It tastes very similar, better in some ways, not as good in other ways. I like the patties I make better because I make them the way they did up until about the mid 1980s, i.e., on a regular griddle, flipped when one side is done to cook the other side. Now they use a clamshell griddle which cooks both sides at once. Also, I use real ground chuck; McDonald's now uses cheaper "ground beef." Plus I season them (while cooking) with a blend of salt, pepper, onion powder, and MSG, whereas McDonald's now uses only salt and pepper, probably because of the unwarranted bad publicity that MSG started getting in the 1980s.
I like the sour dill pickles I use better than McDonald's pickles too. McDonald's pickles are good, but the Heinz Genuine Dill pickles I use are the best (IMO), and very hard to find.
I like the cheese that McDonald's uses better than anything I can find in the store. I use Kraft Deli Deluxe American cheese (yellow), which is good, but it doesn't taste like McDonald's American cheese, which isn't sold in stores.
I don't notice any significant difference with the rest of the ingredients. I do miss out on having their fries and fountain Coke to go along with it though. Ore-Ida "fast food" fries, if you deep fry them, are pretty good, but they're not as good as McDonald's fries, and there's nothing that you can buy in a store that tastes like McDonald's fountain Coke. Mexican Coke is a decent substitute. It tastes nothing like McDonald's fountain Coke, but it's still very good in its own right.
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