This is the weirdest thing I have read in a long time. now I’m going to have to try it. As a kid I always had catsup and as an adult I’ve always had bbq sauce with them. I never even thought of mustard.
And there is definitely something wrong with BK’s onion rings. I rarely go to BK but when I do I am tempted to get onion rings even though I know I don’t like them but I get them anyways hoping that maybe this time they’ll be good and then about four or five rings in I rememebr why I should stop ordering them. And my soul cries a little.
Fourthing(?) the disappointment with BK onions rings. I love pretty much all onion rings, even generic store frozen rings. I love when I order fries and there’s an onion ring that sneaks in. Except at Burger King. I’ll throw it away.
Even if they are pulling them out of some frozen bag (probably the case, at fast food places), someone still had to slice and batter them before they got frozen. No matter how you do it, that cost has to be accounted for somehow.
And the best thing for onion rings is that garlic horseradish sauce like you get with a Bloomin’ Onion. Mustard wouldn’t be bad, but you can do so much better than plain yellow mustard.
I agree 100% on this, and to me the weird part is that while the onion rings are vile, Burger King’s french fries are the best fast-food fries around.
I don’t eat meat myself, but I will often go to Burger King with my parents who enjoy BK once in a while. When I go with them, I will usually just get a soda, but sometimes I get an order of fries. From what I can tell (again, I don’t do fast-food fries too often) Burger King’s fries are always hot, crisp and unsalted, which make them light-years better than the fries at most other burger places.
That said, I don’t know why Burger King’s onion rings are so very bad, but I would never try them again…
Oil into which onions are fried get an oniony taste, much like fried chicken oil gets that chicken taste. Also, while multiple batches of fries can be cook in the same oil, much less onions can be cooked in the same oil and lesser still chicken in the same oil before it decomposes.
I admit that they taste almost, but not quite, entirely unlike “real” onion rings, but I do like the taste of the batter, which is really just about all there is to them. It helps if you think of them as “slightly oniony-flavored batter rings”, rather than “onion rings”…
Let’s not completely discount the effort it takes to make truly great french fries. I used to work with a guy who said there were only three places in the world that made french fries good enough for him to bother eating; his own kitchen, a restaurant in Boston called Sel de la Terre, and France.
He told me the process, which involves cutting them to a correct, consistent size, frying them briefly at one temperature, then draining them while heating the oil, then frying again. And I think Sel de la Terre sprinkles some rosemary on them.
Part of the price difference is, as others have said, the wastage and handling. The non-fast food places that serve French fries quite often will have skin on fries…this means that the taters only have to be washed, and not peeled. Potato peeling (if it’s done at all) and slicing can be done by machine. However, onions have to be peeled by hand, sliced by hand, and cut by hand, and the rings separated by hand. All that hand labor adds up. Personally, I think that an order of good onion rings is worth it.
Inspired by this thread, last night I made onion rings for the first time. I can attest that it was a little labor-intense, with having to carefully peel and slice the onions for the correct size rings, then coat them with wet and dry ingredients, then fry, but man, it was worth it. Delicious! It affirms why I willingly pay extra for onion rings at a restaurant.