Like the recipe for Coca - Cola , the 11 herbaceous plant and spices that make up KFC ’s distinctive volaille has become part of the company ’s lore . legion people have claimed to excavate these hush-hush formula over the days , but there ’s never been any official confirmation .
In the eccentric of Joe Ledington , the late man to have extract back the curtain on food business deal secrets , there ’s one compelling fact that add to his credibility : He ’s the nephew of Colonel Harland Sanders .
In a late travelogue article for theChicago Tribune , author Jay Jones visit Corbin , Kentucky , plate of the Harland Sanders Café and Museum . drum sander start his chicken imperium there , deep - fry birds to sell out of a service station .
According to Jones , an interview with Ledington at the Museum direct to Jones being invite to look through a house scrapbook that earlier belong to his Aunt Claudia , Sanders ’ second married woman . As Ledington switch through the page , Jones caught quite a little of a handwritten note strike out “ 11 spices . ” Below it :
Mixed with two cups of ashen flour , this was the underground formula that KFC had kept such a tight lid on for decades , Ledington importune . When aTribunefact - checker call to sustain , Ledington downgraded his assurance a bit , saying he could n’t be positivistic — all he knows for certain is that it is n’t the Colonel ’s handwriting .
When Jones solicited scuttlebutt fromKFC , the companionship noted that Sanders had been in the habit of posting the recipe in his eating house for anyone to see . Despite that visibility , KFC insists no one who has claimed to have the formula has ever been accurate .
So can you relieve yourself a trip-up and make authentic KFC at home ? You might : TheTribunehad ago at itwith promising results . But Sanders also pioneered a pressure - cooking method acting — where the deep pullet is covered with a hat — that might be harder to replicate . Taste tester also discover that the frying oil was too hot in early try , lead in a bland bird . The test kitchen had to play with the amount of finishing and the addition of MSG — which KFC acknowledge it utilise in its Original Recipe — to get a similar taste . Even if the formula is accurate , it ’s probably best to leave it to the experts .
[ h / tChicago Tribune ]
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