7 ms·

There's at least a third explanation as well, which is the fact that eggs from farmer Tom down the road are likely to taste 1000x better than the egg-inspired f

There's at least a third explanation as well, which is the fact that eggs from farmer Tom down the road are likely to taste 1000x better than the egg-inspired food product in a McGriddle. I can't imagine many people are thinking "Screw local farmers, I want Tyson Chicken Nuggets!". That might be a bad example but the point is that cost is probably the bigger factor here, not politics or lifestyle or even taste.

krrrh 9y ago
I’m not disagreeing with the trust of your comment, but despite popular belief, McDonalds does use real eggs.[1,2] Though there’s no doubt that an egg from a chicken who has walked around, eating bits of grass and bugs, will taste better and have a better nutritional profile. [1] https://yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca/answer/does-your-egg-mcmuffin-use-real-eggs-they-look-too-perfect/ https://yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca/answer/does-your-egg-mcmu... [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/27/are-mcdonalds-eggs-real-fast-food-giant-cracks-mystery.html https://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/27/are-mcdonalds-eggs-real-fast...
- jrs95 9y ago
  It does, but only the McMuffin sandwiches really taste like it. The others use the folded egg that they get premade and frozen.
  - greedo 9y ago
    The folded eggs used to be made from fresh eggs. Did this change?
    - jrs95 9y ago
      It must have, if they were. It's still made from eggs, they just make a bunch of liquid egg and then make it into these shapes and freeze them & ship to restaurants. The scrambled eggs in the big breakfast weren't frozen, though. They could made with the sort-of-real liquid egg stuff or just fresh eggs, I'm not sure.
      - greedo 9y ago
        Strange... We used to have a blender for both scrambled eggs and folded eggs. Crack the eggs in, blend them smooth as silk and Bob's your uncle.
- davemp 9y ago
  Eggs are insanely cheap. I’m not sure why anyone would bother to fake them.
  - bordercases 9y ago
    To economize other costs on the supply chain and to standardize quality
    - Clubber 9y ago
      This plus spoilage, durability & logistics costs. (which you might be already including).
  - umanwizard 9y ago
    Perhaps surprisingly, fake eggs do exist. http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/06/how-to-make-a-rotten-egg/ http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/06/how-to-make-a-rotten-egg...
- dpc59 9y ago
  They microwave them though, eggs are good when they're cooked a in a bunch of fat with herbs and spices.
  - jjoonathan 9y ago
    Yes, but only a small/unknown brand can successfully hide the fact that it's been cooked in a bunch of fat and properly salted/spiced. Once the brand becomes big enough, people are forced to confront the fact that the good food is good on account of being unhealthy.
- 0xbear 9y ago
  >> there’s no doubt There is very much doubt about that. Stanford (IIRC) did a study and no one could tell the difference.
- pq0ak2nnd 9y ago
  i would also add to "taste" and "nutritional profile", (3) the well being of the chicken, (4) the well being of the factory workers who tend to them, and (5) the impact on the environment where the non-industrial chickens are raised. the more dimensions one considers in the multivariate optimization, the more McD's starts to lose value (geometrically, even).
goialoq 9y ago
You are confusing a recipe that you don't like with an ingredient that you don't like.
- uxp100 9y ago
  You seem to be implying all eggs taste the same, which is not true.
  - TimothyBJacobs 9y ago
    Eh, at least one test seemed to show that there wasn't a noticeable difference: http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-cage-free-organic-omega-3s-grocery-store-brand-the-food-lab.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-ca...
    - jeffdavis 9y ago
      I can taste the difference.
      - adrianN 9y ago
        Did you do a double blind study?
        nitrogen 9y ago
        You don't have to blind a study when the effect size is big enough (the classic example is the ridiculousness of a double-blind test of the use of parachutes). See my other comment for how easily egg flavor can be altered.
        slavik81 9y ago
        He's right to be distrustful. People are terrible at taste tests. If you ask people how something tastes, they will tend to tell you what they think they're expected to taste rather than what they actually do. There's plenty of scientific evidence for this based on wine studies[1], but on a personal level, the tongue map myth[2] is the one that gets me. It was taught in science class as true, and we did (non-blind) experiments to measure the effect, but we failed to conclude the effect didn't exist. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_wine_tasting https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_wine_tasting [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_map https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_map
jjoonathan 9y ago
> better than the egg-inspired food product in a McGriddle. People always use this as an insult, but how cool would it be if fast/processed food providers had actually found a way to make eggs/chicken/beef/etc artificially? It's been an area of active research with decades of failed attempts to show for it. Achieving fast-food level quality would be a huge step forward.
- whatshisface 9y ago
  Egg synthysizers exist and they're shaped exactly like chickens.
  - adrianN 9y ago
    Now do it without a nervous system that can experience suffering
    - jjoonathan 9y ago
      and without losing 90% (or was it 99%?) of the input energy to heat.
      - nkurz 9y ago
        I think egg production by chickens is actually more efficient than that. If I'm reading Figure 1 in the following link correctly, it looks like modern farms are about 17% efficient for calories of food fed to the chickens to calories of eggs produced: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/10/105002/pdf http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/10/10... For comparison (from the same figure) pork is 9%, chickens raised for meat are 13%, cow production of milk is 17%, and cows raised for beef are 3% efficient.
- razakel 9y ago
  The secret to fast-food "quality" is the same as any other restaurant: fat, sugar and salt.
pq0ak2nnd 9y ago
+1 for "food product". i use that more accurate term frequently.

