Here's Why Burger King Fries Are Wildly Inconsistent, According To Reddit

Part of the reason why fast food is one of the most lucrative industries in the world is because of the consistency it offers. You can go to seven different McDonald's across the world and order seven Big Macs and you'll be given seven hamburgers that taste more or less identical to each other (provided you didn't go to one in India, where the burgers are made with chicken). That isn't to say there's no variance whatsoever. Consider Burger King, whose french fries are famously kind of a gamble. Sometimes you'll get a fresh, hot delightful side; other times, you'll be chewing on salty cardboard. Why is that? Well, according to one former Burger King employee on Reddit, it comes down to human error on three fronts.

The first reason involves the oil the fries were cooked in. As any cook will tell you, not all cooking oils are created equal, but just as important as the type of oil is how it's treated. "If the oil isn't skimmed, filtered, and changed consistently, it will start to brown and burn," the employee said. That's obviously bad news for your french fries, but there's also the matter of time and the fact that fast food employees will sometimes cut corners to save it. "If it isn't busy enough to sell all of the fries that are cooked within the appropriate shelf life window, they won't dispose of those fries and cook new ones. They will simply sell old, stale, lukewarm fries." On top of all that, the people making your fries are only human, with all that entails. "There are quite a few steps that need to be followed quite precisely to make your fries taste awesome and not everyone will follow them."

Burger King fries may vary between orders, but that's only fair. After all, the fries themselves have varied plenty over the years. While french fries were always part of the Burger King story (even before the Whopper was invented and given its iconic name), the exact form they took changed a few times. In the 1990s, for instance, Burger King switched from a traditional, McDonald's-esque shoestring fry to a more robust, crunchy fry dredged in a batter called Invisicoat which made them crispier. (BK even got Mr. Potato Head fresh off of "Toy Story" to help the campaign.)

Then, in 2011, the fries were changed again. The new fries were even thicker than before, with a pronounced contrast between the crunchy exterior and the fluffy interior — in theory, anyway. (As we mentioned, a lot depends on how well they're made.) And there the fries have stayed, at least for now: It wasn't so long ago that Burger King was experimenting with its Satisfries, a crinkle-cut health-conscious option that pretty much nobody wants to remember.