And this is everything that's in a Big Mac.

Welcome to Fast Food Chemistry.

Now, I've been desperate to try

an authentic American Big Mac,

but unfortunately there's no way

I can get my hands on one in the UK.

The simple solution was to get ahold of

every ingredient which goes into one --

there are over 50 --

and then to build one myself.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

You're not making a US Big Mac without me.

I'm going to oversee this whole operation

to see how close you actually get.

What I love about this show is that it combines

all the things I love about making Food Wars,

and also I do literally nothing.

So I am a fan of this format.

I've always wanted to say this,

but please do not try this one at home.

This one right here is alum.

This is potassium aluminium sulfate,

and it's primarily used in things like

leather tanning and dyeing and in fireproofing textiles.

It's pretty strong stuff.

For example, if you boil some of this,

it can actually dissolve steel in just a few hours.

OK, we're one chemical in

and already we're talking about dissolving steel,

did he say?

Um, no.

Harry, please be careful.

Put on some gloves for God's sakes.

This one right here is soy lecithin.

You've probably heard my Food Wars cohost,

Joe, mispronounce this one a million times.

Lechithin.

Leckithin.

Lecithin.

Leckithin.

Lechithin.

Leechithin.

Soy lecithin.

It's a lubricant and an emulsifier.

It's considered safe for consumption,

but there have been some preliminary studies

to suggest that overconsumption may promote depression,

which is kind of the last thing I need.

But what exactly do we mean by emulsifier?

Well, as we all know, oil and water don't usually mix.

An emulsifier is something

which helps you get around that problem.

In the Big Mac it's used in the cheese and the sauce,

just to kind of help everything stay together.

And finally we have polysorbate 80,

otherwise known as polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate,

or the more catchy "tween."

Now this might come in a handy applesauce-style pouch,

but it's probably our most controversial chemical here.

Studies have shown that it can lead to an increase

in colon cancer and infertility in mice.

It's not a guarantee to say that it will

do the same to humans, but it's probably not the best sign.

OK, oh Jesus.

Slice, ugh.

Pasteurized American cheese.

Ingredients are milk, cream, water,

sodium citrate, salt, cheese cultures,

citric acid, enzymes, soy lecithin, and colors added.

Get a load of this guy right here.

This one's a little tricky.

We don't have an exact recipe

for the pasteurized processed American cheese

which McDonald's uses in the States.

What we did find are the FDA requirements

for processed cheese.

Now to meet the legal definition of American cheese,

it must be made of cheddar, colby,

granular, or washed curd cheese.

We're choosing to go with a mild cheddar

because it already kind of tastes similar

to the Big Mac cheeses that I've had in the past.

From the ingredients list,

we can see the ones that belong to the cheese

and the ones which are added at a later stage.

The cheese itself is basically just made of milk,

salt, cultures, and enzymes.

Whereas later on, you will add the sodium citrate

as an emulsifying agent,

the citric acid as an acidifying agent,

and the soy lecithin as an anti-sticking agent.

The FDA requirements also specify how much of each of these

you're allowed to have in the finished cheese.

For example, we know that the soy lecithin

can only be 0.03% of the finished weight.

I think it's chemical time.

The chemicals have changed the consistency

of the cheese almost immediately.

It's gone from what was a very liquidy melted cheddar

with some cream in it to like, a very shiny-looking,

almost like a squeezy cheese.

And last but not least, the color.

That's good.

So in a relatively short space of time

we've turned this cheddar, which is quite a firm,

inflexible, very pale cheese,

into this classic American cheese.

It's amazing how little sodium citrate it took

and how quickly the change took effect.

Honestly, it was a tiny amount,

and as soon as it was sprinkled in,

made a whole world of difference.

Obviously it looks like American cheese,

but this is how we test if this is real,

authentic American cheese.

Ready?

Let's check it out.

Damn it, I was hoping it would stick.

Let's see if our cheese passes the test.

The pickle slices at an American McDonald's

contain cucumbers, water, distilled vinegar,

salt, calcium chloride, alum,

potassium sorbate as a preservative, natural flavors,

polysorbate 80, extractives of turmeric for color.

Ugh.

Now some of these chemicals

can actually be quite dangerous.

Calcium chloride can lead to burns in the mouth and throat,

excess thirst, vomiting, stomach pain,

and low blood pressure.

So I'm going to put some gloves on.

