KFC Original Recipe

Sanders' Original Recipe of "11 herbs and spices" is one of the most famous trade secrets in the catering industry.{{cite news|last=Chartrand|first=Sandra|title=Patents; Many companies will forgo patents in an effort to safeguard their trade secrets|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/05/business/patents-many-companies-will-forgo-patents-effort-safeguard-their-trade-secrets.html?n=Top%2fNews%2fTechnology%2fColumns%2fPatents|newspaper=New York Times|date=February 5, 2001|access-date=September 27, 2013}}{{cite book | last=Hovey | first=C. | title=The Patent Process: A Guide to Intellectual Property for the Information Age | publisher=Wiley | year=2002 | isbn=978-0-471-44217-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aulUAAAAMAAJ | access-date=November 7, 2017 | page=243}} Franchisee Dave Thomas, better known as the founder of Wendy's, argued that the secret recipe concept was successful because "everybody wants in on a secret" and former KFC owner John Y. Brown, Jr. called it "a brilliant marketing ploy."{{cite book|last=Darden|first=Robert|title=Secret Recipe: Why Kfc Is Still Cooking After 50 Years|date=January 1, 2004|publisher=Tapestry Press|isbn=978-1-930819-33-7|pages=12, 57–58, 101, 159, 175, 211}}{{cite book|last=Thomas|first=R. David |title=Dave's Way: A New Approach to Old-Fashioned Success|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1j8bD6SQrAC|access-date=April 4, 2013|date=October 1, 1992|publisher=Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated|isbn=978-0-425-13501-3|page=82}} The New York Times described the recipe as one of the company's most valuable assets. The recipe is not patented, because patents are published in detail and come with an expiration date, whereas trade secrets can remain the intellectual property of their holders in perpetuity.{{cite news|title=It pays to understand law on trade secrets|url=http://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2001/02/26/editorial2.html?page=all|access-date=February 22, 2013|newspaper=Business First|date=February 26, 2001}}

KFC uses its Original Recipe as a means to differentiate its product from its competitors.{{cite news| url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-sep-10-fi-kfc10-story.html | work=Los Angeles Times | title=KFC on lookout for fowl play | date=September 10, 2008|access-date=September 27, 2013}} Early franchisee Pete Harman credited the chain's popularity to the recipe and the product, and John Y. Brown cites the "incredibly tasty, almost addictive" product as the basis of KFC's staying power.{{cite news|last=Schreiner|first=Bruce|title=Kentucky Fried Chicken marks 50th anniversary of first franchise|url=http://onlineathens.com/stories/081102/bus_20020811016.shtml|agency=Associated Press|access-date=July 21, 2012}} On the other hand, Allen Adamson, managing director of brand consultancy Landor, remains unconvinced about the contribution of the secret formula aspect.{{cite news|title=Corporate Espionage; Secrets and lies|newspaper=Brand Strategy|date=October 9, 2006}} He argues: "The story may still be part of these companies' folklore, but I'd be surprised if more than 2 percent buy the brand because of it."

A copy of the recipe, signed by Sanders, is stored within a vault at KFC's Louisville headquarters, along with 11 separate vials that each contain one of the ingredients.{{cite news |title=KFC's Big Game of Chicken |author=Brady, Diane |url=http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-29/kfcs-big-game-of-chicken |newspaper=Businessweek |date=March 29, 2012 |access-date=July 1, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115170657/http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-29/kfcs-big-game-of-chicken |archive-date=January 15, 2013 |url-status=dead }}{{cite news|agency=Associated Press |title=Colonel's Secret Recipe Gets Bodyguards |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2008/09/09/colonels-secret-recipe-gets-bodyguards.html |access-date=January 31, 2013 |newspaper=CNBC |date=September 9, 2008 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923032226/http://www.cnbc.com/id/26618866/Colonel039s_Secret_Recipe_Gets_Bodyguards |archive-date=September 23, 2013 }} KFC employs two different firms, Griffith Laboratories and McCormick & Company, to formulate the blend; to maintain secrecy, each firm is given a different half of the recipe. Once the Griffith portion has been formulated, it is sent to McCormick and combined with the remaining ingredients there.{{cite news|last=Crossan|first=Rob|title=The A to Z of fried chicken|newspaper=The Times|publisher=Times Newspapers|date=April 26, 2012}}

