The Difference Between A McDonald's Big Mac And A Double Quarter Pounder

A fast food giant like McDonald's offers a huge variety of burgers across its worldwide menus. But two standards you can find at just about any McDonald's in the world are the Big Mac and the Double Quarter Pounder. These two sandwiches form the backbone of an expansive burger lineup, representing different types of McDonald's sandwich experiences.

There are many differences between a Big Mac and a Double Quarter Pounder, perhaps the most obvious being the beef. McDonald's doesn't use the same beef patties for each burger. The Double Quarter Pounder uses large patties of fresh, never frozen ground beef. Each patty weighs 4.25 ounces — a little more than a quarter of a pound, hence the sandwich's name — before being cooked to order. 

On the other hand, the Big Mac's smaller patties are flash-frozen after assembly to preserve freshness, and cooked from frozen on the grill. McDonald's uses these same patties for many of its more affordable burgers, like the plain hamburger and cheeseburger, likely reflecting a lower per-unit cost than the larger, fresher quarter-pound patties. But the differences between these burgers go far beyond the meat and into the realm of toppings.

The Big Mac has a famous component list thanks to one of the most iconic ad campaigns of all time: a 1970s jingle outlining its two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, one slice of cheese, pickles, onions, and sesame seed bun. All together, a Big Mac provides 580 calories.

Unlike the Double Quarter Pounder, the Big Mac has its own special sauce. Big Mac sauce tastes quite similar to Thousand Island dressing, and there are many recipes online for dupes, but the exact formula is still a secret. McDonald's once sold Big Mac sauce in dipping cups for a limited time, but the burger is its only full-time accompaniment.

There is also a genius menu hack to order a Big Mac on a budget, thanks to McDonald's using the same Big Mac patties on its smaller burgers. If you ask for a McDouble to be prepared "like a Mac," they will add shredded lettuce and swap the burger's standard ketchup and mustard out for Big Mac sauce, bringing it pretty close to the pricier original — minus the three-piece sesame seed bun.

The ingredients for a Double Quarter Pounder haven't been made famous by an iconic jingle, but are pretty similar to the Big Mac: two all-beef patties, two slices of cheese, onions, pickles, ketchup, and mustard on a sesame seed bun. The visibly larger Double Quarter Pounder brings 740 calories to the table — almost 200 more than a Big Mac.

Despite its higher calorie count, a Double Quarter Pounder lacks three signature Big Mac features: a middle bun, shredded lettuce, and Big Mac sauce. There are also finer points, like the Double Quarter Pounder using two slices of cheese instead of one and slivered instead of finely-chopped onions for a sharper bite. 

If you're ever stuck between ordering a Big Mac and a Double Quarter Pounder, there's an answer for that too. The Denali Mac is a Big Mac prepared with Quarter Pounder patties. Named for the tallest mountain in North America, this beefy burger is exclusively on Alaskan McDonald's menus, though any McDonald's should be able to custom-make one — even if you have to explain what it is.