It’s the worms they mix in the beef patties.
Good thing you are posting to the Straight Dope… other more critical sites may ask you to provide a reputable cite for this accusation.
But as it is, since this is The Straight Dope, you’re all already familiar with my cite anyway.
I like how everyone has to go to any lengths to avoid other people assuming they consume McDonalds regularly.
I don’t even like burgers so I can’t say, but seriously. Nobody is going to judge you for giving your unqualified opinion of their beef.
That’s a little bit different than your summary, though.
Double quarter pounder with cheese for me – yum. The crappier McD’s around here oversalts theirs but the better McD’s makes them just salty enough.
It doesn’t taste weird - it tastes delicious. They do use some specific seasonings on some of their sandwiches - as well as the bread - and the other foods - which does give it what I am guessing is its signature taste.
It is quite amusing how people go out of their way to pick on McDonalds. It is also quite amusing to see shows like Bullshit who also will take people who claim they hate fast food - put them in a restaurant with snooty waiters - and take fast food out of the wrapper, put it on nice china, and the same people will rave about how great the grass fed locally sourced beef tastes and what not. Granted I think it was Taco Bell I saw this on, but I got no issues with them either.
I love eating at a nice three star restaurant, but sometimes you can’t beat a nice McDouble or BigMac either.
I can smell a McDonalds (or at least I think I can). As we all know - smell is a big part of taste - so I think that plays into it as well.
Well, of course a McDonald’s PR person is going to describe it in ways that sound more appealing. But the fact remains that they get their beef cheaply because it’s stuff that isn’t in much demand.
Well, obviously, but it’s somewhat different than your implication that it’s simply old dairy cows and beef fat (and, frankly, I don’t care if it is, as it tastes good to me. It could be cow assholes and snouts, for all I care.) Inaccurate summaries are a pet peeve of mine, sorry.
OtisCampbellIsRight. 
Did you have the impression that I was criticizing them for this practice? Actually, I find it pretty clever. It lets them get both of the qualities they value most from their food: Consistency, and low price.
Well, no. It’s more that what the Straight Dope column actually says is substantively different. It’s old dairy cow meat + steer meat (with its higher fat content and flavor), not just dairy cow + fat. Not that it matters, it’s just factually different, in my opinion, to what you said. Here’s Cecil’s summary:
Anyhow, in the scheme of things, it doesn’t matter.
I just assumed it was because they were frozen. The same thing happened when Wendy’s went to frozen meat–all the flavor went away. In fact, I’ve noticed this on frozen beef patties in general–only the ones with flavor added actually have flavor. (Though it’s not as if regular hamburger meat loses its flavor if you freeze it, so it must have to do with how long it is frozen.)
The thing that makes McDonald’s burgers better is that they actually salt them correctly. And the Big Mac sauce has all the actual flavor you need. Since everyone is using frozen beef now, it’s pretty much the best you can get around here. Hardees is the only exception, but that’s only because they use more expensive beef.
Is that what happened with Wendy’s? That might explain something. I wouldn’t have thought there’d be that much difference, but, with Wendy’s, they certainly taste different than my memories of them (although that can be my memory playing tricks on me, of course.) Then again, isn’t one of Wendy’s marketing bits these days “fresh, never frozen” or something like that?
1977 called. They miss you.