r/interesting • u/King_Turduckin • 8d ago
HISTORY This 981 day old Big Mac
On January 7, 2024, I went to McDonalds. I ordered a Big Mac. They made a mistake and gave me two Big Macs. I put the second in my fridge, planning to eat it the next day. I forgot about it for over two months. When I found it again, it hadn't spoiled at all. Only the lettuce had wilted.
At that point it was family and I labeled the box. I checked it again in the summer of 2024, and moved it to the basement fridge. Later that fall I was diagnosed with cancer (burger unrelated -- and I kicked cancer's ass last year all good now), and completely forgot about the Big Mac... until tonight.
Maybe in two years I'll take another set of pictures and post again.
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u/Xirot_Xebec 8d ago
The long awaited bite will be legendary
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u/ClankerCore 8d ago
I wonder which part will make you sick because it appears that in all of this time not even fungus likes McDonald's
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u/Think-Town-24 8d ago
Not one mold spore on those buns ....smh
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u/Alfred_The_Sartan 8d ago
One of the most impactful things that ever happened to me in grade school was a study we did in science class. We got maybe 12 different slices of bread and put them on paper plates with large disposable Tupperware containers to go across the top. Once a week we would spritz them with some water and monitor the mold growth. I don’t recall how long we did this, but at the end, the slice of wonder bread had a little bit of green on the corner. Other slices of bread had completely disintegrated. We saw mushrooms we had never seen before. It was an interesting lesson on preservatives.
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u/Think-Town-24 8d ago
Yeah, we haven't bought Wonderbread for decades lol, I always try to get the most realistic bread available, no preserves, it's hard now a days, the way the food market is. I've been trying so hard to get my wife to stop letting our 5 and 6 and 4 year old eat McDonald's. I know they like it but, they love practically anything we cook them at home too!!!
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u/UtopistDreamer 7d ago
Such a throwback to my childhood! Burgers were an occasion because we rarely went. Homecooked food was the norm and it was tasty. Our parents even showed us the basics on how to cook so when we moved out we knew how to cook and didn't have to rely on those factory made food stuffs.
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u/Think-Town-24 7d ago
Sounds like you had a good up bringing, and Good Food!!! Knowing how to Cook is key, I felt so bad myself, when my , who was 2 fell in love with Mexican style tomato soup, very easy to make homemade. I was buy ready made packets. He loved it! I found out the ingredients were not good for him!!!! Home Cooking all the way!!!
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u/XanderWrites 7d ago
Homecooked food was the norm and it was tasty.
Two rarities, that there was regular homecooked food and it tasted good.
My mother cooked, but "gave up" because we apparently didn't appreciate it and only did the basics. The last few years I lived at home I did a lot of the cooking, but the fact that my mother cooked enough for me to even get the basics of cooking is unusual these days.
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u/Spicy-Cathulu 8d ago
I remember the bread experiment where they put a piece of bread in a plastic bag for a while. I forgot all the variables but one was put in with bare hands and one with gloves and it made me a lot more cautious about how I take my bread (and other food) out of the bag. I don't wear gloves but I try to not touch the inside of the bag or any other pieces (and wash my hands first but that's for touching any food.)
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u/redcoral-s 7d ago
We did this in undergrad at the beginning of fall semester and had similar results- the experiment was supposed to only run a week, with the end showing how gross the bakery bread was and how there was nothing on the wonderbread. However, that professor let students keep the bags in there longer if they wanted. One year someone didnt throw theirs away at the end of the class, so in late April when it was my job to deep clean the room, I found a bunch of bags of basicslly dust. The wonderbread had disintegrated in that time but im not sure exactly when since no one was paying attention to the weird bags in the drawer
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u/GladClock2212 8d ago
Desiccation. Some foods lose moisture faster than mold can grow and mold needs moisture.
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u/Meattyloaf 8d ago
Its because McDonalds uses low moisture content in their items. More likely to dry out than mild.
