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Big Mac from McDonald'sPhoto: McDonald's
McDonald's

Big Mac

  • Signature
  • 580 kcal

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.

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The story

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.

What’s inside

Make it at home

My copycat first, then everything I built on top of it.

Variations

The Big Mac, taken somewhere it was never meant to go.

The Big Mac on YouTube

Everyone who has cooked, copied or taste-tested it on camera.

Similar burgers at other chains

Built around the same things as the Big Mac.
  • Vkusno i Tochka · beef, a special sauce, cheese and a double stack
    Signature
    Big Hit
  • Hardee's · beef, a special sauce, cheese and a double stack
    Big Hardee
  • Big Smoke Burger · beef, a special sauce, cheese and a double stack
    The Double Smoke Stack
  • Hungry Jack's · beef, a special sauce, cheese and a double stack
    Signature
    Big Jack

More from McDonald's

About McDonald's

  • United States
  • Since 1940
  • $

Nobody sells more burgers. McDonald’s began as a single drive-in run by Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California, and became a burger machine in 1948, when the brothers threw out most of the menu and rebuilt the kitchen like a production line. Ray Kroc, a salesman who sold them milkshake mixers, started franchising it in 1955 and later bought the brothers out.

More than 40,000 restaurants in over 100 countries.

The full McDonald's burger menu and story →

Not affiliated with McDonald's. Trademarks belong to their owners. The photo is credited under it and is used to illustrate this menu item; it comes down on request.