I saw a movie star say he used to work there and they would take frozen patties and brand them with a hot iron to get the stripes, then really cook them in a microwave.
Of course he was talking years ago when he was a teen.
Is this what they do today?
No. Burger Kings use an appliance called a chain broiler to cook their beef patties. The patties are fed into the top, and a chain conveyor moves the patties across a gas fired flame to cook them. They are then stored and reheated in a miocrowave before serving.
The one in my hometown did - burnt down a few years ago. Serves 'em right I guess 
(Yes, they rebuilt shortly after.)
I worked at a BK once. When I had that task, I felt like I was sending the patties into hell. Put them on the conveyor and watch them move inexorably towards the flames, grease dripping from them and sizzling when it landed. On the other side, they slid lifelessly down the chute, whereupon I put them between toasted buns and filed them in a bin like so many casualties.
I worked at a Burger King almost 20 years ago and we used the chain broiler.
I worked night shift so I got the honor of stripping down the broiler and cleaning it.
It was fun because we used to take the detachable parts which were coated with burned on grease and dip them in an acid bath to clean them.
Acid is fun.
I didn’t know acid would remove grease. Oven cleaner products usually they use a base like lye. Burns like acid though on the skin.
I like to watch the chain toasters at Quizno’s sub shops. Seems like if the chain ever slipped a cog that four footlongs would flame up at once.
But this is still, technically, flame broiled, yes? The point BK is trying to make is that their burgers are exposed to a real flame, as oppossed to a flat top grill (I don’t know if McD’s uses a standrard grill, but I’m fairly certain some places, like White Castle at least, do.) Thing is, it’s not like having an open flame is any better or worse than a regular grill, so who gives a flying crap?
I think the dieticians like when the fat drips off, like in a George Foreman grilling machine.
But there is so much fat left in any commercial burger that it’s irrelevant.
And of course some people like the taste of smoke on their food. Not me.
It makes a difference in the taste, I think. BK burgers have a smoky flavor that McD’s burgers do not.
They do. You can see inside the ‘kitchen’ at the McDonald’s I go to sometimes.
longhair75’s post was in answer to the question, “Does BK brand the burgers with an iron but cook them in a microwave?” At some BKs you can see the chain broiler in action if you order at the counter instead of the drive-thru.
McDonald’s uses a clamshell grill to cook both sides of the burger at once. The cooked meat is stored in a steam cabinet until the sandwich is put together. Sandwiches with cheese go in the microwave for a few seconds to melt the cheese.
Rilchiam: wanted for crimes against bovinity.
Stranger
FWIW, I worked for BK in 1980 and it was all flame-broiling.
The big plastic bottles we would pour in to the buckets and mix with water were labeled “Acid”. Of this I’m sure.
Wow - things have changed since I worked at McDonald’s in the 80’s* - we still had a standard grill, cheese was placed on the bun, and the heat of the patty melted the cheese. I guess the emphasis on freshness kind of killed the original McD’s system of having burgers sitting in the hot rack, waiting to be taken.
This is not normal – it happens only when they suddenly find they have extra patties, with no customer orders to use them. The normal situation is as Rilchiam described; the patties go directly onto a bun as soon as they come off the broiler.
There are BK quality standards limiting how long cooked patties can be stored before being discarded; well-run BK’s follow those carefully.
When I worked there in the mid 90s, they still put the assembled burgers under the heat lamps at the end of the process. Supposedly they were only to remain there for 10 minutes until being either purchased or discarded, but somewhere around here I posted about the Evil Zombie Big Mac I discovered once upon a midnight dreary. It was not mouth-watering, but eye-watering. Now they keep the parts separate until someone orders something, presumably to reduce the risk of inadvertent necromancy.
I saw something like that happen at a Quizno’s located in an airport (can’t remember which one) within the last year or so. The belt must’ve gotten hung up temporarily, or a sandwich got caught somehow, and it was aflame. One worker was reaching in with long tongs to fish it out, and small hunks were left behind, still burning, so he had to pluck those out too. The belt moved along afterwards just fine, so whatever had happened didn’t look likely to reoccur.
I was worried that the fire would get big enough to set off some kind of fire alarm or sprinkler system - I was trying to imagine the logistics of having that happen in an airport.
What I want to know is, who was the stupid celebrity who mistook the flame broiler for a branding machine.
Back in the 60’s our local Burger Chef (who remembers THAT?, btw it was eventually absorbed into Hardees which I guess still exists, tho ours also died a few years back) used a chain-broiler visible to the public through a window. I loved watching that thing cook our burgers- made 'em taste better! L
Other local fast-food eateries that have since expired- Dog’N’Suds (specialties- Hot dogs of course, and also root beer & creme sodas) and Park’N’Eat (spawner of dirty jokes, of course). I know some A&Ws survive, but whatever happened to Burger Queen (with mascot Queenie Bee, kinda scarier than the modern Burger King)?