The Potato Variety McDonald's Uses For Hash Browns

McDonald's can talk all it wants about how it uses "100% pure beef" in its burgers or how its McNuggets are made with "100% white meat chicken." And that's all fine and dandy, but between you and us, the real mystery is their potatoes. Or, more accurately, their potato-based products, like their french fries and their hash browns. The fries are crispy and salty, cut thin to bring to mind a potato chip with the fluffy interior of a perfectly cooked fry, while the hash browns have a crisp, seasoned exterior and a soft, yet chunky interior that pairs strangely well with the syrup from a hotcake platter.

McDonald's has talked about how it makes its fries before, although the process has changed slightly over the years. For several years, the company originally fried its fries in beef tallow, which is more or less liquid beef fat. According to Reader's Digest, this blend of beef fat and oils gave the fries a very subtle 'beef" flavor, something that no doubt only further added to their addictive properties. It was in the 1990s, Good Food explains, that McDonald's made the switch away from beef tallow as a frying agent due to rising concerns about cholesterol and heart health. 

Although we know about these famous fries, how much do you know about those golden hash browns you get at breakfast? 

According to Idaho Potato, McDonald's originally started operations using only one kind of potato: the humble russet — more specifically, the Russet Burbank. Over the years, however, McDonald's began to incorporate three more russet varieties — the Ranger, Umatilla, and the Shepody. Later on, McDonald's would bring on the Clearwater Russet and the Blazer Russet as well, says Idaho Potato. 

In case you think this is Idaho Potato making up bogus stories to sell more russets, McDonald's itself confirmed that it uses this wide variety of russet potatoes in its potato products. Oddly enough, some "copycat" recipes, such as Emmymade's recipe, say that other varieties such as Yukon Gold potatoes should be used to make the famous hash browns at home. While the potato variety may be different, you can use any type of potato on hand to make your own hash brown patties for yourself.

While russet potatoes may be a key part of the McDonald's hash brown, it's not the only ingredient that's included in these breakfast delights. Of course, in today's world of hyper-processed fast-food full of fillers, additives, and who knows what, you may be worried that McDonald's hash browns are full of nothing more than some kind of synthetic grease and filler around chunks of potato.

According to the ingredients list, however, McDonald's lists only one ingredient in its hash browns: hash browns. This comes as a surprise to most, we expect. Fooducate supposed list of ingredients, on the other hand, is a bit more forthcoming with the ingredients. The hash brown contains potatoes, oils, a "wheat and milk derivative" for beef flavor, salt, corn flour, dehydrated potatoes, dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and black pepper extract. 

Although this may seem like a lot, the hash brown isn't too bad when compared to certain other items on the menu. The sausage McGriddle, according to Fast Food Nutrition, contains far more ingredients, ranging from palm oils, soybean oils, dextrose, and colorings. Although it may not be the healthiest thing on the menu, it's not exactly a powerhouse of ingredients and fillers.