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posted by martyb on Sunday August 28 2016, @12:02PM   Printer-friendly
from the store-with-Mrs.-Field's-cookie-recipe dept.

The Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant chain, now a division of Yum! Brands and rebranded KFC, has long used the proprietary nature of its seasoning blend, purportedly containing "eleven herbs and spices," as a selling point.

A Chicago Tribune travel reporter was assigned to visit and write about the Harland Sanders Cafe and Museum. A member of the family of the founder of the chain showed the reporter a deceased aunt's photo album and her will, on the back of which the following recipe had been written:

11 Spices – Mix With 2 Cups White Fl.
1) 2/3 Ts Salt
2) 1/2 Ts Thyme
3) 1/2 Ts Basil
4) 1/3 Ts Origino (sic) [sic]
5) 1 Ts Celery Salt
6) 1 Ts Black Pepper
7) 1 Ts Dried Mustard
8) 4 Ts Paprika
9) 2 Ts Garlic Salt
10) 1 Ts Ground Ginger
11) 3 Ts White Pepper

Reporters prepared some chicken using breading made with the recipe. However, the flavour differed from that of the chicken served at KFC. When MSG was sprinkled on the chicken, the flavour became similar to KFC's chicken. A KFC spokesperson confirmed to the Tribune that the company uses MSG.


Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2016, @02:38PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28 2016, @02:38PM (#394215)

    The "secret" recipe has been all over the internet for decades.

    This story is just a press hit for KFC. Its intended to get people thinking about KFC and some small number of them will decide "hey, kfc sounds pretty good, I'm gonna get me some for lunch!"

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  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Sunday August 28 2016, @10:58PM

    by butthurt (6141) on Sunday August 28 2016, @10:58PM (#394343) Journal

    As I noted in the summary, previous advertising for the restaurant has touted the secrecy of the recipe. Readers of these articles may conclude that the secret is out. That appears to be against the long-term interest of the company. Having a newspaper highlight the restaurant's use of MSG can "unsell" some diners as well, as illustrated by some of the comments here.

    You say the recipe was already "all over" the Internet, but you don't provide even a single link. Before submitting this story, I used a search engine with a query similar to

    flour salt thyme basil oregano celery "black pepper" mustard paprika garlic ginger "white pepper"

    but the results I saw that had the same ingredients acknowledged the Tribune as the source.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @01:42AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @01:42AM (#394383)

      The error you are making is assuming *this* is the official recipe. It didn't come from the KFC "vault," it came from the back of a will. This is no more officially the real thing than any other one. Chances are that even KFC isn't using the "original" recipe; instead, over the years, they've tweaked it themselves to better fit changes in chicken preparation tech. But all of the variations that are on the net share the same basic ingredients, especially MSG.

      And your theory about MSG being bad for sales, you'll note that the "revealed" recipe does not contain MSG. They can still claim the real thing doesn't have MSG, after all it isn't in the "recipe."

      • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Monday August 29 2016, @04:21AM

        by butthurt (6141) on Monday August 29 2016, @04:21AM (#394453) Journal

        The error you are making is assuming *this* is the official recipe. It didn't come from the KFC "vault," it came from the back of a will. This is no more officially the real thing than any other one.

        No one used the word "official." It's a recipe from the family of the restaurant's founder, for his signature dish. According to one of the articles, the family member initially said "That is the original 11 herbs and spices that were supposed to be so secretive" but later said he wasn't sure. If something previously released is more authentic, please specify it. I searched the Internet for this recipe. What should I have searched for instead?

        Chances are that even KFC isn't using the "original" recipe;

        Yes, that likelihood is noted in the headline.

        But all of the variations that are on the net share the same basic ingredients, especially MSG.

        Certainly there are a variety of recipes for seasoned coatings for chicken, and there have been attempts to replicate this restaurant's. The original poster asserted that

        The "secret" recipe has been all over the internet for decades.

        There's a company called Marion Kay Spices that worked with the restaurant's founder, and it sells a seasoning mix that is similar, which it wanted to sell to KFC restaurants. However, it hasn't made its recipe public. People have examined that company's seasoning, to find out what it's made from. I don't think they'd be doing that, if an original or official recipe had been public "for decades."

        http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/a31441/colonel-secret-spices/ [esquire.com]
        http://www.rachaelray.com/2010/12/is-the-most-secret-of-all-recipes-to-be-found-in-a-bottle [rachaelray.com]
        https://web.archive.org/web/20160304232943/http://kfc.forumup.co.uk/about803-kfc.html [archive.org]
        https://web.archive.org/web/20150507224036/http://kfc.forumup.co.uk/about390-0-asc-0-kfc.html [archive.org]

        And your theory about MSG being bad for sales, you'll note that the "revealed" recipe does not contain MSG. They can still claim the real thing doesn't have MSG, after all it isn't in the "recipe."

        One of the articles said that a company spokesperson confirmed the use of MSG. That's rather an odd thing to say, if they're going to later deny use of MSG. Why get people thinking about MSG, when so many dislike it? That would be a stupid way to advertise.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @12:06AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 29 2016, @12:06AM (#394363)

    Actually that is exactly what i intend to do, in about 2 hours :)