18 Things You Never Knew About the McDonald’s Big Mac

It’s almost 60 years old

In August 1968, McDonald’s launched a new super-sandwich called the Big Mac to customers across the nation. It had actually debuted the year before in a Uniontown, Pennsylvania, McDonald’s location, and the franchise founder, Ray Kroc, was a fan. With his approval, the Big Mac went nationwide, and the rest is history.

It was created for steelworkers

The mastermind behind the Big Mac was Jim Delligatti, the owner of the Uniontown restaurant where it debuted. In the 1960s, many of the regular customers at this Pennsylvania McDonald’s were workers returning from a long day at the steel mills.

They would get off work ravenously hungry, and Delligatti quickly realized that the simple single-patty cheeseburger wasn’t filling them up. So he started experimenting, putting two patties on one burger and adding pickles and onions as well.

“Special Sauce” didn’t get that name until 1974

In the original Big Mac ads from 1968, the flavorful concoction was advertised as “Secret Sauce.” It wouldn’t be called by the alliterative name we know today until 1974 (that’s when the catchy “two all beef patties” jingle debuted).

But how’s this for Big Mac trivia? Officially, it’s not called “Special Sauce” at all! If you check out McDonald’s website, it’s actually called “Big Mac Sauce.” And even though the ingredients remained classified for years, we have the secret recipe so you can make it at home.

“Special Sauce” has had a few different iterations

In the first few years of the Big Mac’s burger life, McDonald’s experimented with two different versions of the sauce. Both recipes were performing well, so the powers that be ended up combining elements of both of them to make an entirely new recipe.

McDonald’s called this sauce “Big Mac Sauce ’72,” and it was slathered on Big Macs until 1991, when a new version of the recipe debuted. That one lasted until the early 21st century, but in 2004, Fred Turner, a former McDonald’s CEO and onetime friend of Ray Kroc himself, decided that he wanted the 1972 recipe reinstated.

The classic buns were swapped for brioche

One of the signature Big Mac features is the bun. That iconic three-slice bun has been a part of Big Mac history since its introduction in 1968. But in 2023, McDonald’s made a number of changes to the Big Mac, and they took aim at that sesame-seed-covered bun. (They also tweaked the recipe to make it juicier and tastier.)

But back to the bun. That year, McDonald’s swapped out their regular buns for softer, more pillowy brioche buns. But not to worry: They added the iconic sesame seeds to the new ones.

Chicken Big Macs are a thing

In Oct. 2024, McDonald’s debuted a Chicken Big Mac as a limited time offering in select stores across the U.S. It had all the toppings of a regular Big Mac, but used two tempura-battered chicken patties instead of beef. It was a huge success, and in Feb. 2025, the company announced in an earnings call that they will be returning.

No word on when or where, but on that same call it was announced that McDonald’s Snack Wraps, which haven’t been seen for nearly 10 years, will also be back. Chicken lovers, get ready!

The middle bun isn’t just for show

If you thought the middle bun in the Big Mac was just there to look pretty, think again. Also known as the center slice or “club layer,” the bun has a very specific purpose. When the Big Mac was initially created, it was “sloppy,” according to inventor Delligatti. Adding the center slice gave the sandwich more structure, and also helped soak up the special sauce.

It owes its name to a company secretary

Would the McDonald’s Big Mac have sold as well if it had been called something else? The answer, as executives learned, is no. Before the burger made its national debut, the franchise tested out other names for it, including “The Aristocrat.” Yes, really.

You won’t be surprised to learn that this stuffy name failed to convey the idea that anyone and everyone could enjoy a Big Mac. Esther Glickstein, a then-21-year-old secretary in McDonald’s advertising department, first suggested calling it the Big Mac. She later said the higher-ups laughed the name off when she came up with it, but she got the last laugh when the name stuck!

The Big Mac used to have an official mascot

People who were kids in the 1970s might remember Officer Big Mac, but to younger folks this is one of the lesser-known Big Mac facts. Originally created to promote McDonald’s “McDonaldland” brand, Officer Big Mac was a police officer with a Big Mac for a head. (Not to be confused with Mayor McCheese, whose head was a cheeseburger.)

The character was featured in several McDonald’s advertisements in the ’70s and ’80s, and was voiced by Ted Cassidy, who played Lurch in the 1960s sitcom The Addams Family.

The Whopper has been around longer

Over ten years longer, to be exact. The Whopper debuted in Miami, Florida, in 1957, only two years after Ray Kroc signed on with the then-fledgling McDonald’s company. Though the Big Mac enjoyed greater overall popularity than the Whopper, in 1997 McDonald’s debuted a quarter-pound burger (no, not that Quarter Pounder) called the Big N’ Tasty, specifically to compete with the Whopper.

