People have been left surprised after learning what exactly goes into the Big Mac sauce at McDonald's.
The Big Mac is almost certainly the chain's most famous burger and if you get one it'll come drizzled in its own kind of special sauce which has become a source, if you'll pardon the pun, of fascination among some of the customers.
Unlike certain other fast food outlets, McDonald's has hardly kept the ingredients to the Big Mac sauce a secret as it's got them on its website for everyone to see.
So for those in the US that's: soybean oil, sweet relish (diced pickles, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, 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, and soy lecithin.
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And for us Brits, it's made from: water, rapeseed oil, gherkin, spirit vinegar, sugar, modified maize starch, free range egg yolk, spices, salt, glucose-fructose syrup, thickener (xanthan gum), natural flavourings, and firming agent (calcium chloride).
Got all that? The bad news is that some of these ingredients are things you can't easily buy yourself.
Further to them not keeping the ingredients a secret, McDonald's executive chef from 2004 to 2018, Dan Coudreaut, made a video in which he directly showed people how to make it.
He showed people how to make a McDonald's style Big Mac at home and the sauce is all a part of that.
Of course, a lot of people have tried making it themselves and plenty get it wrong, especially if they end up putting ketchup in it, while they'd also like to know the measurements.
Former McDonald's chef Mike Haracz yelled that fact at people in a video and told people if they did add ketchup to the sauce that made it 'some other delicious sauce you made yourself'.
He explained that if you wanted to make it yourself, you start with one cup of mayo, a quarter cup of sweet pickle relish, two tablespoons of Dusseldorf mustard, a teaspoon of white wine vinegar, one and one quarter teaspoon of paprika, a teaspoon of onion powder and a teaspoon of garlic powder, with neither of the powders being granulated.
Next, you get one eighth of a teaspoon of white pepper, the same measure of sugar and then a pinch of turmeric, followed by vegetable protein.
Given that the chef reckoned you couldn't get what McDonald's uses for its vegetable protein, he suggested that your best bet would be a couple of granules of MSG.
Haracz said you should just mix all of that together, stick it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and then mix it up again just before serving
Quite a few Reddit users were surprised that it's predominantly a mayonnaise and mustard-based sauce rather than having ketchup, but that's the way it goes.
There were plenty who said they 'just use thousand island dressing' and hadn't realised that it wasn't quite hitting the spot right.
Now you know how to make it should the mood to buy all those ingredients and put in the work yourself take you, alternatively you could just buy a Big Mac.
Topics: McDonalds, Food And Drink
Joe Harker