Monday, September 3, 2012

The Big Mac Conquered

Coming to you from Portland

For awhile now I have been trying to duplicate the McDonald's Big Mac, but I never advanced beyond the assumption that the secret sauce was mayonnaise and ketchup. (Turns out there is no ketchup anywhere in this recipe). I finally stumbled on a website where this guy reveals a bunch of secret recipes from famous food joints and has a great accompanying video as well. Neither the video or the recipe actually gives you measurements for the ingredients used, but someone left a comment under the video with the measurements they used and those worked perfectly.

 
 
They actually turned out wonderfully, and the sauce was SPOT ON. The only thing I forgot to do was toast the buns slightly which would have made the burger hold together better for eating. Also, the buns sold at the store are a little larger in diameter than the McDonald's buns so they end up being much more of a mouthful and the patties were a little small.

A few tricks that are mentioned in the video:
Only use a golfball-sized amount of ground beef for each patty and then really flatten them out.
Freeze the patties on a cookie sheet between two pieces of wax paper so that they keep their shape during cooking and are easy to flip. They are so thin that this would be very difficult if not frozen.
Use the bottom of another hamburger bun for the middle bun. Unfortunately they don't sell just middle buns at the grocery store.

 
I also found these amazing fries at the grocery store called "Fast Food Fries." They were fabulous and after showering them with a ton of salt they tasted very close to the real thing.