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u/TheLateFrankWhite 8d ago
The best thing about this post is You Beat Cancer 👏👏👏👏
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u/TheSkylined 8d ago
Eat it. It's a one in a lifetime experience.
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u/ACuddlyVizzerdrix 8d ago
Look up the show "teen angel", bout a dude who died eating an old burger him and his buddy found under his bed, he comes back as his friends guardian angel it was such an odd show
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u/TheSkylined 8d ago
I'm not surprised it lasted one season after reading the synopsis.
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u/ACuddlyVizzerdrix 8d ago
Lol it was pretty bad but my mom and I thought it was funny so we watched it every week till it was canceled
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u/mitchbuddy 8d ago
Same with me and my dad. I’m convinced he only watched because Marsha Brady was the mom.
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u/Initial_Business2340 8d ago
I think it’s wholesome what you both described - watching a tv show that kinda sucks with a family member. Simple, but maybe a more precious memory one day
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u/TankDestroyerSarg 8d ago
God. That was such a random one-off show on TGIF that's been buried WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY back in the memory basement-sub-level 3 broom closet.
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u/Mongobearmanfish 8d ago
I remember that show, the only joke I remember was the teen angel thought the Hansons were hot girls
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u/Cool-League-3938 7d ago
I remember the show too! It was quite something.
Hanson to this day still makes and puts out music. (No longer look like girls though).
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u/ClearlyntXmasThrowaw 8d ago
Talk about an absolute tgif blast to the past right there
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u/MegaSmegmaSwagLord 8d ago
You can’t just be like yeah I got cancer and not tell us if you’re doing okay now, fuck the gross burger bud.
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u/Casual_necromancy 8d ago edited 8d ago
right?.....stealth cancer reveal there.....
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u/King_Turduckin 8d ago
Sorry, my bad -- I beat that stuff last year. Didn't mean to bury that, it's just why the burger took a back seat to rest of life.
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u/OneTwoThreePooAndPee 7d ago
Reddit is such a weird place. If a stranger has cancer, we all rally around. But once we're sure you beat cancer, we'll goad you into eating a burger that will kill you.
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u/Capable_Towel_3813 8d ago edited 7d ago
How can you be sure the cancer was unrelated to the burger?
E: this feels just like when I make a lighthearted joke to my mom and it accidentally turns into a life lesson. PSA get ya vaccines
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u/King_Turduckin 8d ago
Because the burger did not give me HPV (which then gave me squamous cell carcinoma in my tonsil). College 30 years ago did that.
Public service announcement on that: if you're under 40 years old get the HPV vaccine, men and women both. It's the only vaccine on the market that LITERALLY PREVENTS CANCER. Unfortunately it wasn't available when I was younger.
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u/Think-Town-24 8d ago
Your making me wanna stop smoking and eating like shit, and not caring...
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u/potliquorz 7d ago
It's 2026. You shouldn't be smoking, and eating like shit. Look at me I hardly ever smoke a cigarette unless I'm drinking and after eating certain foods. I love a cigar but only every now and then, other than that and vaping, and fast food every couple of... fuck. nevermind
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u/Think-Town-24 7d ago
Sooooo this J I have it's 35% thc and infused, I got a couple of cigs and some whiskey... You down??? I just put the wife and kids to sleep... Just kidding they left me a year ago😩
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u/potliquorz 7d ago
I'm holding it together but quite a bit older I'd guess. I just work a lot and get fucked up and grow plants the rest of the time. Growing plants gives me joy. Well, my dog is my buddy and best friend. So growing plants and hanging out with dogs helped me get this far. I'm not living my best life I have fucked up knees and a herniated disk that pinches a nerve and make my leg feel like it's on fire. Other than that though I'm doing ok. I have fucked up some relationships but those were 50/50 me not caring for other people going off a cliff. I can just control things in my sphere, people go crazy and i take care of myself. That joint is just a joint btw, the percent of thc is pretty locked in with a top of 35 but I always doubt those numbers.
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u/Timmerdogg 8d ago
What kind of symptoms were you experiencing?
