Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun is, in my opinion, the yummiest cheeseburger creation in the takeout-lane of the drive-thru fast-food circuit, and, for me, the secret to the Big Mac's success really is in the sauce. Back in 2017, McDonald's released 10,000 special-edition bottles of its Big Mac sauce for purchase at select locations, which created an on-line buying frenzy when many people began selling them on eBay for upwards of $100 a bottle. I won't lie, given the chance, I would have bought one.
September 1968 -- The Bic Mac was invented in Pittsburgh by a McDonald's Franchise Owner named Jim Delligatti.
The Big Mac, designed to compete with the Big Boy Restaurant chain's Big Boy Burger, had two previous names that failed: Aristocrat and the Blue Ribbon burger. The "Big Mac" was named by Esther Glickstein Rose, a 21-year old secretary working at corporate headquarters. The "two-all beef patties" slogan was created by Keith Reinhard and his creative group at advertising agency Needham Harper and Steers. The Big Mac, which contains two 1.6-ounce patties along with an array of other components was placed on a three-part bun because testing proved it too sloppy to eat otherwise -- it cost 45 cents. As for the "secret sauce", a variant of Thousand Islands dressing, in 2012 McDonald's stated, "the primary sauce ingredients are not really a secret, and have been available on-line for years (sans specifics -- cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, etc.): mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish and yellow mustard whisked together with vinegar, garlic and onion powder and paprika."
All-beef patties topped w/yellow American NOT cheddar.
All McDonald's hamburgers are 100 percent beef with an 80/20 lean-to-fat ratio. The beef used in the burgers comes from whole cuts of forequarter and flank meat from the cow. In their kitchen: The burgers are never flipped, as the flat-topped mechanism that cooks them has a matching flat-topped top which, when lowered, cooks them on both sides at once (clam-shell-type style). All McDonald's hamburgers are topped with deli-sliced yellow American-processed cheese blend made from milk, milk fats and solids -- it melts great and make no mistake, it is not yellow cheddar.
Special Sauce. Thousand Islands dressing -- it's not.
Since McDonald's special sauce remains "currently unavailable", take solace in knowing it is very easy to make a very close copycat version.
Many folks assume the special sauce is Thousand Islands dressing. It's an easy assumption to make, as the two are similar enough -- mayonnaise-based and pickle-relish laced. That said, I write a food blog, which made it necessary for me to head to the Golden Arches, in order to deconstruct a few Big Macs, so I could taste-test secret sauce side-by-side bottled store-bought and homemade Thousand Islands dressing. The special sauce is indeed different. It's more yellow than pink and more pungent too, which, (just as McDonald's stated), results from ordinary yellow ballpark-type mustard.
Fun secret sauce fact: In our recent past, McDonald's lost the formula to their secret sauce, and, for a number of years it gradually grew "less special". As a result, in 2004, the CEO scrapped the product and collaborated with the California supplier who had helped develop the original sauce -- they reconcocted the sauce. End of story fact: We now enjoy reconcocted secret sauce.
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup each: ketchup and sweet pickle relish
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon each: garlic and onion powder and paprika
Whisk all ingredients together, cover and refrigerate 1 hour. Makes 1 1/2 cups.
Special sauce makes all sorts of sandwiches special:
The Secret's in McDonald's Special Sauce Recipe: Recipe yields 1 1/2 cups special sauce.
Special Equipment List: 2-cup food-storage container w/tight-fitting lid; whisk
Cook's Note: When my foodie friends (people who like to cook, can cook and cook often), start talking about a yummy salad made in the style of McDonald's iconic Big Mac, I listen. I listen because these are friends I listen to, and, because I have been known to indulge in an occasional Big Mac. After trying the recipe, I concur. Ya gotta try ~ The McDonald's-Style Big Mac Cheeseburger Salad ~.
"We are all in this food world together." ~ Melanie Preschutti
(Recipe, Commentary and Photos courtesy of Melanie's Kitchen/Copyright 2022)
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