Growing a McDonald's Meal — Full Breakdown & Transcript

[00:02] McDonald's a quarter pounder Deluxe with fries and a soda and this is the same exact meal but I grew 70% of the ingredients in my garden this is my journey to turn McDonald's from fast food to slow all right so we are headed

[00:16] to McDonald's I actually have not eaten fast food in 10 years I would say since the last time I made a video on fast food I think I went to Wendy's and the reason I'm doing this video is it's absolutely just abundance in the garden

[00:31] right now I think I can make an entire meal from McDonald's for my garden or at least close I don't have any cows and I'm making a burger so fries drink and burger and do it with as many ingredients either homegrown or forage

[00:47] as possible but first we need inspiration we need to investigate a they've got so much nicer look at this it's like a theme park there we go so oh already up hello I'm going to get the um number two uh Deluxe did you want the

[01:04] meal yeah the meal got it medium or large large and can I have that with a root beer we don't have root beer you don't have root beer okay coke with that 12 this is all kind of it's changed a lot that caught me off

[01:17] guard that happened so quick I'm like I thought I I thought I would have time to like look at the menu a little bit more all right thank you we got the goods back to the studio oh I the smell already brings me right back I can't

[01:32] believe that they don't have root beer like I wonder if this is a a nationwide cancellation we're going to have to look into it is root beer just not cool anymore like am I that old we're going to have to look into this root beer

[01:44] cancellation here we go nothing more appetizing than a fresh c d That's what I said I mean not having root beer it's ridiculous so you think it's because I think it must be because McDonald's are sponsored by Coca-Cola and so they don't

[01:59] sell Coca-Cola branded root beer we're still making root beer because because root beer is the best and you can make it from for things whereas Coca-Cola cocaa that's act like it's Coke cocaine right like originally I mean those

[02:13] haven't changed NOP those have not changed at all okay so look at the picture of this quarter pounder how perf I've been studying this thing they're just so good at Food styling at food porn and false advertising for the most

[02:26] part well let's let's see okay I mean not not as bad as I thought all right it's got everything in there holding it layers it's holding its layers the bun is very nice A little uneven yeah but

[02:38] like the bot is shiny tomatoes look ripe kind of tomatoes look ripe yeah the reason I chose the quarter pounder specifically I wanted to make the Big Mac but the quarter pounder Deluxe had

[02:51] the most Crossover with the garden the lettuce tomato yeah just all of the garden Goods so we can make these make a soda we can make ketchup from scratch can't make American cheese from scratch no that why no I wonder how yeah all

[03:06] right here we go first bite in 10 years oh my god really mhm I've definitely had tastes just like I remember it everything becomes a on tone mushy goodness in your mouth with all of like unfortunately it's just so

[03:22] good but that is the point it's the mushy consistency all the way through with like all of the vegetables become soft Mayo and the ketchup just create like a gooeyness the cheese the bun everything is soft That's Heavy with the

[03:36] Mayo and the ketchup I can't believe the Big Mac has another layer of bread yeah which I'm fine with this this is a nice little package all right fries yeah fries I'm pretty well versed with a McDonald's french fry when they're not

[03:50] hot they're kind of gross they're not even that crispy that's what I expect feel like they never were that crispy really I feel like I must immediately eat them as soon as I receive them I think this is like standard like it's

[04:03] always been like it's about the smell and the flavor whatever they're doing the sense yep it's not oh pickles we are now well versed in pickles well into the pickle season only one pickle no no

[04:17] that's why at first I didn't taste it one pickle that's blasphemy that pickle was good it was a class very thin not too sweet more salty just delicious

[04:30] pickle that was that was fine one pickle though oh we got a pickle for you yes thank God because now we can know what pickle to use since we have like every type of pickle now in the storage that we it's very garlicky M garlic so we go

[04:45] garlic dough you know I thought like from not having it for so long that it I don't know like it would have more of like a fake like you know chemical good like a fake like you know chemical good it's it's solid it tastes good but you

[05:00] your stomach is going to hurt it's going to be a problem and that's what we're doing we're taking fast food out okay we're replacing with slow food which is the garden but we are keeping or trying

[05:14] to keep as much of the essence of the flavor of the taste of the texture and just the overall Vibes of of this whole thing we're not just making a burger yeah we're making it all the meal so let's get into the deconstruction of

