Big Mac

Be honest: nobody orders a Big Mac for the beef. The two patties are thin and almost an afterthought; what you are really buying is the sauce, sweet and tangy with little flecks of pickle, and the odd architecture of a middle bun that turns every bite into mostly bread and dressing. It should not work as well as it does. Eat it fresh, because ten minutes in the bag and the lettuce gives up.

The Big Mac was not born at head office. Jim Delligatti, who ran McDonald’s franchises around Pittsburgh, wanted a bigger burger for customers the regular menu left hungry, and put it on his own menu in 1967. The company resisted, then gave in: it went national in 1968. By the mid-1970s a jingle listing every ingredient at breakneck speed had turned the recipe itself into advertising, and the burger has been the chain’s calling card ever since.