7 ms·

The last McDonalds hamburger in Iceland

63 points by xvirk 12y ago

dghughes 12y ago
Fruitcake and even honey will last for decades too people freak out over natural and man made preservatives, Facebook alarmist unscientific crap.
- DougN7 12y ago
  Honey lasts for hundreds, even thousands of years because some enzyme the bees produce. Apparently honey found in Egyptian tombs was found to still be good.
  - dghughes 12y ago
    I wasn't sure so I played it safe with decades, my sporadic rants are not well-researched. I think there is a famous fruitcake over a hundred years old.
LukeB_UK 12y ago
J. Kenji López-Alt from Serious Eats did some experimentation and found that burgers in general don't really rot: http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-revisiting-the-myth-of-the-12-year-old-burger-testing-results.html http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-r...
damon_c 12y ago
I used to make TV commercials and in 1998 I absconded with the leftover "hero buns" from a Wendy's commercial shoot. I still have them, in a box, sealed in their original food stylist primped and prepped state. They are in containers with clear tops so I can look at them without poisoning the air. A few of them have decomposed completely into green dust. Others are completely pristine. Maybe when Wendy's closes their last store in the USA I will donate them to a museum!
superme 12y ago
I'm guessing the bun is a closer relative to cake than bread, hence the shelf life.
- PeterWhittaker 12y ago
  Wow, this got downvoted? For why? Perverse pleasure aside, I really do not understand the criteria by which some apply their downvotes. (Upvoted you in sympathy, don't believe in downvoting, etc.)
icantthinkofone 12y ago
Two questions: 1) Why is this on HN? 2) How in the world did it make it the the #2 spot (at the moment)? EDIT: Knew I would get downvoted. I now have as little respect for HN as I do for Reddit. You wouldn't believe how little respect I have for Reddit.
- noir_lord 12y ago
  1) Because someone posted it. 2) Because enough people up voted it.
- krapp 12y ago
  In a community based on karma and ranking, your personal predilections have little value, only the consensus determines quality. As such, your complaints about quality also have little value. Upvote what you want to see more of, downvote what you want to see less of, flag spam and abuse, and if you still don't like what bubbles up on HN, post more of the kind of content you would rather see.
  - icantthinkofone 12y ago
    Nope. My personal 'predilections' have nothing to do with it. I thought HN had a theme other than McDonald's restaurant closings and that would make it off topic. Obiously not and anything goes here without moderation. So I'm done.
    - krapp 12y ago
      Don't let the door hit you where the Lord split you.
      - DanBC 12y ago
        That was needlessly rude, don't you think?
        tluyben2 12y ago
lordnacho 12y ago
Reminds me of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Redi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Redi Basically the theory of spontaneous generation (of maggots) was falsified by this guy, who tried it with open and closed jars.
jofer 12y ago
One of the things I found interesting about Iceland is that, at least when I was doing fieldwork there (~12 years ago), beef was outrageously expensive, but lamb and salmon were relatively cheap. We "had" to eat a lot of lamb and salmon to keep costs down. For that reason, a lot of restaurants with burgers on the menu served ground lamb instead of ground beef. Lambburgers are tasty! At the time, I worked at a McDonald's back home. I had no intention of eating at one abroad, but I was curious to see what an Icelandic McDonald's would look like. I went to one somewhere in/near Keflavik shortly after we arrived, and while the menu looked more or less the same, a regular cheesburger was the equivalent of ~$10. (Not the meal, or a quarter pounder, just a cheesburger.) At the time, I was completely flabbergasted. I'd wager a significant portion of the reason that all McDonald's closed in Iceland is simply cost. Beef is more-or-less entirely imported, and is therefore very expensive. Lamb is cheaper and tastier. McDonald's uses all beef (and bad beef, at that), and just can't compete with local short-order restaurants. Keep in mind that this was in 2002-2003, well before the recent economic troubles in Iceland. It was also the first time I'd ever been outside the US. Everything seemed outrageously expensive to me, partly just because I was living in one of the cheapest cities in the US (my share of the rent was $80/month) and was getting by on ~$300/month. Also, Iceland has _incredible_ hot dogs, weirdly enough... Natural casing, better meat (lamb, maybe?), and they're nicely seasoned. They're just plain good. We used to cook them in an aluminum foil packet with onions over the fire, and then sear them a touch over the flames after the onions were cooked. I'll never look at hot dogs the same way again!
- wodenokoto 12y ago
  Some of the food-price stories I've heard from Iceland are crazy. I had a friend who went to Iceland regularly back in the early 2000's and he once paid 60 usd for a regular pizza.
mattdotc 12y ago
The sad part is that even after seeing experiments like this, I still occasionally get cravings to eat a McDonald's cheeseburger.
- nitrogen 12y ago
  Do you ever eat nuts? They don't rot either.
- mwfunk 12y ago
  Nothing sad about that, they're freaking delicious.
- wodenokoto 12y ago
  There are lots of reasons not to eat McDonalds. The hamburger not rotting is not one of them. http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-revisiting-the-myth-of-the-12-year-old-burger-testing-results.html http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-r...

