Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I grew up in Oklahoma and think that we often get overlooked in regionaist culinary scene. BBQ is a perfect example. I know of no other place where you can get equally good pork and beef barbeque or ANY place that does beef ribs as well. When I lived in North Carolina I had a hard time convincing anyone that it was even possibe to barbeque a beef rib. I still remember Elliots Original on Brookside. Best beef ribs ever. Hickory sauce came warm on the side in one of those diner style metal creamers. And what about bologna? I love bbq'd bologna (as do a lot of folks in Oklahoma) but I've never seen it available outside of the Sooner State.

O M G

definitely jelly on top BECAUSE that way the PB doesn't stick to the roof of my mouth. This is from an anti-PBJ/peanutbutter in general person though.

long post ahead to answer the simple question for the above post

French Fries(FF) animal style like everything else on the "secret menu" came to be at the request of our customers. Before 2000, FF animals did not exist, animal style burgers did. In 2001-02, one customer must have asked some cashier if they could melt some cheese and put that on the FF. Thus the birth of the animal FF.

In 2002, we did not have button for animal FF on the order taking screen. We just charged the customer 40 cents for the two extra cheese and the cook would make the animal FF. There was also no policies on making FF animals. Some cooks melted chz on them, then put some fried mustard in the grill onions, added a little chop pickles along with the grill onions and spread. This was the true animal FF because it had the same extra condiments that went on the animal burgers.

The problem with this was that this is an extremely time consuming process. The FF has to come out early for the cook to make them animal style. It also took grill space to melt cheese. Not a huge deal when you made animal FF once or twice a month. When animal FF started spreading like crazy, they became very inconvenient.

The only way to make everything fresh and to order, is to have a very simple menu. One kind of bun, one kind of cheese, basic condiments. No bacon, sesame buns, chicken sandwiches etc. The cooks sees how the customer wants their burger and makes it that way. Animal FF takes a huge toll on the cook. They are fairly simple to make, but during a rush when the cook has to make some 80+ burgers/30min all with different condiments, they are just rhythm killers. They are wrenches in the cooking mechanism.

The company saw this too late and animal FF became much too popular for them to just say no when the customer ordered one. The are very few complaints about in-n-out as a company. The two big ones are lack of a menu variety and the other is wait time. The first one is never going to change because the INO foundation is built on fresh food made to order. The second one is caused by this ideology. A burger will take about 5 mins to cook from the time you order it, no matter what. During the rush this will increase and animal FF will not help. So the next best thing the company did to try and slow down the FF animal popularity was to make them very expensive.

A Double Double, THE all American Cheese, 100% beef patty, on slow rising true sponge dough with granulated sugar, with ace grade tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and secret spread cooked to order became the 2nd most expensive item behind some FF with 2 slice of cheese on them and some condiments. Imagine if FF animals cost $1.75 instead of $3+. The not so great wait time would be horrendous with the amount of FF animals made. This is why if you don't know about animal FF you never will, animal FF will never be advertised by the company and they will never ever appear on the official menu. Heck, they don't even advertise them on their official website on their secret menu tab.

So yea, they are expensive, and yea they are good. At least, some stores are now retrofitted with steam machine that will melt the cheese, making them a little easier to make, but still very time consuming. FF animals are the biggest thing to change for INO since they added Dr. Pepper in like 1997. Keeping it simple and fresh is the INO motto and FF animals are not simple. Just be glad they didn't axe them like the famous 5X5 and bigger burgers we used to make.

Thanks for reading and thanks for making my check possible every 2 weeks.

I stir matcha into mine sometimes, usually when I'm eating it as a late night snack before bed. Morning oatmeal is cinnamon (lots), cloves, nutmeg, and ground ginger with a spoonful of either buckwheat honey or molasses.

I top my oatmeal with a dash of cinnamon.

I just discovered this post, it looks a little old but I'll share my favorite toppings too. I use quaker old fashioned oats with honey, currants, and margarine. In fact, I just ate that for breakfast this morning! :)

Alice01 and pjracz10: Drumettes are white meat! Some say the whole wing is white, but the flat portion is moist like dark meat.

@Perky, I did get the joke, I only eat the junk in the hospital if I'm desperately starved, and nowhere else! I imagine it's a staple because it's mushy and easy to digest, though I'd rather have extra fake mashed potatoes, I must admit I find those tasty, given the environment served in.

No, I wouldn't be topping my precious NY Style Cheesecake with it!! haha. eck. And while my mom is pretty frittata creative, if I saw a Jello frittata, I'd send her to my specialists!

Way - I love a relish tray! But then, I love pickles and olives. When my family has a holiday, my sister puts out a relish tray just for me (or so she says) but EVERYONE eats from it - she just doesn't realize it because they eat from it while I'm making it up instead of at the table.

Jerzee, please provide us with the history of the relish tray and its effect on pop culture in recent years. Thanks so much, ;)

WAY and you can still get the relish tray at Lenny's in Clearwater, FL. It's a great breakfast and lunch place right off 19. The veggies take the edge off my appetite. They have tomato salad, beets, cole slaw, and cucumber salad. My favorite relish tray item was chick pea salad from Richelieu restaurant on 18th Avenue and 65th street in Brooklyn way back in the 70's and early 80's.

WAY! I love my antique divided dishes, cut glass and flower-etched glass varieties. I usually use them for olives, spiced almonds, candies, and other non-relish items. I did break them out recently for my retro dinner party, which featured devilled eggs, tomato aspic, three bean salad, and of course the divided dishes with gherkins, beetroot cubes, sour onions, and bread and butter pickles. A hit!

Absolutely WAY! I use them all the time and I don't even need an occasion. I like to read a book and have a cheese and olive tray there to snack on. It's always so much nicer if you present everything as nicely for yourself as you would for a party. I'm very big on "the presentation is everything".
I do it for the kids and their friends after school too. With fruits and veggies and grilled cheese triangles. Their friends love it.
And what Lemons said about Jello on the hospital tray. I was on a clear liquids only diet once and really came to look forward to the one "solid" thing I got to eat. That and sherbet, who knew that counted as a clear liquid?