The Greatest McDonald's Dollar Menu Items of All Time

Sadly, the Egg McMuffin has never been part of the true Dollar Menu. Like the Big Mac and Quarter Pounder before it, there was a time when the Egg McMuffin could be had for a dollar, but that dollar and today's dollar bear little resemblance. The Breakfast Dollar Menu launched in 2009, and the king of the McDonald's A.M. offerings was the Sausage McMuffin. Though the Breakfast Dollar Menu never quite packed the same punch as its afternoon companion, the Sausage McMuffin deserves credit as the best A.M. dollar dish.

McDonald's java isn't exactly dominating the coffee game. We'll gladly pay a little more for coffee from a higher-end joint if it's available. That being said, after hours of driving on the highway, it is nice to know that you have a cheap alternative to that rough, reheated gas station bean juice. Grabbing a large coffee for the same price you would have paid for a small is a great feeling after long, hard days on the open road.

Before there were value menus, before the fast food gimmick wars, there were Onion Nuggets. This legendary item was introduced into test markets in the late '70s and then promptly disappeared. The only trace that remains of the Onion Nugget (outside of nostalgic Internet lists) is a sample that has been preserved in a climate controlled room in Elk Grove, Illinois. Though we have no first-hand accounts of how the Onion Nugget tasted, we believe it deserves a place in value menu history if only for the aura of mystery surrounding the product. In a way, it is for the best that the Onion Nuggets went away. That way we can remember them as never costing more than a dollar.

Fast food critics (and yes, there are far more of them than you imagine), were up in arms when the Double Cheeseburger was Mcdowngraded to the McDouble (they took one piece of cheese off—the horror!). Fast food bloggers viewed the addition of the Grilled Onion Cheddar Burger to the Dollar Menu as an attempt to make amends for the dairy-based cost cutting. Taylor Tamblin over at "Man Reviews Food" noticed welcome similarities between this burger and more expensive, sadly defunct Cheddar Bacon Onion sandwich series. Though most Dollar Menu moves by McDonald's have been aimed at limiting portions in keeping with inflation, this sandwich, added last January, was proof that even on its last legs, the Dollar Menu could still satisfy.

You're probably scratching your head at this one. For most of our readers, the Big Mac has not been a dollar in your lifetime. These days, the sandwich sans meal costs you over five bucks, and the global average price of a Big Mac has risen to $6.70. In 1967, when the sandwich was introduced, it cost a mere 45 cents. Throughout much of the '70s, a Big Mac could be had for a dollar. Obviously, inflation has kicked into high gear since then, and Big Mac prices have risen as the dollar stretches a little less with each passing year. In light of how Big Mac prices have surged upward over time, it should come as no surprise that McDonald's has been forced to abandon the Dollar Menu due to ceaseless inflation.

Sometimes you want ice cream and sometimes you want a McDonalds vanilla cone. The two things should not be mistaken for one another. Unlike many of the most popular McDonald's dishes, the vanilla cone has maintained its value through the years. In fact, some locations offered the cone for as low as 49 cents just last summer. While you get serious bang for your buck from the vanilla cone, you won't see it in your waistband. McDonald's cones are only 170 calories, which makes them one lowest calorie items on their menu.

The fried apple pie technically never lived to see the Dollar Menu. 1992, the year that the Value Menu (the precursor to the Dollar Menu) was introduced, was also the year that the Fried Apple Pie was phased out. Since the early 90s, your McDonald's apple pies have been baked. Perhaps we live in a healthier world now, but it's not like we head to McDonald's in hopes of keeping our New Year's weight loss resolutions.

The history of the Chicken McNugget has long been tied up in economics. Though the company had the recipe for their nuggets perfected by 1979, you couldn't find them nationwide until 1983. At the time, there was no dependable supply of chicken that could meet potential demand. Economics continue to be a huge factor in McNugget sales to this day. It seems that every year, fewer nuggets are available for a dollar. Most McDonald's locations now charge more than a dollar for a four-piece nugget, though you can get a twenty-piece for five dollars. In New York City, you can pay over three dollars for six-piece at some spots. Personally, we skip crunching the nugget numbers and just opt for the twenty piece every time.

We've already mentioned that the Double Cheeseburger has long been the bane of franchisee earnings reports. In fact, the McDouble (essentially a Double Cheeseburger with only one slice of cheese) was introduced to counter pricing complaints from store owners. The Double Cheeseburger/McDouble may be more than just a good deal. This sandwich may be one of the best value foods in human history (in terms of calories and not nutrition, of course). Stephen Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics looked into this after a blog commenter called the Double Cheeseburger "the cheapest, most bountiful food that ever existed in human history." Of course, that is a complicated statement. Head over to the Freakonomics blog for a debate on the subject between Mother Jones agriculture writer Tom Philpott and Missouri Farm Bureau President Blak Hurst. Your conclusions will vary depending on your perspective, but the arguments on both sides are compelling.