Now, despite its potential dangers,

calcium chloride is actually a great way

to improve the saltiness in food

without increasing the sodium content.

Alum is one that we've mentioned before.

And apparently this improves the crunchiness of pickles.

Potassium sorbate, as it says on the label,

is a mold inhibitor,

which will get the pickles a longer shelf life.

And finally, we have polysorbate 80.

Now this is an emulsifier which will thicken liquids.

However, it is also the one that gives mice cancer.

It's forming like, can you see this?

It's forming crystals, like stalactites.

Oh, it's like, solidifying or something right now.

What is happening?

Get away from it.

I feel like I'm watching someone making an explosive.

I just, the way he's shaking it, it's like,

gah, it's going to explode.

Looks like this is the first time

Harry's ever cut a cucumber.

Still quite lumpy.

The Big Mac bun in the US contains

the following ingredients: enriched flour,

which is ...

and diglycerides, enzymes, and vinegar.

We'll start with the flour.

This is British white bread flour,

which contains wheat flour,

calcium carbonate, iron, niacin, and thiamin.

So we're missing the malted barley flour,

the riboflavin, and the folic acid.

None of these are too suspect.

Malted barley flour contains enzymes

that break down starch to sugar,

and riboflavin and folic acid

are actually just vitamins B2 and B9.

So let's fortify our flour.

The only way to actually get the extra ingredients

that we needed was in vitamin form.

So we've got some folic acid

and some riboflavin tablets here.

It's like a pregnancy supplement.

You're supposed to take them

when you're trying to get pregnant.

Now that we have our fortified flour,

the next few ingredients are fairly simple:

water, sugar, yeast, and soybean oil.

Now these might seem fairly normal,

but we actually had some difficulty

finding soybean oil here in the UK.

In the US, apparently it's one of

the most common cooking oils.

But in the UK, it's used for two things,

massage oil and as a horse supplement.

So I'm going to need clarity on this.

When you say a horse supplement,

you're giving it as a supplement to a horse?

Or you take it as a supplement instead of eating horse?

Which is it?

Both are really weird.

Nailed it.

We looked up soybean oil in the USA,

and it was a much lighter color than this.

So this might not be as refined as the soybean oil

that you get in the US,

but fingers crossed, it should still be edible.

And finally, the extra ingredients.

Now the ingredients list has these as less than 2%,

so we have some idea of how much

of each of these we should be adding.

Oh, is that how chemistry works?

Just eyeballing it?

What are you doing?

We have just a little bit of this, a little bit of that.

Again, there's nothing too surprising

until we get to this one, which is DATEM.

Now, DATEM is diacetyl tartaric acid

ester of mono- and diglycerides.

Now, if you ever wondered how McDonald's gets their buns

so kind of soft, but also quite springy,

this might be the difference maker.

It improves the strength of the gluten network.

It's like, really soft, right?

I know it's not supposed to be that way,

but it's kind of like, it's got a bounce to it, right?

So our buns have risen.

We're going to put them into some ring molds,

top them with sesame seeds, and then bake.

It appears that Harry has raided someone's dorm room

and stolen their microwave-hot plate combo.

I don't know how this is going to turn out.

OK, here we go.

So here is the bun we made today,

and here is a bun we made earlier.

Now the differences between these two

are that this one has all the chemicals McDonald's uses,

whereas this one is literally just water, flour, and yeast.

Visually, the one we've made today

looks like a much better color.

It's a nice, even golden brown all around.

As you see with the one on the left, without the chemicals,

it's actually got this big tear around the side as well.

Now it's unclear exactly why this happened,

but it could be because this one has some chemicals

which help the gluten stay strong

and withstand the expansion in the oven.

But that looks, actually looks pretty good.

I'm very surprised by that.

The Big Mac big sauce is made --

Our American Big Mac sauce contains

soybean oil, from before, remember that?

Sweet relish, which is diced pickles, sugar,

high-fructose corn syrup, distilled vinegar,

spices, onion powder, salt, extractives of paprika,

and soy lecithin.

Now, kind of like the soybean oil,

we had some real difficulties getting hold of

high-fructose corn syrup in the UK.

It's just really not used at all.

We were able to track down some regular corn syrup,

but only as a kind of specialty imported product.

But the only difference is that high-fructose corn syrup

goes through a process which converts some of its glucose

into fructose, which makes it even sweeter.

Yup, corn syrup is very common in the United States.