McDonald’s making several big changes to Big Macs, other burgers

(NEXSTAR) – McDonald’s is hoping to build a better Big Mac.

Back in April, McDonald’s announced plans to make several “tasty improvements” not only to its Big Macs, but nearly its entire burger lineup, outlining recipe tweaks and new cooking practices intended to produce juicier patties and more flavorful food.

Among the changes, McDonald’s announced plans to introduce a cooking process to produce more “perfectly melted cheese,” and new toasted buns that are “softer” and more “pillowy” than previous iterations. The overhauled burgers are also said to have additional “caramelized flavor” achieved by adding the onions to the meat on the grill, rather than scattering them atop the cooked patties.

The Big Macs, too, would have even more Big Mac sauce, McDonald’s said at the time.

But this week, the Wall Street Journal revealed additional details obtained through internal memos and company insiders, hinting at a much more extensive overhaul than McDonald’s initially announced.

Among the “more than 50 tweaks” the Wall Street Journal learned of, McDonald’s will use brioche buns for its burgers, with Big Mac buns getting a smattering of “randomly scattered” sesame seeds to lend a not-so-uniform appearance. The patties themselves are also cooked in smaller batches for a better sear and more juiciness, and room-temperature cheese will be used — rather than cheese from a cooler — so that it melts better.

The new burgers are also designed to be “hotter,” a McDonald’s chef told WSJ at the company’s headquarters earlier this year.

“We found that small changes, like tweaking our process to get hotter, meltier cheese and adjusting our grill settings for a better sear, added up to a big difference in making our burgers more flavorful than ever,” Chad Schafer, the company’s senior director of culinary innovation, said in a McDonald’s press release issued in April.

At the time, McDonald’s said its changes would affect Big Macs, McDoubles, and its classic hamburgers and cheeseburgers, but did not mention whether its Quarter Pounders would be affected. A representative for McDonald’s did not provide additional details when contacted by Nexstar.

If customers have noticed their Big Macs and burgers tasting differently as of late, it’s likely because McDonald’s had already debuted the changes in specific markets earlier this year, including Boise, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Seattle and Tucson. (Restaurants in Australia, Belgium and Canada were the first to standardize the changes prior to their introduction in the U.S.) The plan now, as previously announced by McDonald’s, is to continue the rollout to all restaurants in the U.S. in 2024 — or early 2024, according to WSJ.

The Hamburglar, too, will herald the nationwide availability of the new burgers in an upcoming commercial campaign, McDonald’s wrote in the April press release.

“When you spot his notorious cape and striped outfit in your city, you’ll know that’s when you can head to your local McDonald’s to get your hands on our best-ever burgers,” the company said.