Here's The Closest Thing You'll Get To McDonald's Big Mac Sauce In Stores
Like many fast food chains, McDonald's has a signature sauce. But while other places like In-N-Out and Chick-fil-A serve the sauces with almost all of their menu items, McDonald's only uses a specific sauce for its Big Macs. Technically, you can ask for it on the side for a small fee, but employees may refuse to give it to you, as commenters on one TikTok pointed out. Fortunately, there's a store-bought alternative that'll allow you to have as much Big Mac-like sauce as you want.
According to a video posted by TikTok influencer Mike Haracz, a former McDonald's corporate chef, Great Value brand Secret Sauce is the closest thing you'll get to the fast food chain's Big Mac sauce. Since Great Value is a Walmart store brand, the product isn't available at other supermarkets, however, you can order it from the Walmart website if you don't live near one. Great Value Secret Sauce is available on Amazon as well, but it's more expensive — $9 to $12 from various sellers, compared to around $2 on Walmart.com for the same 12-ounce bottle.
McDonald's Big Mac sauce versus Great Value Secret Sauce
Big Mac sauce and Great Value Secret Sauce are nearly identical in terms of ingredients. Back in 2012, Dan Coudreaut, who at the time was the executive chef of McDonald's, revealed on "CBS This Morning" that Big Mac sauce is made with mayonnaise, sweet pickle relish, mustard, white wine vinegar, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and, perhaps most surprisingly, no ketchup. Sure enough, the same ingredients, with the exception of mustard, appear on the ingredients list on the back of the Great Value bottle. The ratios of these ingredients however are definitely different judging by how the two products taste.
While many customer reviews from both Amazon and Walmart describe the Great Value version as virtually indistinguishable from the real thing, a handful have also mentioned that there are noticeable differences. Mainly, Great Value's is sweeter, slightly more mayonnaise-forward, and not quite as flavorful. Regardless, the reviews are generally positive and the ingredients are as similar as it gets for a store-bought sauce.
Why McDonald's doesn't sell Big Mac sauce in stores
Considering how popular Big Mac sauce is, you'd think that selling bottles of it would be the perfect business opportunity for McDonald's. But the problem is that Big Mac sauce isn't shelf stable. As Mike Haracz explained in another TikTok, it doesn't contain any preservatives that allow it to sit at room temperature. If McDonald's were to sell Big Mac sauce in stores, it would have to be in the refrigerated section, not with the other condiments.
In the past McDonald's has sold bottles of Big Mac sauce for charity, and more recently it was made available as a dipping sauce on the official menu for a limited time in 2023. However, this Big Mac sauce wasn't the same as the Big Mac sauce served in the restaurants. "They have to reformulate the Big Mac sauce to be shelf stable so that they work in these little sauce cups," Haracz shared. "I don't know if they added more preservatives, more acids, but they basically changed the Big Mac sauce recipe." Several commenters said they could taste a difference, and that could easily be a big reason why McDonald's has decided not to sell bottles of Big Mac sauce in stores.