[05:28] this number three meal from McDonald's and we're going to start off with the fries now I did an entire potato video a few weeks back but I did leave a few patches in the ground specifically for these fries it's the biggest potato I've

[05:41] ever grown I remember seeing this viral Michael pollen clip talking about how McDonald's specifically grows this variety called russet Burbank potatoes which is a very long potato because McDonald's likes that nice bouquet of

[05:54] because they're harder to grow they use an insane amount of PES pdes and can't even go in their Farms without mass on well these are not russet be Banks they're variety similar to Yukon Gold they're not going to be as long but

[06:09] they still will make incredible french fries now McDonald's fries are actually brine for that extra flavor and I tested both precooking them in the Brine and soaking actually performed better so I'll peel the potatoes slice them into

[06:23] McDonald's size fries add them to a container with a little salt sugar and vinegar and let them Brine and Infuse overnight in the fridge then that brine gets drained off I'll dry the fries you can see they're slightly more rubbery

[06:35] from that brine at this point and then they go through their first Fry at 350° F just so they really cook through and get a very light Fry on the exterior and their first fry I'm going to throw them in the fridge just to dry off a little

[06:50] to make them at a later point and then they'll go through their final Fry at want to make sure that the oil is not too hot or they'll get too much color that classic style that lighter McDonald's french fry all right let's

[07:06] talk about this beef patty and I do not have any cows on the premises here on Long Island I don't think that's legal around here nor do I have this space so for now I'm turning to my closest source of beef which is from upstate New York

[07:19] and I've got a nice 8020 ground beef blend and I'm bringing out the scale Pounders which is very easy to replicate and I'm assuming McDonald's means cooked I'm going to pre-shape the patties in a ring mold to get a nice

[07:32] Circle then I'll press them out to about the same height as the McDonald's side with salt and pepper and then just pop them in the freezer to firm up a bit to my carbon steel griddle from the sponsor of today's video made in I

[07:47] griddle it's made in Sweden from the same professional grade carbon steel it's really just one of the most versatile cooking surfaces in the kitchen it's heat safe all the way up to 1 1200° but really all these Burgers

[08:01] need is a medium low heat because that carbon steel retains heat so well you can have a nice slow cooking effect to really render out that fat and create a beautiful crust carbon steel is also naturally non-stick so you don't have to

[08:15] put up a big fight when flipping your Burgers trying to retain that crust that you really work so hard to create also with the design of these handles these griddles can be converted very easily for outdoor use over coal or fire which

[08:28] is a nice design element and really adds to the versatility and those little Design Elements paired with the quality is the reason I've been a maen fan for so long they partner with all family-owned manufacturers in the US

[08:41] France UK and Italy to produce some extremely highquality kitchen wear at a this griddle or other made in products check out the link below so we're moving opinion there's nothing super special about a McDonald's burger bun it's just

[08:56] a classic fast food soft and fluffy bun with the addition of sesame seeds and that fluffiness is usually achieved with a lot of yeast and a quick fermentation my recipe is very simple it's 500 G of flour and I'm using 2 teaspoons of dough

[09:09] conditioner which is optional but just like hair conditioner it will give your bread an extra layer of softness more like you buying it from the store then 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of yeast 2 tspoons of oil 300 G of water and 3 tpoon of salt I

[09:25] mixed and kneaded the dough and I let it double in size on the count and to get that perfect bun I made some circle molds out of tin foil which I placed on parchment paper spraying everything down with oil so those molds were nonstick

[09:37] and I cut off little pieces of that dough shaped them in balls and plac them right in the middle of the mold then I sprayed them with more oil and of course top them with sesame seeds and just let them proof until they filled out those

[09:50] molds and bake them in the oven at 450° for around 13 to 14 beverage and it turns out after doing some research there's tons of threads on

[10:04] this root beer removal from McDonald's there's even a change.org petition to bring back the root beer and all of the information is a little bit mixed ultimately root beer is just falling a little bit out of pop culture in the

[10:17] drink world compared to its Heyday a few decades ago but it's the soda I can actually make from scratch because of this right here sassafras this is a tree that grows everywhere here on Long Island and and a lot of other places in

[10:30] the US it was once an extremely valued commodity due to its high medicinal uses which now you would never know cuz it's so abundant and the roots of sassafras taste exactly like root beer that's actually how root beer was first made so

[10:45] I'm going to remove the roots in the lower stem area and I'm going to peel off that outer bark and skin and chop them into little pieces now these are using to make this soda so I'll add the sassa to a pot along with some ginger

