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Home Sauces

Special Burger Sauce

By:Nagi
Published:26 Aug '22Updated:22 May '23
61 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

A great homemade burger sauce is an easy win to shift a big juicy burger from yum territory to holy-crapola-this-is-amazing land! Besides, when a burger sauce recipe is this easy and so much better, nobody has an excuse to resort to those squeezy bottles of overly-sweet sauce sold at grocery stores…..

I have two go-to burger sauce recipes: a tomato chutney-like one (25 minutes on the stove) and this creamy one (a quick 20 second mix job). You probably figured why the latter is especially popular in my circles. 😂

Special burger sauce for hamburgers in a mixing bowl ready for use
Spooning Special burger sauce onto a cheeseburger
Spooning a generous amount of Special Burger Sauce onto a Cheeseburger.

Copycat Heinz Secret Burger Sauce

This burger sauce is a copycat of Heinz Secret Burger Sauce. Except theirs includes acidity regulators (260, 330), stabilisers (412, 415), and preservatives (202, 224), to name a few of the more tantalising ingredients on the label.

This burger sauce recipe does not. 🙂

Even using store-bought mayonnaise, which I have done so here, this sauce still leaves the Heinz stuff in the dust! (I really need to pop a mayo recipe on my website, don’t I??!)

Sauce talk: Different sauces for burgers

Special burger sauce for hamburgers in a mixing bowl ready for use
Special Burger Sauce
Quick tomato chutney burger sauce in a jar ready to be used
Tomato Burger Sauce
Homemade Barbecue sauce for pork ribs
Barbecue sauce

With the rise of gourmet burgers, you see all sorts of condiments, sauces and relishes on hamburgers these days! But here’s a core list of my favourite burger sauces I use:

  • Ketchup (or Aussie tomato sauce) – Straight out of the bottle, just as it is!

  • Mayonnaise – Plain, or flavoured like this Special Burger Sauce recipe (see below).

  • Yellow mustard – I’m talking the garish yellow stuff, sometimes labelled “American mustard”. (Caution: Don’t accidentally use the other bright yellow mustard, Hot English Mustard, which is spicy!)

  • Creamy burger sauce (this recipe) – A mayonnaise-based savoury burger sauce, usually with little bits of gherkins in it.

  • Tomato burger sauce (chutney/relish, recipe here) – A slightly chunky style sauce that’s similar to tomato chutney except not as sweet and with less earthy spices like cardamom, ginger etc.

  • Thousand Island sauce – A creamy pink sauce made with a mix of mayonnaise and ketchup that’s popular with seafood (Aussies’ favourite prawn dipping sauce!) Recipe here.

  • Barbecue sauce – See my Barbecue Pork Ribs recipe for a classic homemade Barbecue Sauce recipe.


Ingredients in homemade burger sauce

Here’s what you need to make this burger sauce.

Ingredients in Special burger sauce for hamburgers
  • Sweet gherkins – These are gherkins that are (as the name may give away!) sweet as well as tangy rather than just tangy. Substituting with any gherkin / pickled cucumber will work fine here, but one that leans sweet is best if you want to replicate the store bought burger sauces.

  • Juice from gherkin jar – We to use some of the pickling juices for tang and flavour in our sauce. A neat trick!

  • Mayonnaise – I like using whole egg mayonnaise for a smoother, more rounded flavour. Hellmans and S&W are two popular brands here in Australia. Kewpie Japanese mayonnaise is extra-creamy and also great, albeit more expensive. Substitute with any ordinary mayonnaise, but the flavour may be slightly sharper and sweeter.

  • American yellow mustard – We’re after that artificially bright yellow stuff here which adds flavour and colour warmth to the sauce. Not to be confused with hot English mustard which is a similar colour but very spicy! Substitute with any smooth mustard, like Dijon.

  • White wine vinegar – Brings the main sharpness to the sauce. Substitute with apple cider vinegar. If you’ve only got ordinary white vinegar, reduce by about 1/3.

  • White sugar – We need a little sweetness to balance the sauce. I just use white but brown will work fine too.

  • Spices – Paprika (which makes the sauce a bit pinky), onion powder and garlic granules (substitute with garlic powder). Onion and garlic powder can be substituted with more of the other.


How to make special burger sauce

It’s very technical … dump and mix. 😂 We need more recipes like this!!!

Mixing Special burger sauce for hamburgers

Special burger sauce for hamburgers

Using the burger sauce – double up!

I was born with the instinct to double up – sauce on the bottom lid and smeared on the top lid or drizzled over the burger patty stack piled up in the bun. I can’t imagine just smearing it on the lid or base of the bun – am I wrong??

Smearing Special burger sauce for hamburgers onto bun
Cheeseburger with special burger sauce ready to be eaten

I know you know how to mix together a bunch of ingredients but I made a quick little how-to video for you anyway. Mainly as an excuse to show off how good hamburgers are with homemade sauce.

