already formed into patties. They never flip their burgers since they are cooked in a special electric griddle that will cook them from frozen in 40 seconds. The condiments and pickles are then added to the top of the patty and the top bun is finally added. The burger is wrapped and slid into a heated serving unit from where the cashier takes it to the customer. Total time from frozen till it reaches the customer is 90 seconds. As you can see it is all about getting the burger served and the customer on its way so they can serve the next one.

McDonald’s and Burger King also allows their burgers to be made in advance so the customer actually can get the burger within seconds from their order. Usually around lunch and dinner time they make a few burgers extra, so they are a little ahead of time, thus allowing even faster service. This comes at a cost to the quality of the burger since it potentially could sit for several minutes in the heating service unit. But they have it all figured out. They have systems in place that will take the burger out of the unit when it gets too old and they discard it. It is all very scientifically done and the large franchises also spend time and money on research how to make this most profitable and best tasting. Volume, volume, volume.

Whopper from Burger King

Fast food burger places often advertise so called “Dollar menus” that will get you a burger for a dollar and even though they make little or no money on this they still do it in the hope you will get something else while you are there, like a drink or fries.

With fast food burgers you are getting the best possible burger that can be done in 90 seconds or so. You can’t beat the speed the big guys can make a burger in and considering that their burgers are consistently pretty good. Their concept is so consistent that a Big Mac tastes pretty much the same all over the world.

Do they beat a fresh ground, hand formed and individually cooked burger made to the customer’s order? Of course not, but you also pay 2-3 times more for that burger and you may have to wait 10, 15 even 30 minutes for it to arrive.

No, fast food burger are here to stay and they feed more people than you think.

Next article will cover Fast Food Style Burgers. They are made from smaller franchises and local independent chains and they usually make them from fresh, never frozen meat.