Why are these burgers so good you might even trade your own child for one?

Read on to fully grasp the hustle behind the legendary In-N-Out burger.

It all starts with the meat.

One reason the chain has never expanded to the East Coast is that they have a firm policy of never opening a restaurant more than a day's drive from one of their meat processing plants.

That ensures their locations always have fresh meat.

How fresh?

None of their restaurants have freezers or microwaves.

In 2017, Carl Van Fleet, the then vice president of planning and development at In-N-Out, told Business Insider,

"At In-N-Out Burger, we make all of our hamburger patties ourselves and deliver them fresh to all of our restaurants with our own delivery vehicles… nothing is ever frozen.

Our new restaurant locations are limited by the distance we can travel from our patty-making facilities and distribution centers."

And at the In-n-Out distribution facilities, they grind the meat themselves using carefully inspected whole chucks from cattle chosen just for In-N-Out.

According to In-N-Out's official website, the resulting beef is, quote, "100% USDA ground chuck—free of additives, fillers and preservatives."

If that doesn't make you want to buy a hamburger, we don't know what will!

"I would like to buy a hamburger!"

"I would like to buy a hamburger!"

"I would like to buy a hamburger!"

"I would like to buy a hamburger!"

It's not just the meat that's fresh, tough.

The veggies practically crawled right out of the ground and directly onto your plate.

According to In-N-Out, the iceberg lettuce that tops their burgers is, quote, "hand leafed."

Every morning, associates slice fresh onions and tomatoes, in addition to sorting through lettuce.

A former In-n-Out employee told Delishably,

"After working at In-N-Out, I can say without a doubt that it's the cleanest, freshest 'fast food' you can ever have […] lettuce, tomato and onions are prepared in the morning for fresh produce throughout the day."

The employee also revealed that beside condiments, the only items that aren't prepared fresh in store and that do come in packages are the drinks, chili peppers, and the burger's infamous spread, which is basically just a variation of Thousand Island dressing.

Everybody has their own firm opinion about onions, which is why In-N-Out offers so many option.

Normally, the burgers come with a slice of fresh onion, unless specified otherwise in your order.

And mind you, it's a whole, legit slice, not just a single ring or a couple of rings.

You can also order them diced, or you can also ask for the onions to be grilled, which essentially means they're caramelized onions.

You can also ask for a grilled whole onion!

Heck, with that many options, they should probably just change the name of the joint to In-N-Out Onions.

Getting the beef to bun ratio right is never easy.

“Where's the beef?”!

"Some hamburger places give you a lot less beef on a lot of bun."

"Where's the beef?!"

But In-N-Out seems to have gotten it just right, with soft, fresh, and delicious buns made at another family-owned Southern California institution, Puritan Bakery.

Since the 1930s, the establishment has ensured the finest quality buns by not skipping any crucial steps in the dough making process.

The powers that be at In-N-Out describe the buns on their website as "baked using old fashioned, slow-rising sponge dough," and the result of the seven-hour bread making process is a burger holder that is both spongy and pliable, and very pleasing to the palate.

And In-N-Out has also nailed the other ratios involved in a perfect burger too.

The patty isn't too thick, which gives a cheese to meat ratio that leans slightly more cheesy than other restaurants.

And the thinner patty also allows the condiments to shine a little more, without overshadowing the tasty beef.

Mmm.

In-N-Out doesn't really mess with anything except burgers and their perfect side pairings, fries and shakes.

While other famous chains like Carl's Jr. and McDonald's tout tons of ever-changing menu items, In-N-Out offers less than 15.

In-N-Out CEO Lynsi Snyder told Forbes, "It's not [about] adding new products.

Or thinking of the next bacon-wrapped this or that.

We're making the same burger, the same fry… we're not going to compromise."

Her mission is in keeping with founder Harry Snyder's motto, which was do one thing, and do that one thing as best as you can.

This ideal is clearly still embodied today and definitely seems to working for the brand, which is allegedly worth around $300 billion.

Lynsi Snyder also told Forbes, "I felt a deep call to make sure that I preserve those things that [my family] would want.

That we didn't ever look to the left and the right to see what everyone else is doing, cut corners or change things drastically or compromise."

Amen!

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