Official names of McNugget shapes

McDonald's Chicken McNuggets aren't just weirdly-shaped forms of "white boneless chicken, water, food starch-modified, salt, seasoning [autolyzed yeast extract, salt, wheat starch, natural flavoring (botanical source), safflower oil, dextrose, citric acid], sodium phosphates, natural flavor (botanical source), water, enriched flour (bleached wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), yellow corn flour, bleached wheat flour, food starch-modified, salt, leavening (baking soda, sodium acid pyrophosphate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate, calcium lactate), spices, wheat starch, dextrose, and corn starch." The shapes actually have official names: ball, bone, bell, and boot. And if you're in Canada, the "bone" is officially a "bow-tie." McDonald's paid for Business Insider to visit their corporate headquarters where they learned all about the McNugget experience from the McDonald's (Mc)Sensory Team." (Business Insider)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher

So they’re named after what they’re made from!
- http://www.facebook.com/postelwait Cameron Postelwait
  
  i didn’t see the primary ingredient: ‘anus’
  - morcheeba
    
    * cloaca
Dave Horton

Wait, there’s chicken in them?
- http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher
  
  I feed my dogs a raw diet, which means that every few weeks I run about 120 pounds of raw chicken necks through a meat grinder. When that infamous picture of chicken McNuggets in their “raw” state came out I wasn’t surprised by how familiar the product looked.
  
  It did, however, leave me wondering exactly which bits of the chicken they’re using.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    I looked up “raw diet for dogs” and I’m just thrilled that the Wikipedia article on raw feeding has a photo captioned, “A kitten feeding on a cottontail rabbit.”
    - teapot
      
      Daww, kitteh’s eating his face.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        And such a cute kitten, too.
      - http://www.youtube.com/user/Freethinkersanon Christopher
        
        Even though I had nothing to do with the Wikipedia article (and didn’t even know about it until you mentioned it) I’m sorry you were subjected to that. Unless you like that sort of thing, in which case I’m glad.
        
        The only time I fed my dogs rabbit it, like the chicken necks, was run through the meat grinder and turned into an unrecognizable paste. Although it does kind of disturb me how quickly I’ve become used to seeing the occasional chicken head.
- http://twitter.com/CulturalGeek Leah Miller
  
  Educate yourself on Nugget history.
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejtRsPXgQPs
http://twitter.com/Beryllium9 Beryllium9

I like the boot shape the best. Great for dipping. Doesn’t even taste like sole.
…
I’m glad I brought homemade soup for lunch, otherwise things could get tempting …
cookeatreadsleep

I have been in a longstanding argument about this. Some people have told me that back in the 90s when they were not all-white meat, that the boot and bone shaped nuggets were dark meat and the others were white meat. Personally, I remember them all being the same with some having higher concentrations of dark meat. Any thoughts?
- Jerril
  
  There is no difference in the meat from type to type for the current ones. Can’t comment on the 90s nuggets, but I don’t ever really recall dark meat nuggets, chunks in nuggets, or whatever. And I don’t like dark meat so it’s something that would have stuck out a little.
- Jeff Scherr
  
  A friend of mine says:
  
  I remember there being consistent dark meat and white meat variance… but I can’t remember if it was shape related or not. I definitely saved the ‘dark meatish’ ones for last, being my favorite. I’m really tracing this memory hard, I think I had to bite into them to see which was which. Ooh, McShame. Don’t tell anyone my real name.
- ayleph
  
  I definitely remember being able to differentiate between light and dark nuggets. I don’t remember which shape was which though.
- http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood
  
  Maybe. And there’s probably dark meat in the modern ones too. But by the time it’s nuggetized, man, it’s all the same. All the same.
Shohanna

The taste has changed after so long. But I think they use to have dark meat in them as well as white meat. Pretty sure at least.
- Drew_Gehringer
  
  yeah, i know they made a point of advertising “now white meat chicken!” a while back…
Jerril

I’d actually like to see that breakdown of ingredients separated by the batter, the chicken sausage filler, and the cooking oil medium thing. Obviously they all get combined together in the final product, but if you look at a box of breaded or stuffed foods in the store freezer, they often list the breading ingredients separate from the stuffing.
- David Pescovitz
  
  They actually do break out the batter from the rest. I just combined them in my list. Here’s the info: http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/food/product_nutrition.chicken.124.Chicken-McNuggets-4-piece.html
Roose_Bolton

A vat of rose-coloured, mechanically-separated chicken parts by any other name…
retchdog

Bell, boot, bone, ball, and candle. Mass-market voodou excommunication.
Antinous / Moderator

Wait, didn’t everybody vote to replace ‘ball’ with ‘cat’?
kiptw

In the 90s, KFC’s Kentucky Nuggets had dark meat, and unlike the sawdust nuggets I see everywhere, they were edible even without sauce.
- http://twitter.com/cjporkchop cjporkchop
  
  Popeye’s has chicken strips that are pretty darn good, if I get an insurmountable craving for fried chicken chunks when I’m out and about.
  - Felton / Moderator
    
    Popeye’s used to be my favorite fast food place, but I decided never to go there again after some lousy experiences at the ones in Atlanta and Athens. Maybe I should call the one in Athens and ask them if, by any chance, they’ve had a change in management in the last couple of years.
penguinchris

Hmm. Last time I ate McNuggets must have been in the mid-to-late 90′s when I was… 11? 12? I thank my mom for mostly cutting us off from fast food around that time.

I mean, we usually had Burger King when I was a kid because there is one pretty close to my parents’ house. I’m not actually sure where the closest McDonald’s is to my parents’ house… I think we mainly had that, occasionally, when staying with my grandparents in another part of town.

Anyway – I somehow still recall that there were these distinct shapes. I’m not sure I realized at the time that the shapes were always the same, though. I think the Burger King ones are (or were) all… er… “ball” shaped.

What I’m trying to say is that I have no doubt this scheme of making them appear to be different shapes fools almost everyone into being more comfortable with what they’re eating. I bet most people who eat McNuggets all the time, even, don’t make the realization (BB readers are a different sort, obviously, since a few earlier commenters report to having noticed – and I’m pretty sure I would notice if I ate these).
http://twitter.com/WikiTruths Wiki-Truths

I had NO idea they were this mechanical. Thought the pieces were random. I guess it worked. PS Don’t eat this shit.
http://twitter.com/doomhollering Liam

I wonder if they chose these shapes for their tessellating properties, to reduce the volume they take up?