I Tried 100 Years of Fast Food

the fast food industry is worth $331 billion and it didn't even exist 100 years ago we have people alive today that are older than that industry in such a short period of time there has essentially been a fast food Revolution Each decade standing on the shoulders of the last sliders lead to chicken sandwiches chicken sandwiches lead to whatever this is maybe at this point fast food has regressed you see a lot of people would say that fast food has gotten better and better but is it at its peak of what we have available to us the real question is have we made everything that could possibly be made which is why today we are going through history to make taste and rank 100 Years of fast food all right let's kick things off in 1902 the first demand for fast food in America ever was created by something called the automat which arrived from Germany that sounds about right food was prepared and replaced quickly for self-service through little coin operated slots horn and hard fart or hard whatever was the first automat and the rack and cheese earned the most coins it was a very weird recipe I will say that you have cooked noodles a bashal that's right A B not a mouret just a plain bmall where your sauce and then you add huge cubes of cheddar a lot of it you toss it together and then that goes into a casserole dish and gets baked they called it the macaroni aroten and casserole and if you're guessing if that looks good it doesn't now on to the tastings for the items that cannot be acquired today we'll be eating what we make if it's available today we'll eat it from the restaurant each one will be ranked from 1 to 10 on a scale of inventiveness starting with this [Music] one so this is the original recipe for the thing this is what I would imagine mac and cheese served in hell would be like it's like mac and cheese if the pasta was sandpaper this is the first mac and cheese I've had where the cheese is actually separated from the Mac the flavor is not bad I will say it tastes pretty good the texture is revolting it makes sense that this was popular during the Great Depression cuz it made me depressed this caused the Great Depression you might be right don't fact check that it's a pretty big innovation if this never existed before is a pretty big deal even though it would yeah you of course the first version of many things are I'll give it an innovation score of the six just because it's brand new and it's not really improving upon anything it is the thing I agree with the six yeah oh my God look at you so beautiful I've never seen anything like this so worth every dollar I could have possibly spent go get the book it's a good time the Link's in the description texture over taste moving on to the 1920s and a major Milestone White Castle founded in 1921 it's widely considered the first fast food chain despite me not loving it now smells like poop maybe it was great back then so you're going to take a real small little slider Patty sear that on a flat top or pan season with salt and pepper to taste get a nice sear on it flip and add a little tiny piece of cheese by the way this is the way that it was made in 1921 they didn't do the whole steaming and all that stuff until the 1940s now you're going to add a little bit of grilled onion on top of that then you get your little slider bun Patty goes down add pickles tomato lettuce and Crown it this looks better than the original White Castle maybe it is better this is a toddler's Burger pretty good I wish they still made it like this I feel like white cast just stopped innovating after making this White Castle introduced centralized bakeries and basically General production of anything on their menu it was said at one point that the only thing that White Castle didn't do was raise the cow and grow the wheat themselves Big Ups everybody loves a hamburger this is the Kickstart to probably one of the most important foods in American history as far as fast bites and fast production I think that's about an eight I will also agree that it's an eight I'm going give it a seven so we're going to settle at a 7.5 thank you White Castle fast food got better from the previous decade because of you moving on on to the 1930s when the colonel himself no not me I'm not the colonel okay just stop it Harlin Sanders started pan frying and selling KFC his biggest Innovation was his secret 11 herbs and spices and 9 years later he switched from pan frying to pressure cooking and inevitably deep frying that's what made KFC fast obviously Nobody Knows the secret recipe but I know a recipe that beat theirs and that is my KFC meal but better recipe which we're picking up as we dredge our chicken in its flour FL mixture with my 11 herbs and spices the ingredients and method is in my recipe which is in the link in the description and now we pan fry in a cast iron skillet yes the old school way turning and flipping the chicken until beautifully deep fried and cooked through winner winner