How to make an authentic tasting 'McDonalds' Quarter Pounder with Cheese at home
Here in the Channel Island of Guernsey we are sadly short of decent fast food restaurants, i.e. we don't have McDonald's, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut or any of those delicious (if somewhat unhealthy) takeaways. For me, the one I miss the most (from when I lived away from Guernsey), has got to be McDonald's, and more specifically the McDonald's quarter pounder with cheese. Every time I get on a plane to go to the UK mainland or to visit Jersey (our neighbouring island), I make a beeline for the nearest McDonald's and order myself a quarter pounder with cheese. For the next ten minutes I am in heaven, and wondering how long it will be before I can squeeze another one down in the time I have left with access to a McDonald's restaurant nearby.
One day I decided to try and recreate a McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese at home, but to get me started I did a bit of online research to try and get the recipe just right. This hub is show the results of my efforts, and I have to say, the resulting burger really does taste about as close to the real Quarter Pounder with Cheese as you can get, as has been confirmed by various human 'guinea-pigs' I have tried this on. If you too are a fan of the McDonald's Quarter Pounder with Cheese, I hope you will give this a try and then let me know what you think.
What you will need.
A non stick frying pan
A microwave oven
A burger flipper or fish slice
Greaseproof paper
A burger mould unless you simply want to use your hands to shape the meat
A small bowl
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Method with Pictures
Ingredients to make 4 Quarter Pounders with Cheese
1lb or 450g of beef or steak mince approximately 5-10% fat content
4 sesame seeded burger buns
8 processed cheese slices, preferably the 'very yellow' ones like Kraft rather than the anaemically white ones.
1 pickled gherkin
Several tablespoons of dried onion flakes (it is important to use dried not fresh onion as it really does make a difference)
American style mustard (e.g. French's)
Tomato ketchup (ideally Heinz)
Salt and Pepper
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Method
Place the onion flakes into the bowl and cover with cold water. Leave these in the fridge to soak for at least half an hour.
Meanwhile divide the minced beef into four portions and either mould into burger shapes by hand or place in a burger mould, compress, and then release the newly formed burgers on to a plate. Chill these for half an hour in the fridge.
Place your dry frying pan on to the stove and heat on a moderate heat.
Take your halved burger buns and place them cut side down in the frying pan. Use the burger flipper or fish slice to press each roll down firmly enough to ensure the entire cut surface is in contact with the pan. Continue to do this, (periodically lifting up each bun to check the underside) until the cut side has turned golden brown and is toasted. Remove the buns from the pan and set to one side.
Now retrieve your burgers from the fridge and add them to the hot pan, pressing each down firmly with the back of the flipper or fish slice in order to sear them.
Season the top surface of each burger with salt and pepper.
Flip the burgers over and repeat the above two steps.
Flip and compress the burgers several more times for the next three minutes or so until they are cooked through. Remove pan from the heat.
Place each pair of toasted bun halves on to a sheet of greaseproof paper to assemble the burger.
On the lower half of each burger bun place one slice of the processed cheese.
On top of the slice of cheese place one of the hot burgers.
On top of the hot burger place a second slice of the processed cheese.
Remove your bowl of soaked onion flakes from the fridge and drain.
Slice your pickled gherkin thinly.
Get the top half of each burger bun and in the following order place upon it about 2 teaspoons of tomato ketchup, half a teaspoon of mustard, a teaspoon of onion and two or three slices of gherkin.
In one deft movement quickly flip the top half of the buns on to the bottoms that already have the burgers on them.
In a further deft movement invert the burger so it is upside down on the greaseproof paper.
Wrap each burger in the sheet of greaseproof paper, turn the resulting parcel back over to the correct way up again, and then place on a plate.
Microwave each burger parcel for about 15-20 seconds to create the authentic McDonald's 'steamed' taste. If you are microwaving more than one burger at a time add an extra 5 seconds or so per burger. Personally I prefer to only microwave a maximum of two at a time, in which case I microwave for about 25 seconds.
Allow a few minutes to cool slightly and then serve along with skinny fries if you really want the authentic experience.
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Comments
LOL Misha, I don't know about that, but they certainly taste suitably unhealthy with all that cheese and red meat in them :)
The hamburger looks good. Misha is probably correct. I like the taste of McDonalds food....but I typically leave there feeling sick. I'll have to try this out.
Hi James, I hope you do give them a try, they are yummy, and you can at least ensure you use good quality meat if you make them at home :)
Nice hub, I already put in place, hehehe
Thanks manuspohr, these are great so please let me know what you think once you have tried making them yourself :)
Hahahaha. That could have come straight from the McDonald's training manual...did it!? Nice to watch a good writer "deftly" explaining the various steps. You're too much, Cindy. Great hub for us batchelors...Bob Up and 'youseful
Can you do them if you don't have a microwave?
I find this amusing! 2 of my daughters work at McDonalds, so we really don't eat there a lot these days! They come home smelling like Mickey D's and we end up not wanting any.
The only differences I see from yours and how they make them here in the US are the onions and the microwaving. Here they use the dried onions on the Big Mac but fresh onion on the 1/4 w/cheese (called 1/4 onions, lol) and they don't micro wave them. BUT at Burger King the Whopper is...
I believe your fat content is much lower than what we are served here (I swear it has to be 50/50 ewww) It wasn't like that always. I think they are much like drug dealers, give us the good stuff and when we are hooked, give us the bad stuff!!
I certainly believe that yours tastes MUCH better than that of the fast food place!!
Voted up and YUMMY!!