krrrh 9y ago

I’m not disagreeing with the trust of your comment, but despite popular belief, McDonalds does use real eggs.[1,2] Though there’s no doubt that an egg from a chicken who has walked around, eating bits of grass and bugs, will taste better and have a better nutritional profile. [1] https://yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca/answer/does-your-egg-mcmuffin-use-real-eggs-they-look-too-perfect/ https://yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca/answer/does-your-egg-mcmu... [2] https://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/27/are-mcdonalds-eggs-real-fast-food-giant-cracks-mystery.html https://www.cnbc.com/2015/01/27/are-mcdonalds-eggs-real-fast...

jrs95 9y ago
It does, but only the McMuffin sandwiches really taste like it. The others use the folded egg that they get premade and frozen.
- greedo 9y ago
  The folded eggs used to be made from fresh eggs. Did this change?
  - jrs95 9y ago
    It must have, if they were. It's still made from eggs, they just make a bunch of liquid egg and then make it into these shapes and freeze them & ship to restaurants. The scrambled eggs in the big breakfast weren't frozen, though. They could made with the sort-of-real liquid egg stuff or just fresh eggs, I'm not sure.
    - greedo 9y ago
      Strange... We used to have a blender for both scrambled eggs and folded eggs. Crack the eggs in, blend them smooth as silk and Bob's your uncle.
davemp 9y ago
Eggs are insanely cheap. I’m not sure why anyone would bother to fake them.
- bordercases 9y ago
  To economize other costs on the supply chain and to standardize quality
  - Clubber 9y ago
    This plus spoilage, durability & logistics costs. (which you might be already including).
- umanwizard 9y ago
  Perhaps surprisingly, fake eggs do exist. http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/06/how-to-make-a-rotten-egg/ http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/11/06/how-to-make-a-rotten-egg...
dpc59 9y ago
They microwave them though, eggs are good when they're cooked a in a bunch of fat with herbs and spices.
- jjoonathan 9y ago
  Yes, but only a small/unknown brand can successfully hide the fact that it's been cooked in a bunch of fat and properly salted/spiced. Once the brand becomes big enough, people are forced to confront the fact that the good food is good on account of being unhealthy.
0xbear 9y ago
>> there’s no doubt There is very much doubt about that. Stanford (IIRC) did a study and no one could tell the difference.
pq0ak2nnd 9y ago
i would also add to "taste" and "nutritional profile", (3) the well being of the chicken, (4) the well being of the factory workers who tend to them, and (5) the impact on the environment where the non-industrial chickens are raised. the more dimensions one considers in the multivariate optimization, the more McD's starts to lose value (geometrically, even).

goialoq 9y ago

You are confusing a recipe that you don't like with an ingredient that you don't like.

uxp100 9y ago
You seem to be implying all eggs taste the same, which is not true.
- TimothyBJacobs 9y ago
  Eh, at least one test seemed to show that there wasn't a noticeable difference: http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-cage-free-organic-omega-3s-grocery-store-brand-the-food-lab.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-ca...
  - jeffdavis 9y ago
    I can taste the difference.
    - adrianN 9y ago
      Did you do a double blind study?
      - nitrogen 9y ago
        You don't have to blind a study when the effect size is big enough (the classic example is the ridiculousness of a double-blind test of the use of parachutes). See my other comment for how easily egg flavor can be altered.
        slavik81 9y ago
        He's right to be distrustful. People are terrible at taste tests. If you ask people how something tastes, they will tend to tell you what they think they're expected to taste rather than what they actually do. There's plenty of scientific evidence for this based on wine studies[1], but on a personal level, the tongue map myth[2] is the one that gets me. It was taught in science class as true, and we did (non-blind) experiments to measure the effect, but we failed to conclude the effect didn't exist. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_wine_tasting https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_wine_tasting [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_map https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_map

jjoonathan 9y ago

> better than the egg-inspired food product in a McGriddle. People always use this as an insult, but how cool would it be if fast/processed food providers had actually found a way to make eggs/chicken/beef/etc artificially? It's been an area of active research with decades of failed attempts to show for it. Achieving fast-food level quality would be a huge step forward.

whatshisface 9y ago
Egg synthysizers exist and they're shaped exactly like chickens.
- adrianN 9y ago
  Now do it without a nervous system that can experience suffering
  - jjoonathan 9y ago
    and without losing 90% (or was it 99%?) of the input energy to heat.
    - nkurz 9y ago
      I think egg production by chickens is actually more efficient than that. If I'm reading Figure 1 in the following link correctly, it looks like modern farms are about 17% efficient for calories of food fed to the chickens to calories of eggs produced: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/10/105002/pdf http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/10/10... For comparison (from the same figure) pork is 9%, chickens raised for meat are 13%, cow production of milk is 17%, and cows raised for beef are 3% efficient.
razakel 9y ago
The secret to fast-food "quality" is the same as any other restaurant: fat, sugar and salt.

pq0ak2nnd 9y ago

+1 for "food product". i use that more accurate term frequently.