chicken dinner is that from KFC is that a KFC slogan no oh yeah the way that they did it with the seasonings and the 11 herbs and spices it's set such a foundation for what Fried Chicken is today they went from like a really fast hot service item to something that technically takes more time and is more difficult to produce and it tastes pretty good I've never loved KFC that much I don't think it's is that great but but in the 1930s but for the 1930s that would be hitting to take something that takes 25 minutes to a half hour to cook and be able to make that a serviceable item and still have a great depth of flavor is an improvement I'm going to give KFC a whopping nine on the Innovation scale I'm just going to give it a s and a half I'm going to go an eight well average it out Innovation scale of an eight great work KFC onto the 40s next up the 1940s McDonald's made maybe the biggest change ever starting in 1949 they replaced potato chips with french fries which they actually cooked in beef fat back then what happened to those days huh they ended this recipe in 1990 and replace the tala with Canola blend oil with beef flavoring well we're going to make it the OG way which is very similar to the recipe that's in my cookbook texture over taste if you don't have a copy the Link's in the description I love you so much but we're picking that up with the second fry gu they get fried twice they've been poached par fried and Frozen now we do our final fry in hot beef fat until beautifully golden Crispy Crunchy stun mouthwatering choca throwing level delicious we season it with salt generously and we taste everybody who ate the KFC and they were like wo wo wo and then they ate this and they were like good Lord I can just drive up somewhere and get this I'm kind of on the opposite point of this fries already existed McDonald's just made it fast to be in the 30s and have fast food probably just as good as being in the 40s for me it's a major Improvement before this restaurants were making chips can you imagine going to McDonald's ordering a quarter pounder and getting a side of chips with it how common were French fries back then I don't know that they were that common considering the number one staple at a fast food restaurant is a side of fries I feel like it's a pretty big jump but the level of ingenious maybe not huge yeah I need to stop eating this although minor I would say it's an improvement I'm going to give it a seven I'm going to give it a seven too I love french fries makes me happy I'm also going to give it a seven seven for the moving on on to the 1950s a little Florida chain called Burger King introduced a4b version of their flame broil burgers in 1957 they called it the Whopper that's right it cost fewer than 40 cents back then which honestly if you pay more than that today you're probably paying too much considering what you get but that's another story but what the is flame broiled from a restaurant perspective I don't know what they mean by that is it actually on a broiler oh it actually is literally a conveyor belt Broiler we don't have one so we decided to cook our Patty on a charcoal grill for that flame broiled flavor it's really about the beef fat popping on the hot heat and smoking and scenting the meat with its own hot fat kind of a beautiful thing now we have our Patty seasoned with salt and pepper searing it on both sides until cook through a little bit of American cheese to melt and then the Patty goes on a seated bun specifically a large one we sauce our top bun with mayo and then we add pickles ketchup onions tomatoes and lettuce Crown our King and we have essentially an older school but not too different from New School Whopper not that much better than the slider but what I love about it is you get a full meal here slider just like a little boy burger just a mansiz burger I feel like I had the opportunity to actually enjoy that compared to the slider did this push the industry forward enough to be the most impactful thing this is just a big slider I'm going to give it a four give it like a three we give it a three it's a three and a half on the Innovation scale so we're going to say didn't improve from the past decade moving on next up The Swinging 60s what does that mean what do they mean by that when Glenn Bell opened Taco Bell and helped popularize that hard shell taco he had first tried at nearby Mexican restaurants his customers first called them poos this is according to the Taco Bell website so here's how they do it you cook down some ground beef get it nice and fine season it with whatever their taco seasoning is Ed your seasoned beef to a taco shell followed by sour cream lettuce diced tomato and cold shredded cheese I've always hated that they did it this way the cheese stays cold and I don't understand why now we taste I grew up in a town with not a lot of culture this was my idea of Mexican food till I was probably 16 it tastes good but it's built for when you're under the influence Taco Bell is