Hi Bob, golly, is there such a thing as a McDonald's Training Manual LOL. No it didn't come from there, but parts of it were researched from the Internet, and then adapted slightly. Hope you enjoy them :)
Hi Kathryn1000, I would imagine you could achieve a similar effect if instead of microwaving you left them in a warm oven for 5-10 minutes or so still wrapped in the greaseproof paper, much like they keep them warm in the restaurants on those heated metal grids under hot lights.
Hi Sweetsusieg, that is very interesting feedback, thanks for adding it here. I am also very grateful for the vote up too. Perhaps you might try making these to see if they do taste better once you begin using the better quality meat in them :)
I am not one that is fond of the McD.'s burger, but I do love their french fries. I will have to try this recipe out on the family and see what they think. Thanks!
Hi tlpoague, do let me know what they think (and thanks for commenting) :)
I'm going to try this for my very picky carnivorous 13 year old the next time we make burgers!
I'm not a huge hamburger fan, but after looking at all those pictures I believe there's a little drool in the corner of my mouth! Nicely done!
Thanks sueroy333, they are yummy, honest. My Hubby ate 3 and a bit of them one after another (the 'bit' was the part I left once full). A friend of ours ate 4 one after another when I cooked them for him (another person who really misses his UK McDonald's Restaurants whilst living here on Guernsey). Hope you try them :)
I know your burgers are way better than McDonald's, Cindy, because your recipe actually calls for GENUINE beef or steak.
Sometimes I'm not too sure about what's in the real thing.
Thanks drjb, interesting, as in the UK McDonalds advertise that they only use 100% beef in their burgers, nothing else, and if they weren't to fall foul of Trading Standards this claim would have to be true. Having said that, Trading Standards here would not cover the US, and of course wherever you are in the world ANY part of a cow could be considered 100% beef, even if it was a part you might prefer not to eat!!!
There's some 'food for thought' LOL
This looks very yummy, and easy. I am definitely bookmarking this page so I can try this in the future. :)
Hope you do try them WGCreates, they truly are very easy indeed. Thanks for your comment :)
processed cheese was an ingredient. You know what. You have to do it sometimes when it tastes good. Although, I like swiss or colby cheese. Now I'll go out a and get a burger someday soon.
Totally agree ftclick, and normal cheese just doesn't quite melt, or taste right somehow on burgers. Thanks for your comment :)
looks deeelish! I love the quarter pounder, but usually stay away from them. I think the homemade version would be healthier and more fun. It's always more fun to say that you made {whatever it is} yourself! Thanks for another great hub!
Cheers cheapsk8chick, glad you liked this hub and hope you try to make these for yourself so you can let me know what you thought :)
I got to give this a try....i am a QP junkie!
Thanks!
:)
Please do CMerritt, I can't wait to know what you think :)
Misty, we tried this weekend and my kids and wife LOVED IT!! So did I!
thanks for sharing!
Thanks so much for giving me the feedback CMerritt, it means so much. Truly delighted you loved these, I hope the recipe is useful to you for many years :)
Home sweet home. I love your recipes. I am cheese lovers. Thanks for share with us. This is much better than McDonalds. Thank you very much. Rated up!
Prasetio,
Hope you try them prasetio, they taste wonderful, but must be more healthy as they use better quality minced beef. Thanks for the feedback :)
Mistyhorizon, please forgive me. I never could pass up the opportunity to tell a truly tasteless joke. The devil made me do it.
Q: What do you call an anorexic woman with a yeast infection?
A: A quarter-pounder with cheese. :-)
Oh Gawd Larry, that is awful, but pretty funny :)
Wow, I love harmburger cheese. It is so yummy!
This looks delicious and I am a huge fan of burgers. Can't wait to try this. Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome applecsmith, good luck and I hope you enjoy them.
Thanks for sharing, it looks delicious!
I promise you they are delicious gryphin423. Hope you try them out for yourself :)
Great pictures, now I don't have to order delivery from McDonald's anymore :)
Thanks bangingbeauty, hope you enjoy these :)
Misty, Our family used to eat out a lot from the time my twin sons were toddlers to attending high school. I considered my self 'pleasantly plump' in the 190 somthing pounds and a 38" waist. I started having heart problems and discovered my eating habits was not healthy. I weighed 136 lbs and had a 30" waist at 28 years old when I discharged from the military. I trimmed down to 150 lbs and a waist 32" via eating habits and exercising 3 to 4 times/week. Its time to wake up before nature strikes.
Ronnie
Ps, I have a dyslexic problem and sometimes I misspell and punctuate in error etc. I have a portable spell checker, but sometimes, when I'm in a hurry I use it less.
Hi Ronnie, I agree we are all not eating as healthily as we should, but I do believe that you can eat pretty much anything so long as you do it in moderation and combine it with good foods and healthy exercise.
Re-spelling, I hadn't noticed any issues with your spelling or punctuation, so don't worry. My Husband is a little dyslexic too so I understand what it's like.
Take Care
Cindy
Cindy, Thanks for accepting me dispite my shortcomings. Before I started have heart problems, we frequently ate fast foods, and at home our typical meals were on a 10" plate with red meat covering 2/3's and veggies as 1/3 or less. I gave up (except on rare occasions, eating out) a lot of foods that had a lot of salt, fat, and sugar. I used to drink my coffee with 2 or 3 teaspoon of sugars, now I have coffee with none. I took some time to make the changes, but well worth it.
Ronnie
Golly Ronnie, I am glad you are eating more healthily now as it sounds like what you were consuming would have been enough to give anyone a coronary.
Cindy
This is easy. Probably tastes better too. Trying it next time I make burgers, which will be soon.
You will love them Linda. My friends keep begging me to make more for them lol.
Misha 15 months ago
LOL Cindy, I bet your version is waaaaaay healthier than the original :D