Depending on where you are, a Big Mac sandwich costs around $4 to $4.50. On the other hand, most McDonald's offer a McDouble on their dollar menu. Since all the fast food restaurants are into the customize-the-way-you-want-it game these days, all you've got to do is order the McDouble without mustard and ketchup, and ask them to add shredded lettuce and Big Mac sauce and you've got yourself a pretty close approximation of a real Big Mac, minus the center bun and the sesame seeds, all for about a quarter of the price. More

As The Most Interesting Man In The World would say, "I don't often eat a Big Mac, but when I do, I replace the center bun with a thick piece of crispy pig skin." More

The Economist reports that "currencies continue to be cheap in the developing world but overvalued in Europe" according to the Big Mac Index, an informal way of measuring countries' currency values by comparing the prices of their Big Macs against their actual exchange rates. (The Economist admits, "The Big Mac numbers should be taken with a generous pinch of salt. They are not a precise predictor of currency movements.") More

The goal this week is to build a better Big Mac by taking that great concept—two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, and onions, all on a sesame seed bun—and fixing up everything that's wrong with it. More

If you don't trust governments to truthfully report their inflation rates, what's one burger-related way you can cross-check official inflation rates? Check out the prices of their countries' Big Macs over the years. The Economist introduced the Big Mac Index in 1986 as a simple way to calculate the values of currencies around the world against the US dollar using the theory of purchasing power parity—"the notion that a dollar should buy the same amount in all countries." Last week The Economist published this updated chart of Big Mac inflation minus official inflation rates. (Of course, Big Mac prices can't tell you everything about inflation. Because..it's a burger.) [via Karen L.] More

Editor's note: Please welcome longtime Serious Eats reader and occasional fast food fan John M. Edwards—no known relation to the recent Enquirer star. Ah, the magic of food styling. [Photograph: mcdonalds.com] "You went to McDonald's for lunch?" my coworker asked... More

[Photograph: Local Lemons] Host a Big Mac-Making Party at your home by following Allison's Big Mac recipe at her blog, Local Lemons. "The allure of the infamous Big Mac lies in the special sauce," she says; she makes the... More

Photograph from New York Post Katherine Heigl, from Grey's Anatomy and Knocked Up eats a Big Mac at the end of the 30th birthday party. Don't dribble any special sauce on that get up, miss! [via Fred S.]... More

Don Gorske has accomplished something few of us could even imagine—he has eaten nearly 23,000 Big Macs in 36 years. The 54-year-old Gorske has been keeping track of his consumption ever since 1972, driven by a mix of his... More