I hope you give this a go one day! Let me know in the comments below if you do. – Nagi x

PS. And if you want a Cheeseburger to slather this on, just head right here.


Watch how to make it

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Special Burger Sauce for hamburgers

Special Burger Sauce

Author: Nagi
Prep: 5 minutes mins
Sauce
Western
4.96 from 22 votes
Servings4 – 5 burgers
Tap or hover to scale
Print
Recipe video above. A great homemade burger sauce is an easy win to elevate a big juicy hamburger from yum to holy crapola, this is so good!!! Dead easy and so much better than store bought. Slather on your favourite burger (here are all my Burger recipes) or try the Cheeseburger recipe pictured in post!
Want a tomato one? Try this Tomato Chutney for Burgers.
Makes just over 3/4 cup, enough for 4 – 5 burgers.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup whole egg mayonnaise (Note 1)
  • 1 tbsp American yellow mustard (Note 2)
  • 2 tbsp sweet gherkins finely chopped (Note 3)
  • 2 tsp gherkin juice (from the pickle jar) (Note 4)
  • 2 tsp white sugar
  • 1/2 tsp white wine vinegar (Note 5)
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp garlic granules (or 1/4 tsp garlic powder)
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder

Instructions

  • Combine all ingredients in a small bowl or jug and stir until smooth.
  • Use for burgers – browse my Burger collection or try the latest and greatest Cheeseburger! I generously slather on the base bun as well as the lid (or drizzle the stack).

Recipe Notes:

1. Mayo – whole egg has a smoother, more rounded flavour than non-whole-egg mayo. I like Hellmans and S&W. Ordinary mayo works fine too, kewpie is also great!
2. Mustard – not to be confused with hot English mustard which is the same colour but very, very spicy! Sub with any other smooth mustard.
3. Sweet gherkins are gherkins with a touch more sugar. Ordinary gherkins will work fine too.
4. Pickle juice – This is the juices from the pickle jar.
5. Vinegar – apple cider vinegar is the best substitute, otherwise any other clear vinegar. If using ordinary distilled white vinegar reduce by a touch (it’s a bit sharper).
6. Storage – Should keep for the shelf life of the mayonnaise. 
7. Nutrition per serving assuming 5 servings.

Nutrition Information:

Calories: 220cal (11%)Carbohydrates: 4g (1%)Protein: 1g (2%)Fat: 23g (35%)Saturated Fat: 4g (25%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 13gMonounsaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 13mg (4%)Sodium: 251mg (11%)Potassium: 27mg (1%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 3g (3%)Vitamin A: 165IU (3%)Vitamin C: 1mg (1%)Calcium: 9mg (1%)Iron: 1mg (6%)
Keywords: burger sauce, hamburger sauce
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

Life of Dozer

A typical early evening stroll – he disappears off into the distance then I have to use the maximum zoom on my phone to locate him (yup, he’s peeing). 😂

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61 Comments

  1. Raymond Wakefield says

    September 4, 2022 at 2:56 pm

    This is by far the best burger sauce I’ve ever had absolute winner at the dinner table

    Reply
    • Nagi says

      September 6, 2022 at 9:00 pm

      I LOVE HEARING THAT! N xx

      Reply
  2. Jade says

    September 3, 2022 at 11:36 am

    5 stars
    Wow! Made this in advance for burgers tomorrow and I swear I can already taste the burger just by trying the sauce, haha. Another winner!

    Reply
  3. ss says

    September 2, 2022 at 2:00 pm

    5 stars
    The whole family loved this sauce, which I served with the cheeseburger recipe, absolute winner dinner. For my tastes, I used half the sugar in the recipe and added a squirt of tomato sauce. Perfecto.

    Reply
  4. Ryan says

    September 1, 2022 at 2:51 am

    Burgers have a sauce traditionally: yellow mustard.
    Burgers are from Texas and the mustard is a bit of a defining characteristic. Burgers don’t have mayo, sandwiches do. Burgers don’t have ketchup, meatloaf does. Burgers have yellow mustard as sauce. This is one way you can tell a real burger.

    Reply
    • Marin says

      June 1, 2023 at 9:04 pm

      We do our own thing here in Australia, anything goes 😉

      Reply
    • Connie says

      November 9, 2022 at 12:34 pm

      🙄🙄🙄
      🤣🤣🤣
      Ryan PLEASE get over yourself

      Reply
    • Tim Smith says

      November 8, 2022 at 12:28 pm

      Ryan, you get top vote for drip of the year for that pretentious and ridiculous comment.

      Nice burger sauce Nagi, and really similar to what I’ve been using for awhile now, although for my version I add a splash of Worcestershire sauce and a few drops of hot sauce.

      Burger sauce is like alchemy, a great burger sauce can transform any old burger into something truly incredible 😉

      Reply
    • Rohan says

      September 20, 2022 at 2:58 pm

      Tell that to burger historian George Motz! Your definition of what makes a burger is far too narrow.

