Classic Burger Sauce
If you dig the sauce on Big Macs or the “special sauce” that high-end sandwich joints slather on their burgers, you are going to LOVE this burger sauce!
While I hardly ever eat them, I love a Big Mac every now and then, and I’m pretty sure it’s because of that oh-so-fabulous burger sauce that is slathered on them. I’m a big-time burgers and fries fan, and have been known to order one even at the nicest of restaurants in lieu of a “fancier” meal.
Spoiler alert: I’m not fancy, and I’m certainly not a fancy eater.
Over the last few years, I’ve noticed that most nice restaurants and high-end burger joints have their own “special sauce” that they use on burgers. They tend to taste very similar, and I’m totally addicted. So when I made burgers on Saturday for watching the hockey game, you better believe I was going to whip up a batch of homemade burger sauce!
This is incredibly easy to whip up, and there’s a 98% chance you already have all of the ingredients you need sitting in your refrigerator and pantry. Only six ingredients, one small bowl and a whisk is all you need to get this ready.
It’s the perfect complement to any burger, and I even love using it to dip my fries!
Mmmm bacon cheeseburger with that magical burger sauce :)
Stay tuned tomorrow – I’m going to be sharing an absolute killer cheeseburger recipe (and it doesn’t include the grill!).
One year ago: Top 10 List: Favorite Appetizer Recipes
Five years ago: Scalloped Potatoes
Classic Burger Sauce
Ingredients
- ½ cup (112 g) mayonnaise
- ¼ cup (60 g) ketchup
- 2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients.
- Serve immediately, or refrigerate, covered, for up to 1 week.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Leave a review below, then snap a picture and tag @thebrowneyedbaker on Instagram so I can see it!
Very tasty! Tasted it as was and it was a bit sweet so, I added 1/2 tsp of Worcestershire Sauce and 1/2 tsp of garlic and onion powder and 1/2 tsp mustard.
It’s a WONDERFUL blend thank you for the framework.
Delicious!! Thank you for sharing.
Whipped this up to add to veggie burgers. It was delish!
suryapariyar169@gmail.com
I have a local market which makes handcrafted olive oil and vingers. Used apricot balsamic vinegar. Used splenda versus sugar. Awesome!
Blue Ridge olive oil company. I do not work for them but their vinegars and oils make a huge difference in your recipes. Next level!
So good! We like dill relish instead of sweet relish.
We do a mix of the dill and sweet! So good!!
Just another idea
1 cup ketchup
1 cup Mayo
1 tablespoon mustard
1 tablespoon Worcester sauce
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon poppyseeds
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
Mix throughly and serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to use. Last in the fridge for two weeks.
You can omit the sugar and add garlic powder if you’d prefer. I don’t do a tablespoon of garlic powder, I do about 2 teaspoons.
I do salt and pepper to taste
Is the mustard in your recipe mustard powder or regular mustard e.g. French’s?
I’m sorry but the amount of black pepper was very overwhelming, it almost seems like it’s a typo, couldn’t eat the sauce, threw it out.
I’m not sure if you used a spoon or a teaspoon. You don’t have to follow the recipe to the tee. You can deviate a little. Like for example, using less pepper.
I made this sauce following all the measurements and ingredients exactly as it said, and it was sooo good! I initially thought that it would be too much black pepper, but I’m glad I trusted the recipe because it was perfect.
I used it in a salad burger because I didn’t have burger buns, so just used lots of iceberg lettuce as a base, pickles, tomatoes, onions and sauted mushrooms and it was so delicious I didn’t miss the bread at all.
Thank you for this yummy recipe.
great sauce michelle! the sauce that makes the b m great. hey have you ever come across a greek sauce recipe for hot dogs. it’s really good also, but most greek families guard the recipe with their life. i have a lot of texas hot dog sauce recipes but the one i’m looking for usually has a little cumin ,chili powder very little hamburg and 6 or 7 more spices that make this sauce very unique. almost like a flavored sauce with a 1/4 to 1/2 lb. of hamburg at most.
Oh what a taste! I love this sauce!
Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Oh~ The sauce looks really good! Thank you for the nice recipe! I will definitely try it next time!
What you’re basically prepping is 1,000 Island Dressing. This has been Jack’s secret sauce for years. Growing up in SoCal, this is the sauce Mom always made for burger night. Good for you for spreading the yummy joy!
