On This Day, McDonald’s Introduced This Iconic Burger (And It’s Still Around)

Burger innovation is an endless, timeless American pastime. The day we stop adding things to burgers, we should probably just give up as a country. (Or get really, really into hot dogs?). 

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Truly, though, there might be no sandwich more synonymous with casual American dining than the hamburger―and no matter the competition, there’s no American burger more iconic than the Big Mac. Seriously, whatever your favorite, you know the Big Mac is like, the edible equivalent of the American flag abroad. But where’d it come from? And why―when we’re innovating burgers into chocolate territory―is something so arguably simple still so adored? 

April 22, 1967

Per Ray Kroc himself (in his autobiography Grinding It Out, and yes, that’s a meat pun), “the Big Mac resulted from our need for a larger sandwich to compete against Burger King and a variety of specialty shop concoctions.” (Those specialty shops have since ceased to exist; the King, obviously, battles on.) 

Neither Kroc nor McDonald’s corporate were the ones to develop the double-decker delight. It was a franchisee named Jim Delligatti, working out of a McD’s in the greater Pittsburgh area (who, for his part, says he simply copied a double-decker at then-competitor Big Boy). On April 22, 1967, his store sold its first Big Mac. By 1968, the sandwich hit its stride nationwide. Fun, if semi-frustrating, fact: Delligatti had wanted to make a bigger burger for years. But Kroc and co. constrained him to using franchise-specific ingredients only. Delligatti wasn’t allowed to introduce anything new. That’s why the Big Mac―of any famous fast food burger―is the only one that’s famous for having not two, but three buns. Because it wasn’t just about more meat: Delligatti wanted a burger that would literally dwarf the competition. 

The Big (And Not-So-Big) Mac Changes

So what are some other differences? Shockingly, not a lot. OK, the price―oh the price. The first Big Mac sold back in 1967 for just 45 cents. Today it can range from anywhere in the mid $5 to $6 range. The size, however, has stayed mostly the same―although a few years ago there was a semi-obsessive viral moment where X users claimed that despite that climb in price, the Big Mac had actually shrunk by 40%. 

There has been some chatter back and forth (from former employees and those potentially in the know) that McDonald’s has vacillated between quarter-pound patties to the 1.6 ounce patties it currently uses―though most agree it’s always been the smaller patties. In fact, the ingredients can’t really have changed a ton, since the popularity of the Big Mac rose in tandem with a jingle. And that jingle actually, famously (hypnotically―like don’t watch this more than once) lists the ingredients: “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame seed bun.”

The Big Mac has stayed the same because whatever Delligatti came up with worked (including that “special sauce,” by the way, which is just Russian dressing). As of today, most estimates say McDonald’s sells about 550 million Big Macs per year. Considering the fact that just writing about this made us crave one (or was it that brainwashing jingle…), we’re inclined to trust those big numbers.