The fast food world is full of well-kept secrets, the kind PR folk love to drum up in order to keep an air of mystique around the food they want us to gobble up.

Legend and lore doesn’t come much bigger than Harland David Sanders, the snowy-haired and bespectacled chap you’re looking at every time you munch down on some KFC.

It’s all about the “finger lickin’ good” chicken, fried and covered in a secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. Whilst many have tried to uncover which ingredients give KFC that distinctive taste, attempts have thus far been unsuccessful.

Enter Joe Ledington, the 76-year-old nephew of the Colonel himself. A writer for the Chicago Tribune travelled to Corbin, Kentucky to pay homage to the fabled grub, and along the way he popped in to visit Joe:

Ledington and I shake hands, and I tell him about the assignment that brought me to this part of southeast Kentucky. Before I can even open my notebook, he draws my attention to the photo album overstuffed with pictures, newspaper clippings and various family documents…

Ledington [pictured above holding a photo of him with the Colonel, far right] continues to leaf through the family scrapbook, pausing here and there to share a memory or an anecdote about his uncle. At the back of the album is an official-looking document, its pages stapled together: the last will and testament of his Aunt Claudia, he tells me. She died on New Year’s Eve 1996 at age 94.

“I can show you what every family member got,” he says, poring over the papers. “This was my dad, Robert Ledington. He was the first one. He got $209,888.”

But what I’m really interested in is the handwritten note on the back of the document. At the top of the page, in blue ink, it reads, “11 Spices — Mix With 2 Cups White Fl.” That’s followed by an enumerated list of herbs and spices. Eleven herbs and spices. And the measurements for each.

Could this be what I think it is? The 11 herbs and spices? Ledington tells me, yep, this is it.

“That is the original 11 herbs and spices that were supposed to be so secretive,” he says with conviction.

Well, that wasn’t very hard now was it?

You know what recipe I’d really like to know all about, given that we know fast food is far from healthy? I want to know exactly how Burrata make their cannelloni with leek parmesan, artichoke, kale and roast red pepper sauce. It’s food I can eat and not feel bad about myself, which is always a plus.

Back to Joe – did he quickly realise the error of his ways and attempt to cover his tracks? Not quite:

He’s not sure who jotted down the list of 11 ingredients. But he says he’s sure it’s authentic because, as a boy, he helped blend those herbs and spices on the flat concrete roof of his uncle’s garage.

The Chicago Tribune has since used the recipe above in a taste test comparison with a bucket of KFC Original Recipe Chicken. A summary of their findings from THIS piece:

Bottom line, could this be the Colonel’s secret blend of 11 herbs and spices? We sure think so…

All we know is the recipe we tested certainly tastes like KFC. And whatever it is, it’s finger lickin’ good.

So how have KFC spokespeople handled what might be the biggest leak in fast food history? With PR spin, of course:

A KFC spokesperson responded via email:

“In the 1940’s, Colonel Sanders developed the original recipe chicken to be sold at his gas station diner. At the time, the recipe was written above the door so anyone could have read it. But today, we go to great lengths to protect such a sacred blend of herbs and spices. In fact, the recipe ranks among America’s most valuable trade secrets.”

I tried again, adding that a “yes,” “no” or “no comment” would be helpful.

The response:

“Lots of people through the years have claimed to discover or figure out the secret recipe, but no one’s ever been right.”

With an answer like that, it seems like someone might have a career in politics lined up.

I guess massive fast-food empires shouldn’t leave such valuable secrets in the hands of people like Joe, who no doubt had good intentions at heart.

Will this affect KFC’s business? Hey, if stories about the disgusting conditions in many of their kitchens can’t do the trick this shouldn’t make too much of a dent.

[source:chicagotribune]