It seems that the recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken has been found in a house that Col. Sanders used to own, by the current residents. Here’s the link I saw:
This is known as one of the most closely guarded secrets ever.
My question is, and why this belongs in GQ, is why with all the analytical tools available today, is this still such a big secret? When we can extract DNA from blood it is surprising that we cannot discern what spices are in the food we eat.
I can only hope that KFC goes back to this original recipe and be as good as it used to be.
Even the Colonel himself once walked into one of his restaurants (after he had sold the company) and proclaimed it “The worst fried chicken he had ever tasted”.
One of the books in the Big Secrets series by an author whose name I cannot recall, conducted some tests on the flavorings in the batter, and concluded that the 11 herbs and spices, were in fact: salt, pepper and MSG. That’s it.
Big Secrets was written by William Poundstone. Recommended for some interesting solutions to some rather obscure questions.
And he is right…the recipe calls for Chicken, cooking oil, skim milk, 8 eggs, flour, salt (and plenty of it according to the book), black pepper, and of course monosodium glutamate…enhances flavor, appeals to the masses, and causes headaches a hour later.
No 11 herbs and spices to see
The gravy is not even the Sanders original (he called it “wallpaper paste”). Supposedly the Colonel’s orginal recipe was too labor-intensive for the fast food industry and is locked away in the company vault.
Ever the cynic, I wonder if this is really the right recipe. The people have lived in this house for nearly 30 years, and they just discovered this piece of paper? Oh, come on.
Also, while I don’t doubt that KFC currently contains MSG, why would he have done this back in the late 1940’s when he first started making it? Did anyone really use msg back then? It wouldn’t be too hard to use 11 herbs and spices, so why would he have lied about that from the get-go?
In the interest of this being in GQ, I just heard on national news that KFC officials are saying that this is not a recipe, it is just a “list of ingredients.” And that they aren’t even the “secret” ingredients.
