# Was there ever a time when McDonald's food was markedly better? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [March 7, 2023, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843 "2023-03-07T18:02:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 10
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/181 "2023-03-15T01:14:30Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > McDonald’s even exists in India. I was really curious to try it when I had to travel there for work back in 2010, but never got the chance. I’m still not sure what meat they use instead of beef. On the [Big Mac Index](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Mac_Index), India’s entry mentions it’s a chicken burger. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/182 "2023-03-15T02:14:04Z")
My point, in case it was not obvious, is that in my (perhaps flawed) memory, ads _later_ than he ones you referenced suggested that a single burger, fries and a Coke could be bought for a single dollar. Perhaps as inflation meant that _two_ burgers, fries and a Coke would cost more than a dollar. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/183 "2023-03-15T02:18:25Z")
That’s fair, it seems I was oblivious to your context. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/184 "2023-03-15T03:35:21Z")
I’m not misremembering. Unless you can find me a timeline that disproves what I remember - that in the late 60’s, McDonalds used real ice cream in their shakes. I had a hard time tracking down any supporting documentation, but I did find this: > i’m an old dude who, in high school, over the summer of 1965, worked at the first mcDonalds in Worcester, Mass. The shakes were great! I made them! That was my 4 hour a day job. REAL ice cream+flavoring+coloring= what you remember…good or bad. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/185 "2023-03-15T06:51:12Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Or is Bangalore in the region that does eat beef? I think Goa is where you’ll find most of the beef-eaters in India. I recall reading somewhere that Europeans in India during the Raj held Goan chefs in high regard because they had no moral compunctions against cooking beef or pork. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/186 "2023-03-15T06:58:52Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > I ate at a McDonalds in Japan in the 1980’s and it tasted…_different_. I understand they go to great pains to ensure product consistency, but I know what I experienced was not the same as all the McD’s I had had in the States. Funny, my friend from southern California moved to here (Kobe) in Japan last year and says the McDonalds in Japan is vastly superior to that in the states. But I remember coming to Japan in the 90s from Australia and thinking the McDonalds in Japan was greasier and saltier, but not terrible. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/187 "2023-03-15T09:15:47Z")
I think its the McDonalds you go to I’ve had perfectly average meals at one of the mcd’s in town and I get salty pucks that alternate between tasting like styrofoam or cardboard from the other one But the filet of fish looks like the saddest thing I’ve ever seen from any place I get them for my aunt … ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/188 "2023-03-15T12:41:55Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > real ice cream Define ‘real’. Today, they basically use a low fat soft serve but the fat content is too low for it to be considered ice cream. That would also been true back then (a milk based dessert with potentially not enough milkfat to call ice cream). A milkshake can even have a separate definition. So, it can even today be considered a ‘real’ milkshake using ‘real’ ice cream or not depending literally on if you use FDA (or local state) definitions of ‘ice cream’. Also, what one person remembers is subject to typically limitations on human memory. Worse yet, any individual franchise can often get away with doing things differently. At least for a time. Is it possible that this one person scooped out tubs of ice cream to make milkshakes in 1965 at a McDonald’s? Sure. Would that have been general McDonald’s policy? Much more questionable. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/189 "2023-03-15T14:45:42Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I’m not misremembering. > Unless you can find me a timeline that disproves what I remember - that in the late 60’s, McDonalds used real ice cream in their shakes. > I had a hard time tracking down any supporting documentation, but I did find this: > > > i’m an old dude who, in high school, over the summer of 1965, worked at the first mcDonalds in Worcester, Mass. The shakes were great! I made them! That was my 4 hour a day job. REAL ice cream+flavoring+coloring= what you remember…good or bad. Yeah, specific timelines are hard to find. See L.A. Times article linked below. Summary: Kroc was selling blenders designed to make shakes from ice milk (that is, too low fat to be called ice cream) when he made contact with McDonald’s. Perhaps the memory is of the blenders, which were replaced in the early 1970s by the soft-serve style machines. > **[Mac's Attack on the Milkshake Biz](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-07-17-ca-9843-story.html)** > > The shakes (significantly not called milk shakes) are like aerated Kaopectate. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/190 "2023-03-15T15:37:24Z")
Maybe it’s splitting hairs - “Ice cream” vs “ice milk.” I just remember getting a shake that wasn’t a smoothie - as it melted, it left a cold lump in the bottom of the cup, unlike today’s drinks, which are completely uniform. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/191 "2023-03-15T16:04:02Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > I just remember getting a shake that wasn’t a smoothie - as it melted, it left a cold lump in the bottom of the cup, unlike today’s drinks, which are completely uniform. Shakes are definitely different now than back then. They’ve changed the formula multiple times–it’s just never been ice _cream_. ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2023, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/192 "2023-03-15T16:08:32Z")
You sure? Apparently someone eats [gator burgers](https://www.cajungrocer.com/alligator-burger-patties). ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2023, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843/193 "2023-03-21T17:12:50Z")
I don’t know if they changed it again (for the worse?), but the last time I had a quarter pounder a few years ago they had actually improved. They were using fresh beef and it was cooked. It actually had the grease and texture of a normal burger, and 4oz was still 4oz (I think). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-there-ever-a-time-when-mcdonalds-food-was-markedly-better/980843.md?page=9)