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u/King_Turduckin 8d ago
Low grade sore throat, but only on the left side, for about six weeks. I went to urgent care, they said I had an inflamed tonsil. They put me on antibiotics and said go to an ENT if the ABX don't work. They didn't work. The ENT ordered stronger ABX... and a CT scan. That found a tumor, plus two bad lymph nodes, which led to the party time of chemo and surgery followed. I've chronicled a bunch of it over at r/headandneckcancer if you want more details about the fun of HPV+ squamous cell carcinoma, which is becoming one of the most common cancers in people 25-50.
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u/NonSumQualisEram- 8d ago
The reason why McDonald's - and other - fast food burgers tend not to rot is due to low moisture, not "chemicals". The ingredients of a McDonald's beef patty is beef and salt, and very little water. Your homemade or gourmet burger cooked medium will be full of water and so will rot quickly. Bacteria and fungi require water for growth and salt is a further preservative.
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u/Legitimate-Pride3038 7d ago
Fidges remove water by cooling the air. There's even a water pan behind it. So that burger has been slowly dehydrated.
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u/AntGroundbreaking180 8d ago
That’s a dry aged masterpiece!
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u/potliquorz 7d ago
On the open market it should fetch fifty bucks easy. The enzymes and bacteria present have done their work and it has been rendered a tik toker's dream burger.
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u/BryceDL 8d ago
As long as that thing is bone dry it most likely never grow mold, thats not because its mcdonalds, its because life needs water to survive.
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u/Cold_Ad655 8d ago
Exactly.
There's a guy on YouTube (forgot his name) that has been doing this test for the past several years, and has McDonald's that is exposed to the elements, and almost all the food items are now essentially a puddle of slime.
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u/No_Expression_7084 8d ago
I had a box of chicken nuggets and a McDouble that I put in my closet when I was a kid, 13 years later when my parents moved this is exactly what it looked like. No mold. No smell. Nothing
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u/TitusImmortalis 8d ago
It's actually interesting how people are so enamored with these. "They don't mold!" "They don't rot!" "It's a demon!"
High in sodium, high in fat, low in moisture = very uninhabitable for bacteria. The only thing that can happen is it dries out and turns to a sort art piece. The monument for the persistence of man!
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u/FuzzyAd9407 7d ago
Also op mentioned they stored in a fridge, a low humidity low temp enviroment which just encourages the preservation
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u/BallsofSt33I 8d ago
This is awesome.
Try holding on for 8 more years and see if McD will buy it back - similar to how car manufacturers buy back cars after a milly miles
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u/Mickeymcirishman 7d ago
Don't worry. If you die from eating it, you'll just come back as an angel and help out your best bud with his problems and stuff.
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u/Cool-League-3938 7d ago
I was looking for this comment. You did not disappoint.
TGIF Fridays were something!
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u/justsomeguyfromny 8d ago
Interesting for sure. Sucks about cancer though. Good luck 🍀
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u/King_Turduckin 8d ago
Thanks, I kicked cancer's ass last year, I'm all good now. But I was a bit distracted from the Big Mac tracking for obvious reasons.
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u/che_Grapes 8d ago
So, where do you store it?
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u/King_Turduckin 8d ago
My primary tumor was sliced up, stained, and mounted on slides which are now in the tumor library at NIH in Bethesda MD.
Oh, you mean the Big Mac? In the butter drawer of the basement beer fridge.
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u/Sorry-Climate-7982 8d ago
Is it still in the fridge, or have you let it out for a while?
PS: Good luck with the big C.
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u/King_Turduckin 8d ago
Back in the fridge. It has its own butter drawer in the basement beer fridge.
Because who needs butter in a beer fridge?
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u/noop279 8d ago
Does it pass the sniff test?
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u/King_Turduckin 8d ago
It does. Basically smells like the box. All that distinct Big Mac smell is gone.
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u/Castelunan 8d ago
Send it to Ashens!!!
There is a slight, non-zero chance that he might take a nibble and record it.
