Steers vs Burger King

Keeper said:
He's sitting at home with a plate of his home cooked Primavera Lasagna with imported italian spices, posting on some small forum :D
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I would rather have what he is chowing than some dry cardboard tasting muslim burger :D
 
sand_man said:
The brand was established on the back of its famous BBQ sauce, homemade chips, the Steer burger and the Hero Steak Roll. Personally I think it's something of a tragedy that the item should have deteriorated to the extent that it has.
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*sigh* sad indeed :( Less and less reason to choose Steers over Nandos, McD's or now BK.
 
Steers burgers used to be very very tasty. Of late (last year or two) I have completely gone off them as they just seem more bland. Its almost as if they stopped using the secret sauce or something. I honestly prefer McD's to Steers right now mainly due to value for money reasons. Hope Burger King comes up to JHB so that I can compare. Never eaten at BK before. These days the only burgers I buy are at sit down places, not take away joints.
 
Cius said:
Steers burgers used to be very very tasty. Of late (last year or two) I have completely gone off them as they just seem more bland. Its almost as if they stopped using the secret sauce or something. I honestly prefer McD's to Steers right now mainly due to value for money reasons. Hope Burger King comes up to JHB so that I can compare. Never eaten at BK before. These days the only burgers I buy are at sit down places, not take away joints.
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They stopped using volcanic rock to cook the burgers.

A real pity. Steers doesn't taste like Steers anymore.
 
Chevron said:
They stopped using volcanic rock to cook the burgers.

A real pity. Steers doesn't taste like Steers anymore.
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Can you elaborate a bit? I saw them grilling as they usually do. I suspect all fast food burgers and hot dogs are going to taste different ever since the pink slime and the Water Buffalo saga.
 
Hosehead said:
Can you elaborate a bit? I saw them grilling as they usually do. I suspect all fast food burgers and hot dogs are going to taste different ever since the pink slime and the Water Buffalo saga.
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If you go back 1 or 2 pages in the thread you'll see it explained properly.

Reading a thread before posting is usually a good idea ;)
 
Hosehead said:
Can you elaborate a bit? I saw them grilling as they usually do. I suspect all fast food burgers and hot dogs are going to taste different ever since the pink slime and the Water Buffalo saga.
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Between the gas burners and the patties you have a bottom grate, volcanic rock and then the top grate. That changed about 3-4 years ago. Now you have gas burner, top grate, patties. No more volcanic rock.

Still flame grilled but without the drama the volcanic rock brings to the process.
 
sand_man said:
There been 2 major changes to the way Steers prepare their beef patties that could have altered the over all customer exprience for the better/worse.

Not too sure of the timeline but originally our precooked beef patties were kept in a bainmarie in a thin bbq solution which was basically water and Steers BBQ sauce. The purpose of this was to keep the patty moist and hot and for the most part it worked well.

Then due to changing health regulations Steers moved to the current system where the patties are kept in the bainmarie but no longer in a thin bbq solution but rather a stainless steel insert with holes drilled through it in specific areas allowing hot steam into the closed container thus keeping the patties moist, hot and more importantly, at a temperature where bacteria cannot grow IE above 60C. This steaming process tends to dry and dehydrate the patties out over time and doesn't work as well as the thin bbq solution did (IMHO). Within 10 minutes, a cooked patty sitting in the bainmarie can lose up to 6% of its net weight. Patties not sold within an hour of being cooked are discarded.

The most significant change and the one that I reckon may have had an adverse effect for the customer was to the grill and the grilling procedure.
In the past Steers used gas grills which made use of volcanic rock. It's this volcanic rock and the way the meat cooks that gives it its flavour and character.

Now Steers still uses gas grills but they've done away with the volcanic rock. The benefits for the franchisee are significant. The grills reaches optimum temperature a lot quicker as there is no volcanic rock to heat up. Cleaning the grill is a lot easier, as again, there is no volcanic rock to clean. The savings on gas usage as well is significant as burners are hot enough running at 60% as opposed to 85%-100% when using rock.

The downside: the taste profile of the end product is too clean and clinical, almost synthetic and has lost the smoked, char grilled, seasoned character only a volcanic rock based grilling procedure can bring to a cooked piece of meat or patty.

As for BK and their decision to go halaal. I personally believe it's the wrong one. McDonalds went the same route and I can tell you they haven't been nearly as successful locally as they would have liked. 170 branches in almost 20 years is well below their expected rate of growth.

Anyway time will tell...
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Thanks for the explanation. Makes so much sense. Steers burgers these days are so dry (from the steaming vs the sauce) and that has put me off completely. Also I see what you are saying about volcanic rock. I braai on volcanic rock and its a huge difference! I suspect if Steers did not have their awesome chips they would be closing store left right and center.
 
After trying both I can say... steers is still pretty good, the small chips of steers is the equivalent of a burger king "medium" chips. The whopper tasted similar to the everyday awesome but more filling.
 
sand_man said:
Between the gas burners and the patties you have a bottom grate, volcanic rock and then the top grate. That changed about 3-4 years ago. Now you have gas burner, top grate, patties. No more volcanic rock.

Still flame grilled but without the drama the volcanic rock brings to the process.
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Thank you.
 
Yesterday I had probably one of the best Steers burgers I've ever had.

Bacon and Avo.

Delicious.
 
Chevron said:
Yesterday I had probably one of the best Steers burgers I've ever had.

Bacon and Avo.

Delicious.
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I would like to try this as well.... But not sure which steers in Cape Town serves bacon AKA not halaal(kosher source mod 2.0)
 
Sand Man will you be able to confirm if there's been a spike in bacon burger orders this past weekend?

Myself and a few friends all independently went and got bacon Steers burgers due to burger king not having it.
 
Recently I've had a steers burger at 2 different branches and both were pink or medium rare in the centre... now I like my beef rare but not frozen patties! I still ate it though, ecoli and all.
 
Chevron said:
Sand Man will you be able to confirm if there's been a spike in bacon burger orders this past weekend?

Myself and a few friends all independently went and got bacon Steers burgers due to burger king not having it.
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Will have a closer look at sales and revert. I can tell you we been a lot busier than usual heading for mid month. That is partially due to the power failure in and around parts of Kempton Park but I'm sure, whether subliminal or consciously, people are after burgers at the mo...

Aqua_lung said:
Recently I've had a steers burger at 2 different branches and both were pink or medium rare in the centre... now I like my beef rare but not frozen patties! I still ate it though, ecoli and all.
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Mmmm by default we cook our patties med-well. Because they get kept in a bainmarie prior to selling they should be cooked medium as they will literally "steam boil" in the bainmarie (we have 60 minutes to sell them or they get discarded).

If your patties were properly defrosted and just under cooked you actually getting a patty with less ecoli than one that would have been med-well after sitting in the bainmarie for anywhere between 30-60 minutes.

Our patties are made from poor ground beef so there's no risk of contamination due to under cooking as one would expect from under cooked chicken or pork and some types of fish.
 
sand_man said:
Mmmm by default we cook our patties med-well. Because they get kept in a bainmarie prior to selling they should be cooked medium as they will literally "steam boil" in the bainmarie (we have 60 minutes to sell them or they get discarded).

If your patties were properly defrosted and just under cooked you actually getting a patty with less ecoli than one that would have been med-well after sitting in the bainmarie for anywhere between 30-60 minutes.

Our patties are made from poor ground beef so there's no risk of contamination due to under cooking as one would expect from under cooked chicken or pork and some types of fish.
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lol ok, was not expecting that... a steers rep on mybb, :D
my steers before has always been fully cooked through though, but med-well is what I like. good to know thanks.
 
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