In 1983, William Poundstone conducted laboratory research into the coating mix, as described in his book Big Secrets, and claimed that a sample he examined contained only flour, salt, monosodium glutamate and black pepper.{{cite book|last=Poundstone|first=William|title=Big Secrets|year=1983|publisher=William Morrow|isbn=0-688-04830-7|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bigsecretsuncens00poun/page/20 20–21]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/bigsecretsuncens00poun/page/20}} KFC maintains that it still adheres to Sanders' original 1940 recipe.{{cite news|last=Choi|first=Candice|title=Is Coke's 127-year-old recipe the same? Not quite|newspaper=Houston Chronicle|url=http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Is-Coke-s-127-year-old-recipe-the-same-Not-quite-4777106.php|date=August 26, 2013|access-date=October 1, 2013}} In Todd Wilbur's television program Top Secret Recipe, Sanders's former secretary, Shirley Topmiller, revealed that Sanders learned from his mother that sage and savory are good seasonings for chicken.{{Cite episode |title=KFC|series=Top Secret Recipe |url=http://www.cmt.com/show/top_secret_recipe/episode.jhtml?episodeID=184796#moreinfo |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927063906/http://www.cmt.com/show/top_secret_recipe/episode.jhtml?episodeID=184796#moreinfo |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 27, 2011 |access-date=October 1, 2013 |network=Viacom |station=CMT |date=2011 |season=1 |number=101}} Also, Winston Shelton, a former friend of Sanders, said that the secret recipe contains Tellicherry black pepper.

It is well attested that Harland Sanders asked Bill Summers of Marion-Kay Spices in Brownstown, Indiana, US to recreate his secret blend of 11 herbs and spices.{{cite book|last=Ozersky|first=Josh|title=Colonel Sanders and the American Dream|pages= 95–96 |date=April 2012|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-74285-7}} Sanders recommended the Marion-Kay seasoning to franchisees over the corporate version, as he believed the latter had been made inferior by the corporation's inattention. Following Sanders' passing, KFC sued Marion-Kay in 1982, and the latter was forbidden from selling its mixture to KFC franchises as a result. The Marion-Kay seasoning is still sold under the name "99-X", and according to Sanders biographer Josh Ozersky, it is indistinguishable from the original KFC recipe.

In August 2016, the Chicago Tribune reported that Joe Ledington of Kentucky, a nephew by marriage of Colonel Sanders, had claimed to have found a copy of the original KFC fried chicken recipe on a handwritten piece of paper in an envelope in a scrapbook.{{cite web|last1=Dodrill|first1=Tara|title=KFC recipe revealed? Tribune shown family scrapbook with 11 herbs and spices|url=http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/travel/ct-kfc-recipe-revealed-20160818-story.html|date=August 19, 2016|publisher=Chicago Tribune|access-date=August 23, 2016}} Tribune staffers conducted a cooking test of this recipe, which took several attempts to get right. They had to determine whether the "Ts" meant tablespoons or teaspoons. If tablespoons, the resulting mix would be 32% spice, 68% breading. If teaspoons, the mix would be 12.5% spice, 87.5% breading.

After some trial and error, they decided the chicken should be soaked in buttermilk and coated once in the breading mixture, then fried in oil at {{convert|350|F}} in a pressure fryer until golden brown. As a pressure fryer was too big, a deep fryer was used alternatively as a substitute. They also claimed that, with the addition of MSG as a flavor enhancer, they could produce fried chicken which tasted "indistinguishable" from fried chicken that they had purchased at KFC.

The recipe found by Joe Ledington reads as follows:

11 Spices – Mix with 2 cups white flour

1. {{2/3}} t salt
2. {{1/2}} t thyme
3. {{1/2}} t basil
4. {{1/3}} t oregano
5. 1 t celery salt
6. 1 t black pepper
7. 1 t dry mustard
8. 4 t paprika
9. 2 t garlic salt
10. 1 t ground ginger
11. 3 t white pepper

While Ledington expressed uncertainty that the recipe was the Original Recipe, he had a hand in mixing the Original Recipe for Colonel Sanders when he was a young boy, and recalled that white pepper was a principal ingredient.

In the 1993 film So I Married An Axe Murderer, Mike Myers plays an aged conspiracy theorist who insists Sanders "puts an addictive chemical in his chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly".{{cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KA1MAQAAIAAJ | title=Defense Counsel Journal | date=2007 }}

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Category:KFC

Category:Trade secrets

Category:Products introduced in 1952

Category:Kentucky cuisine

Category:Fried chicken