      Reply
    • Also from Texas says

      September 14, 2022 at 5:43 am

      5 stars
      What are you, the Burger King?

      Reply
      • Nagi says

        September 21, 2022 at 8:33 pm

        BA HA HA!!!! Good one 🙂 N x

        Reply
    • Felicity says

      September 10, 2022 at 7:50 am

      Yawn

      Reply
  5. Bec says

    August 31, 2022 at 9:50 pm

    5 stars
    Da bomb!

    Reply
  6. Ryan says

    August 30, 2022 at 2:06 pm

    Burgers have mustard. They don’t have ‘sauce.’ Americans taking a Texas food and bastardising it. Ugh.
    Next you will tell me chili has beans.

    Reply
    • Connie says

      November 9, 2022 at 12:39 pm

      🙄🙄🤣🤣
      Ryan get over yourself

      Reply
  7. Joy and Zayla says

    August 29, 2022 at 1:42 pm

    5 stars
    Dearest Nagi – woohoo!!! I have struggled immensely to serve burgers to guests as I have never really enjoyed any sauce to serve in them to make them devine. But finally…… the back yard bbq burger will regularly be on on offer from now on! And your simple but INCREDIBLY special sauce will always be there! This REALLY simple to make sauce is a game changer. You, Dozer (and your recipes) really make such a difference in my life. From the bottom of my heart – thank you so much!!!! xx

    Reply
  8. Sarah says

    August 28, 2022 at 7:07 pm

    5 stars
    This sauce was delicious – it’s what ate home made burgers have been lucky. We will make it on high rotation!

    Reply
  9. susan says

    August 28, 2022 at 11:34 am

    Fabulous. We loved it.
    I changed a coup[e of things. I left out the onion and salt and added bacon instead.

    Reply
  10. Diana says

    August 28, 2022 at 9:22 am

    Very, very guilty pleasure confession here – I like Big Macs but only because of the sauce. Is this the same saucy tempter ?

    Reply
  11. Ellen Tannenbaum says

    August 27, 2022 at 11:15 am

    Will definitely try your secret sauce. I recently found a super easy mayo recipe using one egg, where you dump everything in a narrow jar and then quickly mix it with a stick blender. I suspect all the recipes that use the “drizzle oil very very slowly as you mix” are holdovers from the olden times when emulsifying was done by hand. The one-egg recipe makes a decent amount for a small household-2 eggs or more makes too much for us to be able to use up while it is fresh.

    Reply
  12. george Farrell says

    August 27, 2022 at 5:30 am

    i think u are great

    Reply
  13. Gordon Johansen says

    August 27, 2022 at 2:44 am

    This looks amazingly tasty and simple. I’ll be trying it tomorrow but I can already tell that I’ll love it. I have no gherkins right now so I may substitute the standard green pickle hamburger jar to use it up. Perhaps baby dill pickles would work better? I’ll probably try both.

    Reply
  14. Mickey says

    August 27, 2022 at 1:57 am

    I can’t wait to try this recipe. Your burgers have my mouth watering. I make a my own special sauce using mayo and srirachi sauce. It gives it a little heat.

    Reply
  15. Jenny says

    August 27, 2022 at 1:25 am

    OK so now my tongue is hanging out for a burger (Just like Dozer) and I haven’t even had breakfast yet.
    Will stash this one for reference. thank you

    Reply
  16. Tom Anderson says

    August 26, 2022 at 10:52 pm

    Sounds delicious. I will not rate your burger sauce, I am a thousand island guy and at 83 will not be changing.
    Good news letter, you are great and that dog is OK, too.

    Keep up the good work and never lose your sense of humor Nagi.

    Reply
  17. Hollis Ramsey says

    August 26, 2022 at 9:11 pm

    Kewpie, fer shur. But your recipe is way too sweet for me. When it comes to a burger, I like to just KISS it with Bayley Hazen blue or sharp cheddar (or Stilton) + lettuce + Kewpie. Especially when the meat is Wagyu.

    Really, though, tartiflette is more to my taste — although there’s a great burger place in Paris that serves up a tartiflette burger!!! Mon dieu! Oy vey iz mir! Great balls of fire!

    Reply
  18. Josh says

    August 26, 2022 at 8:31 pm

    Interesting, not a trace of ketchup! (which means I must try it to believe it.) 🙂 Love your work, Nagi.

    Reply
  19. soozzee says

    August 26, 2022 at 6:18 pm

    Hey Nagi – Love how you add so many multi-cultural dishes and ideas to your website. I think eating and cooking is a huge part of our lives but at the end of the day if a recipe doesn’t fit our ideals then we should simply not make it. If it does enjoy to the max. Nagi you are simply amazing x

    Reply
  20. Karina Bell says

    August 26, 2022 at 6:06 pm

    5 stars
    I love the recipes Nagi .
    You always bring a smile to my face with your down to earth approach . AND Dozer is adorable .

    Reply
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