My childhood consisted of more fast-food hamburgers than my mother would probably care to admit. Don't get me wrong—she had dinner on the table at least five nights a week and we ate as a family. But, whether it was after school with friends or on one of those days when, for whatever reason, dinner at home wasn't an option, a trip to the drive-through meant a burger in my hands. Squishy seeded buns, plastic-perfect looking tomatoes, and cooked-through patties are great and all, but I spent time being enamored with one drive-through hamburger constant—the mythical secret sauce.
Because, of course I was. Mayo laced with secrets is a kid's dream condiment. Fast forward a couple of decades later and not much has changed. Recently, Iwent behind-the-scenes at Shake Shackto learn the burger-flipping ropes, and my biggest object of fascination was the chain's "Shack Sauce." How good can Shack Sauce really be? As Shake Shack Culinary Director Mark Rosati put it to me: "The idea behind the sauce is adding that flavor and lubrication that takes things from amazing to overdrive."
The other thing Rosati told me is that there's so much going on in their sauce that people "can't really recreate it" at home. So, naturally, I headed back to the Epicurious Test Kitchen to try. Somewhere between attempt #127 and #324, food editor Rhoda Boone and I got pretty close. Then we kept tinkering, and tinkering. Soon, we had a secret sauce that was all our own.
Or, rather, aNot-So-Secret Sauce. We'll tell you upfront that our sauce has a base layer of mayo, ketchup, and yellow ballpark mustard, and a slew of flavor-boosting ingredients that yield the same unctuous fattiness of the all-time great secret sauces—but with a bit more spice. Vinegar is a great way to balance out the fat of mayonnaise with acid, so we used the juice from spicy pickles combined with three key spices: smoked paprika, garlic powder, and onion powder. The result is a complex flavor bomb that gives ourClassic Smashed Cheeseburgerit's over-the-top flavor advantage.
The list of ingredients that could find their way into your secret sauce are endless. Want to make a condiment that's on the sweeter side? Add more ketchup and toss some relish in there. Need more spice? Bust out the cayenne pepper.
But we'd be honored if you tried our recipe, as is, at least once. Just don't blame us if you start putting it on everything you eat.
