What really is in all that food we eat? Here we probe some well known and not so well known myths and mysteries. Enjoy the fare!

The 11 Secret Ingredients in Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Just about everyone has heard of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). And everyone has probably heard about the secret herbs and spices. This was a major marketing angle years ago, but isn't used today. Perhaps the reason is that the recipe has changed over the years so as to make the 'secret ingredients' angle not ring so true anymore.

KFC was started by the good Colonel Harland Sanders in the mid fifties, after being forced to sell his motel / restaurant business. At the tender age of 66 Sanders took to the road to sell his new chicken franchise business. He travelled with a pressure cooker and a bag of seasoning mixture in his car. He also demonstrated , and proved his claims, that he could make up the seasoning mixture in any well stocked kitchen. It is rumoured that he told only two people the recipe, his wife and Jack Massey, head of a three man syndicate that bought out the North American part of KFC in 1964. It was said he sold too soon and too cheap, (for just 2 million dollars). Sanders retained the Canadian operation, and died in 1980 at the age of ninety. The secret had passed out of the families hands when the operation was sold to the Massey syndicate in 1964. It was then shared by Massey, food engineer Art Pelster, and most probably some family members, (wouldn't you ask your dad/ husband about it if you knew he knew the recipe?). Pelster, an engineer, developed the innovative warming and cooking equipment for the corporation. After 7 years, the syndicate sold out to Heublein, Inc., makers of Smirnoff Vodka and A.1 steak sauce among others, for a reported figure of 287 million dollars.

It is interesting that none of the thousands of franchisees world-wide have been told the recipe. Although taught how to cook the chicken using the special equipment and method, they are not told what is in the seasoning mix. Franchisees buy in the seasoning premixed, ready to use.

Observing the chicken we see the coating is a thin , soggy layer stuck to the skin. It is flavourful, though no flavour dominates. The meat is moist and sometimes greasy, mostly due to the pressure cooking process. More on the cooking process later.

In the early 70's food writers were tasked with trying the chicken and offering their opinions as to what it contained. There was little consensus here. One found the chicken was 'dunked in batter, probably made of flour, milk and maybe eggs'. He was 'reasonably sure' of salt and pepper in the seasoning, and perhaps celery salt, caraway and chilli powder. Another found it 'well seasoned with salt', and thought he detected MSG (monosodium glutamate), cayenne pepper and cinnamon. Yet another doubted any milk or egg in the batter. He also doubted that there were 11 herbs and spices in the mixture, detecting only cinnamon and cloves. He also thought that there was sugar present, stating 'real fried chicken is not sweet, and this is.' He suspected the sugar was added to the cooking oil. The last writer was even more effusive. He detected small amounts of rosemary, savoury, tarragon, thyme, pepper, tumeric and cinnamon. He also noted salt, MSG, 'small globs of what may be honey or sugar', and traces of 'almond and mint.' Well, certainly a wide range of opinions! There are some similarities though. Cinnamon and MSG are mentioned more than once, as are salt and pepper. Ok ok, I know what you are thinking. Why hasn't someone taken some chicken to a lab and had it analysed? Well, read on and see what the lab has to say about this.

The Lab Reports.

Most food labs refused requests to analyse the mixture. Fair enough, but one was found that would do it. They were supplied with a small amount of the mixture, which was a strong smelling white powder with black and brown flecks. The results may surprise you. The cooking methods and procedures were revealed during interviews with KFC employees. So, based on these interviews, the lab results and Sander's original patent application, the following was deduced.

Chickens are cut into reasonably equal portions. About 5 lbs of pieces are then plunged into very hot oil, around 8 quarts at 400ºF. This is one of the keys to KFC cooking. The amount of chicken and the amount of oil are critical. If you dropped one piece of chicken into oil that temperature it would be crispy within seconds, and raw in the middle. If the right amount of chicken is put into the oil, then, because the chicken is cold, and steam is generated by the coating as it cooks, the oil cools to the right temperature, allowing the outside to crisp perfectly. Still, this leaves the inside undercooked. If we left the chicken in the hot oil the outside would burn before the centre was cooked properly. A pressure cooker is used to infuse moisture, or to prevent moisture escaping from the chicken during cooking. This gives the Colonel's chicken that moist, succulent texture. After the initial plunge, the oil cools to around 250ºF and is maintained at this temperature for the remainder of the cooking process. As the chicken cooks, the moisture boiling out increases the pressure in the cooker until, if proportions were right, it reaches about 15 PSI. If required an outside air source maintains this pressure. Chicken cooks two to ten times faster using this method over conventional cooking. Total cooking time is around 10 minutes, including the browning phase. Once cooked, the chicken is kept hot in warming cabinets (about 160ºF) until purchased.

So , what's in it??

There is no batter as such. The chicken is submerged in a dip made of skimmed milk (or similar) and beaten eggs. The dipped pieces are rolled in flour, to which salt and the other flavourings have been added. Then the chicken is cooked as per the above method.

Here is where the lab comes in. After analysing the seasoning mixture, they found only four ingredients. With today's technology, if there had been one grain of any other compound it would have been identified immediately. So, four ingredients. They are; Flour, Salt, MSG and Black Pepper. So, no herbs at all. And no sugar either. There was nothing in the sample tested that could not be identified. According to the interviewees there is nothing else added in the cooking process either, which leads us to the conclusion that these four ingredients are the only ones in the mixture. It is of course totally feasible that the original mixture did indeed contain these ingredients, and that over the years the formula simply changed when the company was sold to different masters. There is evidence to support this theory. The original gravy, pre-1964, was considered too labour intensive for fast food production and was changed. Sanders himself declared the new gravy 'wallpaper paste'.

So there we have it. Disappointed? We were, all that time and all we were eating was plain ole common salt and MSG. As you probably know there have been concerns over MSG and the affect it has on some people. As with other chemical type additives (Saccharine and Nutrasweet to name just a couple) various symptoms have been noted in certain people and linked with the use of these compounds. These range from insomnia to headaches and nervous disorders. (mind you, we hear this about coffee, burnt toast and beer as well.... Ed.)

We hope you enjoyed this exposé of KFC. There are more food titbits on the next page.

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