Is there an specific brand or kind of ketchup we should use?
I am from Pittsburgh, so we use Heinz ketchup exclusively here ;-)
It’s nice but sometimes ingredient are not properly available.
I made it and added cucumber anr red onion and left out the sugar. Really nice. Thanks
We loved it! Used on grilled burgers….MMM the best!
Oh~ The sauce looks really good! Thank you for the nice recipe! I will definitely try it next time!
Wow worked out great! Lunch was delicious! Thank you very much for this easy and tasty add!!!!
I use this kind of sauce so much. It is basically
Thousand Island dressing from the 70s. You must try it on a chicken salad with just a little curry added. Yummy!
It was super sour and no enough saltyness. A very disappointed son today.
You know you can deviate from the original recipe, right? If you don’t like what you taste change it up a bit.
Can I substitute something for pickle relish
Hi Mary, If you have pickles you could chop them up!
I was just about done cooking the burgers and thought I really needed a special sauce. I was tired of just using mayo on the bun. So I ran to my laptop and typed in special hamburger sauce and this one came up. I whipped up the sauce in a couple minutes and boy was it what I wanted! It was awesomely delicious! My son loved it too!
I don’t have any mayonnaise or miracle whip, is there a way I could use sour cream instead?
Hi Julia, I think it would, but it would have a different flavor!
Just made this. Tried it without the burger and it’s yummy! You won’t be disappointed
If you make this.
is this sauce good for pork burger ?
Great sauce, I used it on burgers made in the skillet and I can’t wait to use them on grilled burgers.
A personal touch, I added a tablespoon of horseradish for a little spice.
I don’t have any vinegar. Will it taste as good without it or something else I might have. I have mustard?
Hi Roxanne, mustard will significantly change the flavor. If you don’t have vinegar, I would just omit.
Pickle juice is a good subsitute
Great suggestion. I’m going to try that. I make this variation as my thousand island. My Grandma put pickle juice in lots of things (not to waste anything including pickle juice). I just finally added pickle juice to potato salad the other day…boy was it good. It added the kick that it needed. Wish I’d added pickle juice years ago.
I used mustard instead of pickle relish and my partner loved it. He’s used the sauce on pork spare ribs as a marinade too.
Im q student and by this saturday fourdays from now on we will do an entreprenuer activity where we will go to a place and sell products. We chose burgers, I love your recipe sauce and my mom has been using this for a longtime, can you help us or give us any tips about making burgers tasty, beautiful while not being ecpensive, also, our budget is only 2100 Philippine Pesos.
I made this exactly as listed. I even used name brand ingredients like Hellmann’s mayonnaise, Heinz ketchup , and Vlasic sweet pickle relish. I felt like it was a good base but was missing something zippy. And then I added a couple teaspoons of McCormick Chipotle & Roasted Garlic seasoning. Then refrigerated several hours. Delicious!!
These ads make it impossible to view the recipes without having to wrestle the ads away first. They pop up nonstop.
How does that affect the quality of the recipe.
will have to try this – reminds me of the Mighty Mo Sauce from the Hot Shoppes Restaurants (early Marriott) in the DC area – better than the Big Mac – got the recipe from the Hot Shoppes cookbook
Mighty Mo Sauce
Hot Shoppes – Makes 2½ cups
½ cup catsup
¼ cup chili sauce
1½ teaspoons A-1 sauce
½ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 drops Tabasco sauce
½ cup sweet pickle, finely chopped
1¼ cups mayonnaise
Combine catsup, chili sauce, A-1 sauce, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco sauce. finely chop sweet pickles and add to the sauce mixture. Combine the sauce/pickle mixture with mayonnaise, stirring until well-blended. Keep refrigerated.
We have made this sauce for years with mayo, ketchup, sweet relish, and a touch of mustard. We also add celery seed, which is a secret ingredient they use at one of our favorite burger joints. IT’S AWESOME!!!
I was looking for a homemade burger sauce recipe. This one was the first one that I just happened to have all the ingredients for that my picky husband would eat. And WOW!! this sauce is amazing! I kept looking for other things that I could put it on. Definitely heading into my recipe file! I made it early while I cooked and the flavors really came together the longer it was in the frig.
Just tastes like vinegar!
Delicious and tastes a lot like the Big Mac special sauce!