[11:01] cinnamon Starnes and cloves and I'll dump in my water and I'll sweeten this mixture with sugar and molasses which will really give it that Dark Root Beer color and on a medium heat I'm going to reduce this mixture by half until it

[11:13] forms this super aromatic sweet syrup which then gets strained off topped with through the soda stream and get some soda but for a more natural carbonation I'm using just a little bit of baker's yeast which I'll mix in and then I'm

[11:28] little bit of that sassa fras in the bottles and then in just one day these were fully carbonated and ready to be enjoyed all right so we have to talk about all of this action right here these are the toppings that make this

[11:40] pounder and again it's the reason I chose to recreate this sandwich because garden first up we've got these Roma tomatoes which are extremely prolific right now in the greenh house I'll pick

[11:54] thin we've got some sweet onion which I grew earlier this season and is now stored in my pantry for the winter I'm going to slice one up nice and thin and remove some of that bite we've got lettuce which is a little Bol right now

[12:09] in the garden due to the summer heat but I did have some roma holding on for dear life which I washed up and sliced nice and thin one topping I didn't grow was this classic American cheese that comes from the store we've got pickles and you

[12:23] know the pickles are going off here I just made a full video on every type of pickle making you can do at home these are from the Shelf stable pickles that I made and I'm choosing the garlic variety which I think matches perfectly with the

[12:36] pickle that McDonald's uses I did just have to slice these up a little thinner to match that size and finally for the sauces we've got your classic Mayo Carly whipped up a fresh batch using some yolks from the chickens check out this

[12:48] lucky double yolk we use for this mayo and finally ketchup which I made completely from scratch using a lot of garden ingredients actually all of these homegrown ingredients went into the ketchup with the additional of a few

[13:00] blog which I link below it uses Roma tomatoes and has that classic Hines 57 spice action and overall it has a fresher lighter experience than a classic Hines bottle because you're not using tomato paste but those flavors are

[13:14] using tomato paste but those flavors are spot on

[13:31] was such high pressure for me she's like oh you would have crumbled in a restaurant I wasn't so hard it's a different type of pressure so we've got different type of pressure so we've got two4 pounder deluxes we've got fries

[13:45] ketchup and a large root beer and yeah this is a root beer Rebellion right now we're standing strong against McDonald's look at this and that's two two days ago you made it yeah it was too much yeast it did not need that much carbonation

[13:59] cheers you have the sassa in there I would have toned down the Molasses a little bit but I've been watering this down and it's just like so good it doesn't even need to be that strong the sasr is so root beer it's like so

[14:13] licoricey so good so I would say from building this it felt in the moment a little bit um trickier than I imagined just like you're looking at a picture online like I could do that and then I think the only other main complaint

[14:27] Burger looks good everything else looks good buns needed a little bit more color I could have taken the ring off and let gotten more color like around once it gotten more color like around once it created that nice shape

[14:44] the meat is so much juicier M yeah instantly it tastes more like a real Burger less of a fast food taste due to more texture yeah you know like yes yeah that was like mush as soon as it's mush and I think that's part of the reason

[14:58] people love it this bun has like a chew to it yeah and like the meat has a bite of just like it's more subtle like things aren't as salty yes they're not as salty and it's not as sweet and I think that's

[15:12] like what like the ketchup and a lot of fast food is so sweet a lot of American food is really sweet we don't realize it yeah until you have something all natural yes and it's not doesn't tast

[15:25] like Su it's not like a sugar bomb for a burger which is crazy what you said at the end of eating that is like in the moment it's more of a drug because you moment it's more of a drug because you get more sugar more salt fat similar and

[15:41] but then you said right after that you know it's not going to make me feel good right but this this is the opposite it's like toned down you're not just getting hit completely with an overload of those things but I'm I'm like that's kind of

[15:54] things but I'm I'm like that's kind of light for it's very light which is the most I mean wew like half of the that's true except for the American cheese we did not grow the American cheese so good I

[16:07] love the we have not tried a fry I mean I've been trying them these are McDonald's fries to me such a good recipe you're relying on that salt again it's in the moment saltiness you're getting hit with it these have so much

[16:20] potato flavor potato flavor yeah so true tasting those back and forth M that was fun that was fun that was a lot of fun what is another like like iconic fast food meal we'll end it at that you let us know in the comments adios