Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

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.

This is the worst Americanized rip-off of Poutine I've ever seen!

http://i165.photobucket.com/albums/u51/witchywife/Poutine2.jpg

I finally tried animal style fries and I didn't care for it. I did love the dressing on the fries so now I order extra dressing on the side for my fries. Haven't tried a burger that way but I will.

those fries look like the dressing lord took a diahrrea on them... but they look good, id like to have mine with ranch if its possible..

so nast. i still order it though. must use fork.

I'm jonesing for In-N-Out now, again. It's probably unhealthy to think back on fast food with a desire more intense than that for filet mingon, but the taste, sight, and smell refuse to leave my head. Unfortunately I had forgotten about the animal style option on my last chance to dine there.

On Five Guys vs. In-N-Out, I don't see the comparison. Sure Five Guys is good, but their bun is crap and their meat lacks in beefy flavor when put side to side. As far as fries go, I like both, Five Guys have better texture, but In-N-Out has better flavor.

@ PommeDG - my bad about the chili, but still, this sounds and looks weird to me...

Here's the full secret burger menu: http://echopic.com/3jmb/full

By the way, on the animal style burger they put pickles on too, which don't come stock on the regular burger, that saves a step from what I did for years which was cheeseburger grilled onions and pickles. But their fries are shite. They are only fried once, and are limp and cardboardy as a result, I have asked for them well done and they come out as crisp husks of what were fries. Not good either way.

although i've never had burgers or fries animal style, in-n-out is ALWAYS my first stop from the airport when i go home to california. mmmmmmmm!

@BITTER Those aren't chili fries. Just American cheese and grilled onions under the "pink sauce" (1000 Island dressing).

OMG--this is awesome news--In 'n' Out is a beautiful thing: http://alisoneats.wordpress.com/2008/11/02/best-fast-food/