My Big Mac

So Saturday I tried my hand at re-creating one of my most favorite fast food items:  the Big Mac.  

Years and years ago my mom bought me the Best of Top Secret Recipes cookbook by Tom Wilbur.  And in it is the copycat recipe for the Big Mac!

As you can imagine, the recipe ingredients are quite simple but the author says it's the ORDER in which you build the burger that matters most.

According to the BOOK you will need:

Ingredients:
4 hamburger buns
2 additional hamburger buns
1 pound ground beef
dash salt
1 T Kraft Thousand Island
4 tsp finely diced onion
2 cups chopped lettuce
4 slices American cheese
8 - 12 dill pickles slices.

(Makes 4 Big Macs)

As I'm not eating certain foods nowadays I'll be making some substitutions:

I'll use grass-fed ground beef, an actual recipe for the special sauce, gluten free hamburger buns, and vegan American cheese.

I know with my substitutions it won't be perfect but I'm desperately hoping it'll be close.

As for the special sauce, in the original book recipe Mr. Wilbur calls for Kraft Thousand Island.  However, some deep internet research reveals an actual recipe for the sauce:



1/2 c. mayo (I don't do well with mayo so I will use soy free vegenaise)
3 T French Dressing (Annie's Organics makes one that is GF and vegan plus it's organic so you can't beat that)
1/2 T sweet pickle relish (quick note:  finding relish without HFCS is quite difficult - thank you Del Monte!)
1 1/2 T dill pickle relish**
1 ts minced onion
1 ts sugar (I used xylitol and it turned out beautifully)
1 ts vinegar
1 ts ketchup
1/8 ts salt

Makes enough for 8 burgers.

You're going to mix it all up, put it in the microwave for about 25 seconds, stir again, then let chill in the refrigerator for an hour.

After I mixed the sauce I had my boyfriend taste it.  His eyes opened wide and he said "Oh wow that tastes just like it".

After he said that, I knew this was going to work.

**I already had the dill pickle slices for the burgers so instead of buying dill pickle relish, I just diced up some of the dill slices and used that instead.  It worked great.

And now the order:

According to Mr. Wilbur it HAS to be in this order:

Are you ready?

1.  Bottom Bun
2.  Special Sauce
3.  Onion
4.  Lettuce
5.  American Cheese
6.  All Beef Patty
7.  Middle Bun
8.  Special Sauce
9.  Onion
10. Lettuce
11. Pickles
12. All Beef Patty
13. Top Bun

Seriously, the cookbook has a blueprint of the building process it's THAT important.

So while the sauce chilled, we made the patties and got all the toppings ready.  And then we got to building these bad boys.

The result?



Perfect.

Seriously, I just at there with a huge, stupid grin on my face.  I was so happy.

A couple of things.  I did NOT add the extra bun in the center because we didn't have enough to go around and I also added an extra slice of cheese because I wanted extra cheese :)  But other than that, I followed everything else to a "T".

There you have it boys and girls.  My version of a gluten free, dairy free, fast food free Big Mac.

I WILL DEFINITELY be making these again. 

Points Plus for One "Big Mac" w/ extra cheese:  15 points plus