best enjoyed at 2: in the morning yeah it doesn't feel that Innovative to me but what do you think this was like in the' 60s tacos taco go historically Taco Bell did popularize a version of Mexican food maybe this was really revolutionary for them did this become better in the previous year I mean I guess yes because there was a new thing so we'll give it a score of four moving on on to the 1970s the RBS roast beef sandwich I don't know how they're doing now but they were selling like crazy back then supposedly but not like their burger competitors how do you boost your beef sandwich 1978 rolled around and they created something special the beef and cheddar sandwich somehow the sandwich today look like they were actually cooked and assembled in 1978 so there you go so we get our bun Arby sauce goes down a thick layer of your roast beef on top just with cheese sauce and then you Crown your king it's a simple sandwich I do like Beauty and simplicity so let's taste I mean this looks a lot like school lunch that's all I have to say about it this feels like it would have been invented in 1910 but somehow just got invented in 1970 this did everything for Arby's but nothing for fast food what was going on in the' 70s that they were like this is what the people need it's just a roast beef sandwich even with the perspective of where we're at now in fast food this wasn't inventive for the time I don't think I'm going to give it an inventiveness score of two I'm going to agree with the two I'm going to go three just because of what it did for Arby's logging in an inventive scale at 2.5 was this better than the previous year though I'd be happier with this than a hard shell taco same I'll let you guys have the majority on that I don't think I'd be happy with this any day slightly better than the previous decade moving on ah the80s McDonald's introduces arguably one of the most iconic fast food items in the world the McNugget funny enough the whole point was to try and convince Americans that they were better for you than beef the cool thing is chicken nuggets were supposedly first invented by a food scientists in the 1950s but they never took off until McDonald's did it like this so shout out to McDonald's we could forget about the pink goo and their breing looking like some sort of secret thing so I'm using my butt batter McNugget recipe picking it up as we dip our shaped nuggets into a thin batter followed by a flower mixture and finally into a tempor style batter this is very similar to how they do it in the factory it's sort of like a three- tier process we then immediately deep fry till golden brown delicious GB and immediately seasoned with salt now we taste you know I've always hated the McNugget but a chicken nugget is a special thing this is super revolutionary for the time you had that Fried Chicken from the 30s and now it's been turned into this really small bite-sized thing I think you can't get any more fast food than what this is to me it's an inventiveness of like seven because of the importance of the chicken nugget I will give it a six and a half I'm going to give it a score of seven an inventiveness score of seven but was this better than the previous decade yes yeah literally a foot would be a step up from the RB sandwich moving on finally into a decade that I was born the '90s going back into our childhood today one of the most unique inventions in fast food the Pizza Hut stuffed crust pizza I mean it's literally just a pizza dough and then they put cheese sticks around the entire outside of the edge folded it and baked it as usual it's not that big of a jump but I feel like in the' 9s food was kind of the same across the board so the second you have cheese in the crust people were like wo we're in the future brother and I respect that I remember feeling that way but does it really withstand the test of time let's find out a lot bread it's almost like a mozzarella stick type beat at the back and then you have the pizza at the front this is probably the point in time where fast food started to go wrong it was like let's just put things in other things and not make new things it's inventive but I don't think this was the step in the right direction I completely disagree I'm old enough to remember when this was introduced and it blew my mind and I still love stuffed crust pizza because of that like Nostalgia factor I don't think it's that inventive I think it tastes okay is it better than the previous generation of chicken nugget Edition maybe yes maybe no but inventiveness I'm going to give it a four I'd give it a five I'd give it a six that gets averaged out at a five moving on now hang on you might be thinking are the inventions over wrong the 2000s gave us one of the coolest Al be it craziest true honest inventions that actually stuck the McDonald's MCG griddle we all know what this is somehow McDonald's gets little syrup bombs built into their buns and thankfully we have our own method to do that so you sear a sausage