You've Been Dipping McDonald's Fries In The Wrong Sauce This Whole Time

In the world of fast food french fries, McDonald's is hard to beat. Perfectly salty, always hot, and with just the right amount of crisp, it's tough to imagine enjoying a Big Mac or Filet-O-Fish without them. While it's likely that you enjoy your McDonald's fries with a side of ketchup, there's a better option in town if you're ready to ramp up the flavor. 

Enter Big Mac sauce, your new fry dipping must-have. Big Mac sauce isn't just for the restaurant's timeless classic burger — it's also a great dipping sauce for fries. You don't have to order a Big Mac and just hope that you get enough extra sauce for your fries to go for a swim, however. You can order a side of Big Mac sauce just like you can order extra nugget sauces, like honey mustard (our favorite McDonald's nugget dipping sauce) or ranch. You might not get your fry-dipping sauce neatly packaged like other sauces. Depending on what's available at your McDonald's location, you may simply get an empty Big Mac container loaded up with sauce, so you might want to be prepared for a bit of a mess (especially if you're eating in the car).

The exact recipe for Big Mac sauce is a long-held secret, but it's pretty clear that it's a variation on Thousand Island dressing. Devoted Big Mac fans have spent years trying to perfect the exact formula. Exploring the ingredients list for the sauce gives a basic idea of exactly what makes Big Mac sauce so good — it's a combination of oil, sweet relish, egg yolks, spices, sugar, and a variety of coloring agents that create the sauce's signature creamsicle-colored hue. 

Big Mac sauce offers a unique blend of creamy (but not quite as creamy as straight-up mayo), sweet (but not quite as sweet as ketchup), and vinegary (but not quite as bitey as plain relish), offering a little bit of everything that nicely contrasts the salty, crunchy bite of a McDonald's fry. While Big Mac sauce is the perfect dipping companion for sliced spuds, don't sleep on its ability to amp up the flavor of your Filet-O-Fish (subbing Big Mac sauce for tartar sauce can take your sandwich to a new level). You can also add Big Mac sauce to elevate your McDouble, creating a cheaper version of the more expensive Big Mac.