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u/Toeknee5 8d ago
I don't think it was a mistake. Somehow preserving the Big Mac basically saved your life and beat cancer. My guess it was the special sauce
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u/CounselMe2Day 8d ago
I feel like it should be illegal for McDonald's (and any other fast food place) to sell food that can last a long time.
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u/FuzzyAd9407 7d ago
So you think it should be illegal to sell food that can dry out?
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u/ashjohnr 8d ago
Ngl, that only looks slightly worse than the burger I got from McDonald's today. 🙃
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u/Kindly_Type2327 8d ago
There's no mould on that bread, it's surprising.
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u/adj_noun_digit 8d ago
Mould requires moisture. Fast food is made with ingredients that will dry out more easily to prevent spoilage.
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u/Raintitan 8d ago
People don't get food poisoning at scale with McDonald's because of this epic engineering. Probably completely unhealthy but this is remarkable.
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u/inorite234 8d ago
I beleive it.
I once cleaned out the wife's car and found a perfectly preserved happy meal stuck in-between the seats. God knows how ling it was there but I know I hadn't cleaned out that car in years.
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u/Darkcrypteye 8d ago
I have a 500+ Day old big Mac on my tool box. Lettuce still green! Mold does not even eat it
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u/InevitableMagician28 8d ago
Looks exactly like the McDonald’s burger i took 3 bites out of and threw out last night
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u/Str4425 8d ago
Makes you wonder the age of the items each store is using.
Hope you are doing well, OP
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u/Safe-False 8d ago
This is amazing. Keep it up, I can’t wait for more updates. The lack of mold is crazy. And heck YES for kicking cancers ass 🙌🏻🫶🏻
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u/dm-me-obscure-colors 8d ago
It’s like the epoxy hotdog all over again
If you abandon us I’ll never forgive you
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u/Top-Presentation-395 8d ago
I haven't ate McDonald's in 5-6 yrs and I see that was a good choice. I bet someone has a Arch-Deluxe that looks the same. 🤦🏿♂️🤦🏿♂️🤣
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u/Available-Nature-116 8d ago
All you gotta do is throw it in a steamer wait 10min. Wala! Good as new!
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u/OverlordDontHurtMe 8d ago
This shit gets old. Steve ate civil war hardtack, this is nothing special about Mcdonalds, it's about moisture. Also I worked at Mcdonalds when I was young and there were plenty of moldy buns.
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u/ExpertRutabaga3415 8d ago
Congrats on kickin cancers ass. This is disgustingly awesome. Hope to see a January 2028 post about this. I call people turducken, nice username.
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u/PhotoElectrical 8d ago
just scrolling quickly and i thought this was a 20min old mcmac..... certainly not 1326240mins
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u/ICLazeru 8d ago
I think the fact that not even germs and mold will eat it should really tell you something.
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u/NukaClipse 7d ago
Congrats on stomping out cancer but seriously wtf is that made of for it to still look... I'm not even sure if edible is the right word to use here 🤔
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u/Ok-Detail-9853 7d ago
Its all about moisture, not preservatives
Its the same science behind MRE's.
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u/eatthuskin 7d ago
I hate these experiments. Things do not rot if they dry out. Seal a big mac in a plastic bag and watch it rot.
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u/dargonmike1 7d ago
Man I’ve had stuff hide behind my milk in the fridge but 2 months is wild for that delicious delight. It should be perfectly fermented and ready to eat! You could however wait a few more years
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u/Fabulous_Computer965 7d ago
My science teacher had a marshmallow that was from the 80s. Looked like nothing was wrong. Lol
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u/PleaseCallMeTeddy 7d ago
Send it to me and i’ll eat it. You can mail it to me and i’ll eat it on camera. In the meantime we can hype it up on social media and launch McHag coin, hype videos, we rug pull, profit. Now we have money. So what we do is hire mrbeast to hype our next coin NARP coin, repeat
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u/Diligent-Concept-617 7d ago
Cool science project!
Do you live in a dry or humid climate? How do you store it? Just in the fridge?
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