patty I doubt they're searing them fresh so we're really making them look good here we got some fresh griddle cakes which we added cooked down crystallized maple syrup so that it would melt and turn into buckets of maple syrup flipped our griddle cakes cooked them through and then assembled by melting cheese in the bottom griddle cake drop down your sausage a folded scrambled egg and crowned our King this looks beautiful let's taste I'm a big fan I had a McGriddle this morning the fact that you used to have pancakes breakfast sausage eggs and now it's all combined into one small sandwich that you can take on the go I think that's huge for fast food this is a real invention a lot of these fast food things were introduced to fast food but they weren't invented by fast food this is an invention of fast food that honestly I will say I actually do like when I make it it's a very simple evolution of what already existed on the market I still think it's awesome today I would give this an innovation of 9 to 9 and a half yeah I'd give it a nine I'm going to give it a nine total score nine was it better than the previous year hell yes it was at least they were thinking for this one shout out to McDonald's that puts MCG griddle in the lead it's going to take a lot to beat this but we still have a few more now into the 2010s KFC kicked off the decade with the double down yeah I'm just going to say this one didn't stick but maybe it ranks well here so essentially the way it was made was marinated chicken going into the 11 herbs and spice strge you get a nice crackly crust and it gets deep fried this can be done with breast or thighs now we have two pieces of fried chicken that are boneless to be specific you take your monstrosity I mean your chicken first down goes white American cheese followed by bacon spread on some mayo on the other side of the piece of chicken and put the other piece of mayo spreaded Chicken on top and there you go Welcome to Hell there a massive tendon gross they're like beating the out of your taste buds they're like soft fat creamy crunchy my thoughts exactly I want like a good easy to eat meal on the go in my car it's not really there anymore and now you're kind of just in these wacky things like can you eat it I was in college when this thing came out and I thought it was the coolest thing in the world Jesus Christ cam tasting it just now I almost threw up better than the previous year absolutely not all these ingredients all these flavors already existed they just mashed them together and took the bun away inventiveness that's a one I'd also say about a one 20 tens were like the beginning of the Age of Excess and this is like a perfect sum up of that I'm going to give it a two just for college cam shout out College cam so I think we'll round that down to a 1.5 moving on to our final contestant the modern day how does the modern day size up with 100 Years of fast food let's find out the loaded nacho cheeseburger from Wendy's so it's a seared yes Square Patty for whatever reason seasoned nicely seared on both sides with a little bit of American cheese on on it you add your cheesy Patty to the bottom of a jalapeno cheddar bun they then add more cheese on top to be specific a pablano cheese sauce dredged fried crispy corn kernels tortilla chips lettuce tomato chipotle sauce on the inside of the top bun and you Crown your I don't even know if I want to call this a king do you feel like this is something new or does this feel like just throwing stuff on a burger there's only one way to find out oh my God do not smell it that's scary have you ever gotten too drunk at a football game ate a ton of nachos and thrown it up that's what that tastes like wo that is so specific this tastes like a jar of Tostito queso that was just microwaved and thrown on here I wish we could have eaten the one we made this was a bit difficult to eat that instantly gave me heartburn one could easily say that today's world is the Golden Age of fast food undoubtedly cuz you have unlimited options all across the globe and yet they're making things like this is this going to be around in the next 5 years no was it more inventive than the previous year no that's a one it's a one it's a one I think we might have stopped being inventive in the world of fast food starting 2010 2024 is here maybe it'll be better this year [Music] bye

Channel: Joshua Weissman

Views: 2,142,505

Keywords: sat bawl pro, joshua weissman, 100 years of food, kids try 100 years, 100 years of, gmm 100 years of food taste test, taste test, rhett link 100 years of food taste test, 100 years of school lunches taste test, 100 years of health food, 100 years of lunch, 100 years of candy, 100 years of beauty, 100 years of sandwiches, 100 years of burgers, 100 years of airplane food, 100 years of school lunch, mcdonalds, but better, fast food, burger recipe, fast food recipe, burgers

Id: Z9oI2WXhY3c

Length: 16min 19sec (979 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 28 2024