I Love Hamburger

🍟 Big Mac-Inspired Special Sauce

Prep: 5 min Makes: About 3/4 cup (enough for 6 burgers)

Creamy Tangy Sweet ✓ Gluten Free ✓ Vegetarian

What separates this from an everyday burger sauce is the sweetness and the rest. Sweet pickle relish, a teaspoon of sugar and a heavy hand with onion powder push it further into sweet-tangy territory than the classic, and it genuinely needs a full hour in the fridge before the onion and garlic stop tasting like dry powder and start tasting like the double-decker fast-food sauce people remember. Rushed, it is disappointing; rested, it is uncanny.

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🧾 Big Mac-Inspired Special Sauce — Recipe Card

From I Love Hamburger — ilovehamburger.com

Batch: makes enough for 6 burgers

Ingredients

  • ½ cup mayonnaise (115 g)
  • 1 tbsp sweet pickle relish (15 g)
  • 1 tbsp yellow mustard (15 ml)
  • 1 tsp white wine vinegar (5 ml)
  • 1 tsp granulated sugar (4 g)
  • ½ tsp onion powder (1 g)
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder (0.5 g)
  • ¼ tsp paprika (0.5 g)

Instructions

  1. Whisk the mayonnaise, relish, and mustard together until smooth.
  2. Add the vinegar, sugar, onion powder, garlic powder, and paprika. Whisk again.
  3. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour — this sauce genuinely needs the rest for the flavors to come together.
  4. Spread generously on both bun halves of a double cheeseburger with shredded lettuce, onion, and pickles.

🫙 Storage

Airtight in the fridge for up to 1 week.

🔁 Substitutions

  • Dill relish instead of sweet, plus an extra pinch of sugar, if that is what you have.
  • A few drops of yellow food-safe coloring are sometimes used for the classic look — purely optional and cosmetic.

🍔 What to put it on

Pair it with shredded iceberg lettuce, rehydrated onion, American cheese, and dill pickles. It especially shines on these burgers:

Burgers that love this sauce

Double Smash BurgerTwo thin, crispy-edged smash patties with double cheese on a soft bun. The classic fast-food-style double, made better at home.Classic CheeseburgerThe perfect classic cheeseburger: juicy 80/20 beef, a real seared crust, melty American cheese, and a soft toasted bun. Simple, foolproof, and exactly right.

More sauces like this

In-N-Out-Inspired SpreadA homemade spread inspired by the famous West Coast burger sauce — creamy, tangy, and lightly sweet with a chopped-pickle backbone. Five minutes, one bowl.Spicy Burger SauceA creamy burger sauce with a genuine kick — hot sauce and cayenne over a tangy mayo base. Cools the tongue and then warms it up. Five minutes.Garlic AioliA quick, punchy garlic aioli built on a mayo base — creamy, savory, and loaded with fresh garlic and lemon. The upgrade every burger and fry deserves.

Make your own sauce

Burger Sauce BuilderAnswer a few questions, get a custom sauce recipe.All Burger SaucesBrowse every sauce by flavor and diet.Burger BuilderDesign the whole burger around it.

Burger HQ Picks Handy for sauce-making

Squeeze Bottles & Mixing Bowl Set

Mix a sauce in the bowl, decant into a squeeze bottle, and you get an even stripe on every bun instead of a spoon-blob. Also what keeps a topping bar tidy.

$14 Amazon

Check price →

Small Silicone Whisk & Spatula Set

A small whisk emulsifies a mayo-based sauce properly in seconds; the spatula gets every last bit out of the bowl.

$10 Amazon

Check price →

As an affiliate site, I Love Hamburger may earn a commission from qualifying purchases. This does not affect our recommendations.

Frequently asked questions

What is Big Mac sauce actually made of?

The exact commercial formula is proprietary, but the recognizable flavor comes from a mayonnaise base with sweet relish, mustard, vinegar, and onion and garlic powder. This inspired-by version recreates that profile from scratch.

Is this the official recipe?

No. This is an independent, inspired-by recipe. It is not the official product formula and is not endorsed by or affiliated with the restaurant.