How Does McDonald's Season Its Iconic Beef Patties?

McDonald's ranks as an OG, an iconic part of the cultural zeitgeist in the fast food industry, if you will. For as much as we beg for and appreciate the minor innovations made by McDonald's over the years, you can't beat its classics. The cheeseburger, the McDouble, the Quarter Pounder with cheese — each contains a beef patty specially seasoned by McDonald's.

Per the company's website, all of its beef patties are seasoned with a simple combo of salt and pepper. However, this isn't actually done until after the patties are being cooked on the grill in the restaurant. The way that salt and pepper combo is distributed is a whole other more interesting story.

McDonald's is classic and that cannot be denied. If you needed more proof of the fast food chain's simple yet timeless quality, here's the inside scoop on how McDonald's burgers make their way from cow to drive-thru.

McDonald's clearly states that it does nothing to its beef in terms of seasoning before it's cooked. The beef is cut from the forequarter and flank and then minced and shaped into patty form. The trimmings from cuts such as chuck, round and sirloin are what's used by McDonald's. From there, the 100% beef patties are frozen (except in the case of the Quarter Pounder, which uses fresh beef).

Once at the restaurant and after they've sizzled on the grill a bit, the patties are seasoned with salt and pepper. But, this isn't just a singular Salt Bae-style sprinkling of salt and pepper. McDonald's uses a specially designed sprinkler system to evenly distribute the seasoning across the beef patties.

In theory, just like McDonald's iconic french fries, you might be able to request a beef patty burger from the chain without the seasoning combo. You'll need to catch the beef patties before they're under the sprinkler spray, so timing will be key. According to former McDonald's chef and TikTok creator, Mike Haracz, McDonald's likely keeps its seasoning simple so it can mass-produce burgers more efficiently for customers. Sometimes the simplest answer is the best answer and you shouldn't mess with the classics. McDonald's has been cranking out these patties since the 1940s and this is one of the rare occasions where there's no reason to buck tradition.