McDonald’s Signature Mac

McDonald’s Signature Mac – Menu Hack

Cost: £9.58.

Calories: 1,200 kcal (estimate).

You know you get the best stuff first here at BURGER LAD® and today is no exception, for it is time to create another menu hack.

Hopefully you have heard of the McKinley Mac – a burger on-sale in Alaska only, consisting of two Quarter Pounders and the Special Sauce from a Big Mac.

Named after Mount McKinley, it’s also a well-known menu hack in the USA.

Well, your friendly neighbourhood Admiral can go one better folks, because the Quarter Pounder is no longer the only source of big patties at McDonald’s.

Now we have the Signature Collection (which I first reviewed back in November 2015 here) which means I can create the Signature Mac.

Smart McDonald’s fans like you, should know about the Big Mac variations found in different countries – Mega Mac, Sriracha Mac etc. and we still remain hopeful that the Big Mac could be joined on the UK menu by the Grand Mac and Mac Jr.

There are three burgers in the Signature range so of course I could’ve chosen any of them. I opted for the Classic as it is the plainest of the three and my idea was to let the Special Sauce shine through.

As Burger Lad® later mentioned, I could’ve held the existing sauces, which are mustard mayo and ketchup, and perhaps should have.

But what I ended up with was a gloriously messy burger, with the mustard mayo and special sauce working well together… but more about that in a bit.

One thing about the Big Mac, as much as I like it, it doesn’t feel that big anymore. The patties are relatively thin and beside a Quarter Pounder or Signature burger, it does look small.

This is reflected in the price of course, and that is fine. But today’s menu hack was going to be a big beefy Mac, which turned out better and a lot saucier than I had imagined.

McDonald's Signature Mac

So, with two Special Sauce- laden Classics on my tray, I opened up the boxes and set about building my burger. The fabulous team at this branch hadn’t skimped on the Special Sauce, and because I’d forgotten to remove the mayo, there was a LOT going on.

I removed the crown of burger #1 and scraped off all the sauce, leaving it on the burger. I then picked up burger #2 and deposited it with care on top of burger #1. There was considerable sliding, and I mean considerable – did I mention all the Sauce?

It was extremely difficult to get it to stay straight, and you’ll see from my pictures that I never did quite manage, although its higgledy-piggledy look is part of the appeal.

So to, is the fact that sauce was oozing out from all sides and I couldn’t see my fingers afterwards. Even now, writing this review up from home, I smell of Special Sauce (I’m really not upset about that at all).

McDonald's Signature Mac

Getting it to sit long enough for some pictures, it was then time to start the eating. What I had here was a Big Mac, with extra mustard mayo, extra thick beef patties, and brioche.

Oh, and the small matter of bacon, lest we forget. This is a Bacon Big Mac as well. All the good things coming together. Double bacon, actually, because both Classics had bacon.

Well, apart from the obvious facial mess eating this, I must say that it was as enjoyable on my tongue as it was in front of my eyes.

I’ve created quite a few menu hacks and this is way up there – definitely the best single-site one by a long margin (so much so that I’d put several doubloons on Burger Lad® and quite a few of our regular readers rushing off to McD’s this weekend to give it a go).

McDonald's Signature Mac

Right away, you get the classic special sauce hit that tells you you’re eating a Big Mac. Your jaw tries to tell you otherwise as it stretches to its design limits. Then one by one, the other fantastic elements start dancing amongst your senses.

A regular Big Mac patty doesn’t give you much to go on before your teeth close. This one is a different story – it’s a proper thick chunk of beef like the gourmet places use, and there are two of them!

You get the middle bun, all soaked in sauce, and you get the bacon and cheese reconfirming the obvious elements of a bacon cheeseburger (double portions of each, remember).

McDonald's Signature Mac

And you’ve got that fantastic mustard mayo from the Classic (doubled again). Now, you might think that it and the Special Sauce might cancel each other but they don’t.

They work really well, firstly creating that drippy yellowy-orange goo that gourmet places and independents love in their marketing photos, and secondly the two tastes just work.

The special sauce is a bit stronger, which is good because if it had been lost, the whole point of this effort would also have been lost.

The mustard mayo is a great taste on its own. I’d also like to try this with just the special sauce – it’d definitely be less messy and perhaps even more Big Maccy taste-wise.

That leaves the lettuce and ketchup. Two standard toppings, and there was tons of lettuce and it achieved just as much as very little lettuce – i.e. Very little.

Lettuce is there to look green and give you three of your five a day. It doesn’t add taste. Ketchup does, usually, and here it gave a little sweet nod to the whole thing which, in my view, was the icing on the cake.

McDonald's Signature Mac

This was a fabulous burger, created by taking two terrific new-ish additions to the McDonald’s menu and the key elements of their all-time classic.

If an official version of this ever became available (doubtful) I’d be first in line! It’s properly tasty, incredibly messy, and sits at a higher quality level than most high street offerings.

OK our friends at McD’s HQ are not going to officially condone this but we just know, next lunch break, they’re all off en masse to their in-house branch to give this a go.

I set out to create a beefier Big Mac and ended up with one of the best, messiest dirty burgers I’ve ever had. Yes, at McDonald’s!

McDonald's Signature Mac

Admiral Burgerbar

Website: http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome.html