We’ve cracked the Big Mac secret sauce recipe

ARE you a closet lover of that Big Mac sauce? Well, this close-to-perfect recipe will change your world. You’re welcome.

WE’ve decoded the Big Mac. True story.

I try to be healthy and eat food with ingredients I recognise (nothing that starts with an e-number, for example, fewer chemicals). But, like many others, I am a closet lover of that Big Mac sauce that can only be found under the golden arches.

So, I put my rigorous training and position as food editor at delicious to good use, trying and testing and eating burger after burger in a bid to make this infamous burger at home.

It took a few attempts to get the balance right. Many others have tried and fallen before me, but my dedication was strong (and so was cheering on from my trusty colleagues).

My pantry doesn’t include industrial flavour enhancers, so it was more difficult than it might seem to get the taste right.

The final, successful, close-to-perfect recipe involved good-quality mince meat, and I did us all a favour and left out the sugars and salts from the original.

This is not health food, still, but it’s an indulgence I’ve taken for the team.

In my relentless testing I’ve consumed litres of Big Mac sauce, both real and recreated. The upside? My version is pretty good. The downside? I need new jeans …

Ingredients:

400g beef mince

2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

2 sesame seed burger buns

½ white onion, finely chopped

¼ head iceberg lettuce, finely shredded

2 slices cheddar cheese

2 large dill pickles, thinly sliced

Big Mac sauce

1 cup (300g) mayonnaise

1 tbs. gherkin relish

2 tsp white vinegar

Pinch of white pepper

2 tsp mild mustard

1 ½ tsp onion powder

1 ½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp sweet smoked paprika (pimenton)

Method:

1. For the Big Mac sauce, combine all the ingredients in a bowl, season with salt and chill until ready to use.

2. To make the patties, season the mince with salt and pepper and form into 4 balls using about 1/3 cup mince each. Place each onto a square of baking paper and flatten to form into four x 15cm circles. Heat oil in a large frying pan over high heat. In 2 batches, cook beef patties for 1-2 minutes each side until lightly charred and cooked through. Remove from heat and keep warm. Repeat with remaining two patties.

3. Carefully slice each burger bun into three acrossways, then lightly toast.

4. To assemble the burgers, spread a little Big Mac sauce over the bottom base. Top with some chopped onion, shredded lettuce, slice of cheese, beef patty and some pickle slices. Top with the middle bun layer, and spread with more Big Mac sauce, onion, lettuce, pickles, beef patty and then finish with more sauce. Top with burger lid to serve.

5. After waiting half an hour for your food to settle, go for a jog.

So popular is the Big Mac sauce, McDonald’s decided to bottle it (but in a very limited run).

The source (or is that sauce) of inspiration.

McDonald’s released a limited-run of bottled Big Mac sauce back in January but as soon as they went on sale, entrepreneurial buyers snatched them up and began selling them on auction sites such as Gumtree for 20 times the retail price.

The 500ml bottles were sold for $4.95 each in 40 restaurants across Australia. They sold out in 15 minutes and almost immediately started appearing on Gumtree for up to $100.

This article originally appeared on delicious.com.au.

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* Mexican burger recipe

* Our burger with the works

* Chicken Nicoise burger recipe

Originally published as We’ve cracked the Big Mac secret sauce recipe