63 points by xvirk 12y ago

Fruitcake and even honey will last for decades too people freak out over natural and man made preservatives, Facebook alarmist unscientific crap.

DougN7 12y ago
Honey lasts for hundreds, even thousands of years because some enzyme the bees produce. Apparently honey found in Egyptian tombs was found to still be good.
- dghughes 12y ago
  I wasn't sure so I played it safe with decades, my sporadic rants are not well-researched. I think there is a famous fruitcake over a hundred years old.

LukeB_UK 12y ago

J. Kenji López-Alt from Serious Eats did some experimentation and found that burgers in general don't really rot: http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-revisiting-the-myth-of-the-12-year-old-burger-testing-results.html http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-r...

damon_c 12y ago

I used to make TV commercials and in 1998 I absconded with the leftover "hero buns" from a Wendy's commercial shoot. I still have them, in a box, sealed in their original food stylist primped and prepped state. They are in containers with clear tops so I can look at them without poisoning the air. A few of them have decomposed completely into green dust. Others are completely pristine. Maybe when Wendy's closes their last store in the USA I will donate them to a museum!

superme 12y ago

I'm guessing the bun is a closer relative to cake than bread, hence the shelf life.

PeterWhittaker 12y ago
Wow, this got downvoted? For why? Perverse pleasure aside, I really do not understand the criteria by which some apply their downvotes. (Upvoted you in sympathy, don't believe in downvoting, etc.)

icantthinkofone 12y ago

Two questions: 1) Why is this on HN? 2) How in the world did it make it the the #2 spot (at the moment)? EDIT: Knew I would get downvoted. I now have as little respect for HN as I do for Reddit. You wouldn't believe how little respect I have for Reddit.

noir_lord 12y ago
1) Because someone posted it. 2) Because enough people up voted it.
krapp 12y ago
In a community based on karma and ranking, your personal predilections have little value, only the consensus determines quality. As such, your complaints about quality also have little value. Upvote what you want to see more of, downvote what you want to see less of, flag spam and abuse, and if you still don't like what bubbles up on HN, post more of the kind of content you would rather see.
- icantthinkofone 12y ago
  Nope. My personal 'predilections' have nothing to do with it. I thought HN had a theme other than McDonald's restaurant closings and that would make it off topic. Obiously not and anything goes here without moderation. So I'm done.
  - krapp 12y ago
    Don't let the door hit you where the Lord split you.
    - DanBC 12y ago
      That was needlessly rude, don't you think?
      - tluyben2 12y ago

lordnacho 12y ago

Reminds me of this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Redi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesco_Redi Basically the theory of spontaneous generation (of maggots) was falsified by this guy, who tried it with open and closed jars.

jofer 12y ago

One of the things I found interesting about Iceland is that, at least when I was doing fieldwork there (~12 years ago), beef was outrageously expensive, but lamb and salmon were relatively cheap. We "had" to eat a lot of lamb and salmon to keep costs down. For that reason, a lot of restaurants with burgers on the menu served ground lamb instead of ground beef. Lambburgers are tasty! At the time, I worked at a McDonald's back home. I had no intention of eating at one abroad, but I was curious to see what an Icelandic McDonald's would look like. I went to one somewhere in/near Keflavik shortly after we arrived, and while the menu looked more or less the same, a regular cheesburger was the equivalent of ~$10. (Not the meal, or a quarter pounder, just a cheesburger.) At the time, I was completely flabbergasted. I'd wager a significant portion of the reason that all McDonald's closed in Iceland is simply cost. Beef is more-or-less entirely imported, and is therefore very expensive. Lamb is cheaper and tastier. McDonald's uses all beef (and bad beef, at that), and just can't compete with local short-order restaurants. Keep in mind that this was in 2002-2003, well before the recent economic troubles in Iceland. It was also the first time I'd ever been outside the US. Everything seemed outrageously expensive to me, partly just because I was living in one of the cheapest cities in the US (my share of the rent was $80/month) and was getting by on ~$300/month. Also, Iceland has _incredible_ hot dogs, weirdly enough... Natural casing, better meat (lamb, maybe?), and they're nicely seasoned. They're just plain good. We used to cook them in an aluminum foil packet with onions over the fire, and then sear them a touch over the flames after the onions were cooked. I'll never look at hot dogs the same way again!

wodenokoto 12y ago
Some of the food-price stories I've heard from Iceland are crazy. I had a friend who went to Iceland regularly back in the early 2000's and he once paid 60 usd for a regular pizza.

mattdotc 12y ago

The sad part is that even after seeing experiments like this, I still occasionally get cravings to eat a McDonald's cheeseburger.

nitrogen 12y ago
Do you ever eat nuts? They don't rot either.
mwfunk 12y ago
Nothing sad about that, they're freaking delicious.
wodenokoto 12y ago
There are lots of reasons not to eat McDonalds. The hamburger not rotting is not one of them. http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-revisiting-the-myth-of-the-12-year-old-burger-testing-results.html http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2010/11/the-burger-lab-r...