I changed the recipe up a little and used 2-1 ratio ketchup being the 2 and mayonnaise being the 1. I also used a little spicy brown mustard and sriracha. I kept the black pepper and removed the vinegar and sugar. Amazing variation of a good recipe.
Hahahahahahaha, thanks for rating her recipe that you TOTALLY changed
Why even rate a recipe you didn’t even make? SMH
This is a wonderful sauce. I use it as a dip for carrot sticks. This would work well as a Thousand Island dressing for salads also. I made a double batch.
Can I substitute Miracle Whip for the mayo to give the sauce a little more tang?
Hi Denise, Yes, I think that would be fine!
Just made the sauce. Very tasty. Can’t wait to have for our block party tomorrow!
This sauce was awesome!!! It was SO good on our burgers!
This is a DELICIOUS burger sauce!!! Taste just like the sauce on a BIG MAC :}
This was fabulous.
This sauce. was awesome! I was dipping it in everything…. chips, my burger, etc. The only change I made was I used dill pickle instead of relish. Mine did not come out as thick as yours shows in the picture… any suggestions of how to get the sauce thicker? i did notice after I let it sit a day it got thicker… Thanks for a great sauce recipe!
Hi Jessica, It might have to do with the relish vs chopped pickles. Unless you chopped and drained/dried those pickles REALLY REALLY well, they likely released liquid into the sauce.
you can get dill relish
We used to use 1000 dressing. That was they used at tasty freeze. The first McDonalds
I’m pretty sure McDonald’s was thefirst McDonald’s LMAO
A truly successful idea with the homemade hamburger gravy .
Since we just treat at school the topic USA and food culture , I will recite this recipe because I like it so well . I hope my English is fine and I express myself properly .
Greetings from Germany
Thank you for this recipe! I added some Worchester sauce and Sweet Chili sauce (in place of relish because I didn’t have any.) I cannot have mayo, but my fiancé LOVED it. Next time I will do it as written, if he will allow. :)
Ooh this recipe looks so simple, but delicious! I’ll be saving this and trying it out next time I have a homemade burger!
Aleeha xXx
http://www.halesaaw.com/
Hey Michelle,
I love your recipes to bits (the rum cake with walnuts is one of my favorites), but I have to reach out to you about the ads on your page.
I do work in the online advertising industry. You are overdoing it. Or the company/person your hired to do it for you overdoes it. Your site is becoming pretty much unusable. More and more people will resort to using adblockers.
In the long run, you will be driving ad revenue down.
Just opening your site in my browser slows the browser down to a crawl.
Here is a post in the AdOperations (an integral part of any online advertising company) subreddit, from just this week:
https://www.reddit.com/r/adops/comments/4fptx3/volume_goes_up_cpms_go_down/
The ads are annoying but you just have to close them…simple.
But how do you keep them from re-popping? I’m typing this behind an ad that I keep closing. The ads take up my whole phone. Most of the time I hit close and the whole ad pops up anyway so I’m better not closing. It is very discouraging.
Yep, special sauce was called Thousand Island dressing in the old days. Wonderful on a burger, and once I already had the tuna opened, when I noticed I had no mayo, so I used the bottled dressing in the tuna salad. Great salad!
I need to give this a try
I also add a teaspoon of yellow mustard. Reminds me of Monster Sauce.
This looks delicious! I bet it’s even better than the burger sauce i currently have in my frig from the high-end kitchen store at the mall. Gotta get burgers into the meal plan soon! Great win last night for the Pens! The Flyers v Caps should be a very interesting game tonight (yikes! I think they play tonight) after everything that went on at the last game. Hockey is on the schedule for this evening :)
Yum! Yep, this sauce really must be on my burgers!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
Mother used to throw together this sauce in the 1960s for burgers and salads. Just never bought bottled dressing in those days.
hope it is like the Big Boy sauce from Eat’n park
Thanks for sharing this. I never would have thought to add vinegar.
Love this sauce — it’s one of my guilty pleasures. Dipping fries in it is my favorite!!
I love this sauce. Try it with a squirt of Siracha. Yum!
Don’t make burgers for another Pens’ game! I was wondering what went wrong on Saturday, and now believe I know the answer. Jinx burgers!
HA! Noted :) Great win last night, though, right? (I didn’t make burgers)
I have to pin this one, the boyfriend and I are crazy about burgers but we’ll definitely level them up with some of this sauce!! Such a good idea for a blog post, I didn’t even know I needed this until I saw the recipe ;)