Many people wonder what is in the secret sauce of a McDonald’s Big Mac sandwich. Others figure they know exactly what is in the sauce: ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard. Still others figure it’s just a doctored-up Thousand Island dressing. They are not far off, except for the ketchup. The actual ingredients in the special sauce are an open secret, and I’ll tell you what they are in this article. But, there is more to a recipe than ingredients. You also have to know what proportions to use. Fortunately, someone figured it out!
McDonald’s Special Sauce Ingredients Revealed
How do I know what ingredients are in McDonald’s Special Sauce for Big Macs? Because McDonald’s executive chef Dan Kudrow posted a video to YouTube revealing what the ingredients are. He posted the video 12 years ago and it only has 67,000 views today. Kudrow stated that the ingredients had been publicly available in restaurants and on the internet for a while. But, the full ingredients are not given out by McDonald’s. Here is a summary of the ingredient listing, as given on the McDonalds.com website:
Soybean Oil, Sweet Relish, Distilled Vinegar, Salt, Corn Syrup, Xanthan Gum, Calcium Chloride, Spice Extractives, Water, Egg Yolks, Distilled Vinegar, Spices, Onion Powder, Salt, Propylene Glycol Alginate, Garlic Powder, Vegetable Protein (hydrolyzed Corn, Soy And Wheat), Sugar, Caramel Color, Turmeric, Extractives Of Paprika, Soy Lecithin.
Do you think you could follow that and duplicate the special sauce? This is a far cry from how we would duplicate the sauce at home. Some of those ingredients do not need to be used if we are just making the sauce for ourselves. What we need are simple ingredients that we can buy at the grocery store and duplicate the taste of the sauce at home.
McDonald’s Big Mac Special Sauce Ingredients For Making it Homemade
Here are the ingredients Kudrow named in the video:
- Mayonnaise (store-bought jarred mayonnaise)
- Sweet pickle relish
- Yellow mustard (French’s would be best)
- White wine vinegar
- Garlic powder
- Onion powder
- Paprika
Now we need to know how much of each ingredient to use. The YouTube channel Kitchen Tips Online went to the trouble of figuring out the exact proportions of each ingredient. Here is the ingredient listing again with the amounts included:
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish
1/2 tablespoon of white vinegar (Kudrow used white wine vinegar)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 tablespoon mustard
All you have to do is mix all the ingredients in a small bowl. This should be enough sauce for 4 or 5 Big Macs but you could use it on other types of sandwiches. And, nope, it turns out there is no ketchup in Big Mac sauce!
As for the vinegar being different than what Dan Kudrow used, it will not matter much if you use white wine vinegar, regular white vinegar, etc. The primary flavor is simply acetic acid.
Do not use fancy brown mustard, Dijon mustard, or spicy mustard unless you want to alter the taste of the sauce. Use a classic American yellow mustard. If in doubt, go with French’s Yellow Mustard.
Big Mac Sauce vs. Thousand Island Dressing
As for the similarity between Big Mac Sauce and Thousand Island Dressing, as far as I can tell, the original ingredients in the latter are mayonnaise, ketchup, chili sauce, sweet pickle relish, pimiento-stuffed green olives, green onions, and chopped hard-boiled egg.
Today’s Kraft brand of Thousand Island Dressing lists the following pertinent ingredients:
Soybean Oil, Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato Paste), Vinegar, Sugar, Water, Chopped Pickles, Egg Yolks, Salt, Mustard Flour , Dried Onions, Dried Red Bell Peppers, Citric Acid, Paprika, Oleoresin Turmeric
As you can see, when people think there is a similarity between Big Mac Sauce and Thousand Island Dressing, they are correct. The primary difference is the added sweetness of Thousand Island brought by the added sugar and tomato puree. Once the egg yolks and soybean oil, together with the powdered mustard, are emulsified together, a mayonnaise is formed, which means Thousand Island Dressing could be duplicated with the following basic ingredients
- Mayonnaise
- Ketchup
- Pickle relish or chopped pickles
- Salt
- Onion powder
- Red bell peppers
- Added mustard?
Big Mac Sauce is quite nearly the same thing. Let’s not pretend otherwise. Since it only uses sweet pickle relish and no tomato puree, ketchup, or added sugar, it is less sweet. The red bell peppers will add an additional flavor not found in Big Mac Sauce, while the garlic will add more contrast and pungency to the latter. No doubt, some Thousand Island brands also use garlic.
So, there you have it. Big Mac sauce is a take on Thousand Island dressing, either intentional or otherwise. It’s very easy to make at home. If you like Thousand Island Dressing, I suspect that some brands may come closer to Big Mac sauce in flavor than the ubiquitous Kraft brand and will probably work quite well on a burger.
Todd Wilbur’s Original Copycat Big Mac Sauce
There are many copycat Big Mac Special Sauce recipes on the web, but the original attempt to duplicate the sauce was done by Tod Wilbur at TopSecretRecipes.com. He sells a bottled version of this sauce. The ingredients he uses are:
- mayonnaise
- French dressing
- sweet pickle relish
- minced onion
- white vinegar
- sugar
- salt
His version seems like it would be sweeter than the original. There is no added sugar in McDonald’s Big Mac sauce and French dressing is decidedly sweet and taste, not to mention tomato-based. He’s also missing the garlic and paprika. His version is, again, an approximation of a Thousand Island Dressing tweaked to be more like Big Mac Sauce. According to Wilbur, the French Dressing is important and ketchup will not do it. Turns out he was right. I have no doubt that his sauce is great on burgers, although I’ve never tried it!
