Fast Food 101: How Wendy's Makes Chili

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Fast Food Workers Of Reddit Tell You What Not To Eat

Posted: 07/06/2012 12:01 pm

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/06/fast-food-reddit_n_1654025.html

Wendy's Chili: While not as traditionally disgusting as some other fast food traditions, we found Cozmo23's description of the chili recipe at Wendy's to be pretty stomach-churning -- "The meat comes from hamburger patties that sat on the grill too long to serve to customers. They take them and put them in a bin and then throw them in the fridge. When the chili is made they take it out, boil it, chop it up and dump them in the chili."

[texanwitch]

1. And they put beans in it.

No beans in chilil

[Major Nikon]

2. I don't see anything wrong with it

If the meat is on the grill for an extended period of time, it's going to be well pasteurized so not as much worry about E.coli or other pathogens. It just makes sense to use meat rather than throwing it out. I do the same thing at home. When I have left over meat from roasts or steaks, I'll often put it in the fridge and make stew out of it the next day.

[jplong51]

19. Excellent way of non waste

I find Wendy's chili as one of the best I've ever eaten............I was a cook in the Army and I would like to share with you a non waste of food preparation tht the Army regcipe book called for
One of our breakfast foods called out was the famous S.O.S........It was ground beef with cream sauce served on toast or biscuits....Usually we had leftover as alot of troops did not like it
Now the ingenius conservation of meat.....The Army cook book called for the ingenius conservation of leftover S.O.S .sauce.....We were to completely rinse off the cream sauce in large collanders and guess how and where the rinsed meat ended up...........On S.O.S. breakfast days , the lunch menu called for spaghetti with meat sauce
Yes , that leftover ground meat was used in Tomato sauce and believe me it was very good and I found it to be a very conservative way for non waste..
So I commend Wendy's for apply this similar practice for creating their excellent chili.................JPL

[EvolveOrConvolve]

3. Honestly, it sounds a lot like the way I make my chili

Leftover meat is great in chili and a good way to re-use it.

[4th law of robotics]

7. Traditionally chili *ought* to be made with otherwise discarded meat

like complaining that they don't use 100% angus ribeye to make hot dogs.

Yeah, it's going to be pig anus. You knew that going in. The deal is it's delicious and we all agree not to think about it.

[yellowcanine]

15. Now I am wondering what wine goes best with pig anus?

[Incitatus]

17. A nice Pinot noir should do the trick. nt

[yellowcanine]

18. I usually save the Pinot Noir for the pig feet.

[Motown_Johnny]

4. What a stupid thing to say. Of course you use the extra burger patties in the chili.

Do you want them to throw them out and waste that food?

The chili is going to cook forever (metaphorically) anyways. Having the meat precooked means nothing.


I like Wendy's chili. I don't eat it when it is 100 degrees out, like it has been lately, but when it drops below 40 I have been known to indulge every now and then.

[Mosby]

5. I don't believe it

The chili probably comes pre-made in a bag that they warm up.

A lot of the comments seem fishy - deep fried bacon? Really?

[sharp_stick]

9. We used to deep fry bacon

years ago when we were getting stomped and nobody had time to prepare it.

It actually turns out rather well but you have to yank it out pretty quickly.

[kurtzapril4]

12. Nope. I worked at Wendy's

They use their un-sold hamburgers, and make it at the restaurant.

[4th law of robotics]

6. One of those things that sounds bad on first glance, but makes perfect sense

chili was originally used as a way to dispose of low quality meat. Like stew in other cultures.

The hamburger patties wouldn't be good for burgers (too dry) but after being boiled and mixed with spices and sauce? Ought to be fine.

[Kaleva]

8. Perfectly good way to use burgers IMO.

[Chan790]

10. I'm just glad they're finding a way to use it rather than trash it.

The more meat they use that would have been trash, the less meat they need to buy...the less meat they need to buy, the less cows they kill.

This vegetarian approves. I knew there was a reason Wendy's french fries and frosty were my go-to fast-food cheats.

[dawg]

11. This is how they are able to keep fresh meat on the grill at all times.

At Wendy's, you get a fresh burger straight from the grill. No pre-made burgers sitting around under heat lamps. They are able to do this because of the chili.

If no one orders a burger in time, and the patties get overdone, they just go into the chili.

I know, because it was my job to make the chili.

And as easily grossed-out as I am, I still like eating Wendy's chili to this day.

[AngryOldDem]

14. I like their chili, too.

I kind of had a yen for it recently, in fact, even though the temp outside was 105.

And like many here I would rather see the meat go toward this rather than out to the Dumpster.

[hifiguy]

13. What's wrong with using leftover hamburgers

in chili? Seems sensible to me. Chili cooks for a long time and the slightly dry meat will get nicely moistened up in the spice and tomato mixture.

[yellowcanine]

16. Regardless, it beats out most other fast food chili, imo.

Certainly better than that stuff which comes out of a machine at a 7-11 to put on your hot dog.