Interestingly, that was the same year that Burger King introduced its first two-patty burger, the Big King.

One man has eaten more than 34,000 of them

No matter how much of a McDonald’s enthusiast you think you are, this guy’s got you beat! Wisconsin native Don Gorske currently holds the world record for the most Big Macs ever eaten—he’s eaten at least one nearly every single day since 1972.

“When I like something, I stick with it all the time,” he told Guinness World Records in Feb. 2024, when his record stood at 34,128. Is it just us, or does the fact that his name is Donald make the whole thing even more poetic?

It’s McDonald’s second-bestselling item of all time

What could be more popular than the Big Mac? You guessed it, french fries. Despite McDonald’s selling hundreds of millions of Big Macs every single day, the tasty, salty fries rank a solid No. 1, with more than nine million pounds sold daily. In fact, McDonald’s fries are the biggest selling fast food item in the world, according to Food Republic.

You can swap the Big Mac patties

There are some secrets that McDonald’s employees won’t tell you—like the fact that some franchise locations will customize almost anything for you. If you want to get more bang for your buck, ask to swap the Big Mac patties with Quarter Pounder patties. For vegetarians, you can also just ask them to leave the patties off.

Some franchises may not be willing to customize, so you might have to try a few stores until you find one that’s willing to make you the Big Mac of your dreams!

Switzerland has the world’s most expensive Big Mac

McDonald’s sells Big Macs in some cool locations around the world, and the prices vary widely. For example, if you find yourself craving McDonald’s while in Switzerland, you should probably know that a Big Mac will set you back $8.74 (in U.S. dollars) as of Jan. 2025. Norway, Uruguay and Sweden also have expensive Big Macs, while India, Indonesia and Taiwan have the least expensive, according to the Economist‘s Big Mac Index.

There’s an entire museum dedicated to it

McDonald’s enthusiasts who want to immerse themselves in some Big Mac history should head to North Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, to visit the world’s only Big Mac Museum.

The museum was the brainchild of Delligatti and his son Mike. Developed in 2007, it features attractions like a 14-foot Big Mac statue, historical memorabilia (including a Big Mac bun-toaster from the 1970s) and, of course, a McDonald’s restaurant. What, no Big Mac trivia night?

Pittsburgh renamed itself after the Big Mac

Temporarily, yes, but they still did it! In Sept. 1992, in honor of the sandwich’s 25th anniversary, Pittsburgh became “Big Mac, U.S.A.” for a single day. It was a tribute to the city’s proximity to Uniontown, the Big Mac’s birthplace.

A little more recently, in 2024, McDonald’s declared Aug. 2 “International Big Mac Day,” in celebration of Big Mac founder Delligatti’s birthday, and $2 Big Macs were sold throughout Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere.

Kazakhstan was the most recent country to start selling it

The Central Asian nation’s first Mickey D’s opened on March 8, 2016, in the capital city of Astana, to a large, eager crowd. Unfortunately, in 2023, the company left Kazakhastan due to supply chain issues, making it one of the few countries where you won’t find a McDonald’s.

You can get plenty of variations around the world

McDonald’s menu basics stay pretty constant, but they offer plenty of new items, too. In India, where the cow is a sacred animal, McDonald’s offers the Chicken Maharaja Mac, which swaps the hamburgers for chicken patties. In Israel, a kosher version of the McDonald’s Big Mac is available in some cities. It’s free of cheese and also uses kosher meat.

We also have special Big Macs stateside. The “Denali Mac,” only available in Alaska, features two quarter-pound patties instead of the traditional 1.6-ounce patties, and throws in some extra special sauce for good measure. This state variant started out as the McKinley Mac in 2006, then changed names in 2015 when President Obama signed the order authorizing Mount McKinley’s name change to the locally preferred Denali.

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Sources:

• New York Times: “Michael James Delligatti, Creator of the Big Mac, Dies at 98”
• YouTube: “1968 McDonald’s Big Mac Commercial”
• YouTube: “McDonald’s Big Mac Jingle Commercial (1974)”
• McDonald’s: “Big Mac Sauce”
• PR Newswire: “It’s Official: McDonald’s Highly Anticipated Chicken Big Mac® Drops at U.S. Restaurants this Month”
• The Motley Fool: “McDonald’s (MCD) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript”
• McDonald’s Wiki: “Officer Big Mac”
• Guinness World Records: “70-year-old Don Gorske extends record after eating 34,000th Big Mac”
• Food Republic: “McDonald’s Serves Up 9 Million Pounds Of Its Best-Selling Item Each Day”
• Visual Capitalist: “Mapped: The Price of a Big Mac Across the World”
• Food & Wine: “Here’s How a Fast Food Burger Became an Economic Indicator”
• Beaver County Times: “How to celebrate International Big Mac Day where it began, in western PA”