People are using an epic hack to get hash browns in all their McDonald’s burgers

McDonald’s breakfast is one of the great pillars of modern, metropolitan living. Whether you’re hungover as hell and desperately looking for something salty to sober you up, or have a particularly stressful morning ahead, the Golden Arches’ early menu has something for everyone. Young or old, rich or poor, we all have our go-to Maccies breakfast.

Though you could argue for eons over whether a McMuffin is better with bacon or sausage, everyone is in agreement over one thing – namely, that hash browns are awesome. There is no food in the McDonald’s roster that wouldn’t be improved with a hearty wedge of deep fried, crispy potato. You could make a compelling argument that McFlurries should come with one instead of a spoon.

Yet, tragically, in the UK, McDonald’s hash browns are only available for a pitifully small window. Before you know it, they’re whisked away, to be replaced by something soggy, mediocre and much less effective at curing alcohol poisoning. Many nations never have to deal with this problem. In America, customers are sometimes presented with 24 hour breakfast options. We can only dream of such extravagence. Small wonder that some of us have decided to take a stand. Some have decided that enough is enough.

The designated leader of this minor McDonald’s revolution appears to be a Reddit user named iblametheparents86, who last week publicised his own hack to work around the arbitrary constraints of the business’ menu. The key, apparently, is all in the timing. It seems that, if you arrive in the restaurant and place your order at exactly 1030, workers will allow you to combine breakfast items with anything else that they offer. In the photo shared to Reddit, iblametheparents86 opted for a simple cheeseburger, but there’s no reason why customers couldn’t use the system to combine any number of items. Big Macs, Chicken Legends, Apple Pies. The sky’s the limit.

Similarly, some commentators have suggested taking iblametheparents86’s approach one step further. They posit that the technique can work just as well if the staff at the restaurant decide to stick rigidly to the rules and refuse to mix the two menus. The Metro posit that, in this event, customers should order a separate side of hash browns as close as possible to 1030, before immediately returning to the queue at 1031 to order your other main menu item. Self-assembly is an integral part of this plan, but it still promises to be delicious.

Of course, anyone who has the luxury of constant access to the McDonald’s breakfast range may consider such a fastidious approach to ordering slightly baffling. Unfortunately for everyone else, desperate times call for desperate measures. It has become abundantly clear that McDonald’s, despite overwhelming demand, have no intention of making the breakfast available at all times. Given this, taking matters into our own hands seems the only logical conclusion.