The Birth of the Big Mac
The Big Mac is McDonald's signature burger, and it's been around since the birth of the fast-food franchise itself. Developed in the 1960s, the burger had two different names before it became the Big Mac that we all know and love today. First, the burger was dubbed The Aristocrat, but costumers found this confusing and difficult to pronounce. So the burger was renamed The Blue Ribbon Burger, but this wasn't quite on brand with McDonald's burgeoning image. Finally Esther Glickstein Rose, a young advertising secretary who was working at McDonald's corporate headquarters, coined the name Big Mac - and it stuck! The crowd pleasing burger would make its debut in Pennsylvania and the cost? A mere 45 cents.
What is Big Mac sauce?
The ingredients of a Big Mac are two all-beef patties, Big Mac special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun. McDonald's Big Mac sauce itself is essentially just a twist on a classic Thousand Island dressing.
Was the Big Mac sauce recipe a secret?
For a long time, there was significant hype around the Big Mac sauce recipe. It was supposedly a closely guard secret that McDonald's kept under lock and key. However, in 2012 McDonald's addressed these rumours, saying that there wasn't any smoke and mirrors to it. Anyone could make Big Mac sauce, said McDonald's, because the recipe had been available online for years. Whoops! guess we all got a bit carried away with a myth of our own making.
What goes into Big Mac sauce?
What is Big Mac sauce made of? Store bought mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish and yellow mustard, vinegar, garlic powder, onion powder and paprika. That's really all there is to it!
How to make Big Mac Sauce
You will need to buy the following
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise (choose a vegan brand if you prefer)
- 1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
- 1 teaspoon of yellow mustard
- 2 teaspoons of white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon of garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon of onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of paprika
- pepper (to taste)
- salt (to taste)
To create your sauce, stir all the ingredients together until they are well combined. Now your sauce is ready to be applied generously to your burger or fries! The next time someone asks if you can go to McDonald's, you'll be able act like every mother on the planet and say "Why would we do that, I got all the ingredients at home!"
