Alt:

A screenshot of a Bluesky post by Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) dated September 10, 2026.The text of the post reads: "With an average saucey:nuggie ratio of .1375, we really are talking about egregious levels of sauce preciousness here. Bonkers that the 10 piece nuggie gets a 0.2 saucey:nuggie ratio, but the 40 piece falls to a baffling 0.1. A 0.2 ratio or below should really be considered borderline criminal."

Below the text is a chart titled "SAUCE POLICY."

Especially if you're going to charge for additional ones.

Downvoted due to nuggie

These ain't your real emrani rapscallion ghost nuggets.

A guess is they do it for psychological reasons on calorie counts. They know people will justify up to some amount of calories and the sauces round up

Let's see... I recall 40 piece coming with 6, so I already know 0.1 is off. That's 40:6, so 0.15.

That said, you can get pretty good nugget coverage with 6 nuggets to a sauce. I recently asked for one of each sauce when getting a 40 and that was 7 sauces, and they didn't charge more cause I clearly was ordering with the curious whimsy of someone who had never had a 40 pack before. After all, this wasn't a planned visit, fates simply lead us there that evening.

With a ratio of 0.175, there was plenty leftover, although popular sauces Honey Mustard and Ranch did almost run out. I imagine even with a 0.1 ratio, there should be enough sauce to satisfy all but the most gluttonous sauce abusers, assuming you only get sauces people are willing to eat.

Ok yes sauces have calories but who really counts the sauce calories if you are already eating chicken nuggets? Like if you are eating a salad and count the dressing, maybe but the intersection of calorie counting people and chicken nugget eating people can't be very much

i personally like to match my 100g cheeseburger with about 100g of spicy cream sauce

What were your favorite sauces? Least favorites?

Nuggets are actually probably the best choice on the McDonalds menu for calorie counting. Relatively higher in protein and lower in carbs and fat than most other things on the menu. A sauce pot has 20% of the calories that 6 piece has though, so absolutely should be counting the sauces too (if you are indeed counting).

If you're counting calories and then restricting yourself to salads only, you're already approaching it in an unhealthy way. At least from places like McDonalds.

I think you can write a letter to Nature to make them amend the results of the previous study. The peer-review process failed on this one.

I'll remember this as I eat my sausage egg mcmuffin for breakfast

Actually the breakfast menu is probably even better because eggs are awesome.

Or even when you have to ask. Because nicer areas will give you enough extrra if you ask, poorer areas, especially in the hood, will not.

But if you are eating "nuggets" at a fast food place regularly, the industrial toxic preservative laced (sodium benzoate usually, in fast food condiments, not most of the same store bought ones,) dipping sauce availability isn't your biggest problem.

It's garbage food, ok for a munchies attack here and here, but not regular eating.

Is that still true if I add vodka to the orange juice?

Vodka is one of the lowest-calorie ways to get drunk, so yes.

Sweet! Don't tell my boss...

One of the new larger dunking style sauce packets can* be about 125 calories, so it's not nothing.

Not saying it's nothing, most people just don't count it.

Honey Mustard is probably number one, Ranch is well received but may be up to the taster. For me, ranch is second, followed by BBQ sauce.

After that... Sweet and Sour, Hot Mustard, Buffalo, and finally there was some sort of hot sauce I forgot what they called. None of it was bad, but I found the spicy ones less appropriate, especially Buffalo which I associate with wings.

To my knowledge, none of these are seasonal or a special event sauce, but a seasoned nugget specialist may know more.

(Outside of this, Sriracha is actually my favorite sauce for chicken nuggets, but that was not part of this particular experience.)

Ideally, sauceologists should run a meta-analysis to definitively determine the ideal ratio. There is a possibility of a regional difference, and older studies might have higher ratios to compare to, and we're lacking data on special limited edition sauces.

I remember one time some hs friends and I had no money and we drove my friend's mom's car to a mcds and each only got fries, and "one of every sauce". The consensus was that every sauce was surprisingly palatable with fries except honey.