Category Archives: Popular Culture

McDonald’s Fries

A history, and a recipe. I disagree with this, though:

His cholesterol was over 300, comfortably in the danger zone for heart attacks. Lack of self-control aside, it was fatty foods that nearly killed him. Thus, when he emerged from the hospital, he did so on a one-man mission to fight Big Fat.

It was not the fat that nearly killed him. We now have abundant evidence that the problem with McDonald’s fries was not the tallow, but the potatoes themselves. I’ve long advocated that, given that the company is the largest cattle rancher in the world, it should go back to tallow, and get rid of the unhealthy seed oils.

What I don’t understand about the recipe is why it uses Crisco, with just a little tallow added, presumably for flavor. It would probably be much better, and certainly healthier, to simply fry them in pure tallow.