KFC Moving It's Secret Recipe

[MA-Caver]

KFC shoring up security for secret recipe

By BRUCE SCHREINER, Associated Press Writer Tue Sep 9, 6:36 AM ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080909/ap_on_re_us/kfc_secret
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Pssst. The secret's out at KFC. Well, sort of. Colonel Harland Sanders' handwritten recipe of 11 herbs and spices was to be removed Tuesday from safekeeping at KFC's corporate offices for the first time in decades. The temporary relocation is allowing KFC to revamp security around a yellowing sheet of paper that contains one of the country's most famous corporate secrets.



AP Photo: A commemorative representation

ofthe 11 secret herbs and spicesColonel Harland Sanders

made famous...

The brand's top executive admitted his nerves were aflutter despite the tight security he lined up for the operation.
"I don't want to be the president who loses the recipe," KFC President Roger Eaton said. "Imagine how terrifying that would be."
So important is the 68-year-old concoction that coats the chain's Original Recipe chicken that only two company executives at any time have access to it. The company refuses to release their name or title, and it uses multiple suppliers who produce and blend the ingredients but know only a part of the entire contents.

It's people! The secret ingredient is people!!
Read the rest of the article on just how well protected this secret is. A lot of trouble to go through but when you consider it... it's worth it to the company.
Woe be to the executive that decides it's time to change it to something better... even if they go back to the original, that will probably kill the company.

 

[jkembry]

Woe be to the executive that decides it's time to change it to something better... even if they go back to the original, that will probably kill the company.

:lol: Yep.....I can still remember 'New' Coke. I still can't help but think they never really returned to the 'Old' Coke and started drinking Ginger Ale.

 

[MA-Caver]

:lol: Yep.....I can still remember 'New' Coke. I still can't help but think they never really returned to the 'Old' Coke and started drinking Ginger Ale.

They went back to the original formula alright, took millions of dollars in advertising campaigns to do it but they managed to hold on to their share of the market. A lesson learned there I can assure you.
One can imagine Pespi attempting to do the same thing but seeing how badly it fared for Coca-cola they must've stopped in time.

 

[Skip Cooper]

They went back to the original formula alright, took millions of dollars in advertising campaigns to do it but they managed to hold on to their share of the market. A lesson learned there I can assure you.
One can imagine Pespi attempting to do the same thing but seeing how badly it fared for Coca-cola they must've stopped in time.

I always imagined that it was all a publicity stunt...

Coca-Cola CEO: "This new formula isn't as good as the other's, but how do we market it and not lose to Pepsi?"

Ad Executives: "We can package the new flavor as new and improved and do away with the old- "

Coca-Cola CEO: "But won't that cause people to stop drinking it when they realize that the old coke was better? Won't that drop our sales?"

Ad Executive:"No, there will be a bounce in sales, because everyone will want to try the new favor. Once they begin to complain about it, we'll announce that due to popular demand we will bring back the old recipe. We will tell them that the customer is always right and we listen to them. I project record sales for this year if we do this."

Coca-Cola CEO: "Brilliant!"


...this is not based on any known fact, just my own warped imagination. There is always a conspriacy behind anything...

 

[arnisador]

Surely this is just a PR 'move'?

 

[Cryozombie]

I always imagined that it was all a publicity stunt...

Coca-Cola CEO: "This new formula isn't as good as the other's, but how do we market it and not lose to Pepsi?"

Ad Executives: "We can package the new flavor as new and improved and do away with the old- "

Coca-Cola CEO: "But won't that cause people to stop drinking it when they realize that the old coke was better? Won't that drop our sales?"

Ad Executive:"No, there will be a bounce in sales, because everyone will want to try the new favor. Once they begin to complain about it, we'll announce that due to popular demand we will bring back the old recipe. We will tell them that the customer is always right and we listen to them. I project record sales for this year if we do this."

Coca-Cola CEO: "Brilliant!"


...this is not based on any known fact, just my own warped imagination. There is always a conspriacy behind anything...

Yeah thanks for the Futurama reference there Skip.

 

[CoryKS]

Surely this is just a PR 'move'?

Yup, exactly. You want to move a piece of paper, you stick it in your pocket and STFU. You want publicity, you hire a big bad security company and hold a press conference.

 

[Empty Hands]

A lot of trouble to go through but when you consider it... it's worth it to the company.

Yep, and all because recipes can't be patented. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl was written in part about the corporate spying and sabotage that would go on in order to obtain each other's recipes. That's why Willy Wonka goes into isolation in the book.

Woe be to the executive that decides it's time to change it to something better... even if they go back to the original, that will probably kill the company.

Too bad they changed the gravy recipe. Sanders himself was furious about that, but he had no choice because he sold the company.

 

[punisher73]

When I was a kid we used to take tours of the Kellogg's cereal plant here in town. Eventually, they closed it due to industrial spies trying to see how their new equipment/process worked.

Besides, wouldn't you be able to do a chemical analysis on the chicken and figure out the ingredients and then just tweak it around to get the same taste if you were THAT desperate to find out the "super secret squirrel recipe"?

 

[Bob Hubbard]

KFC - Salt, Pepper, MSG, Flour.
Scientific analysis hasn't turned up 11 anything in the current recipe.
"In 1983, in his book BIG SECRETS, author William Poundstone hired a laboratory to analyze a dry sampling of the spice mixture. The surprising discovery was that instead of identifying eleven herbs and spices, the analysis showed only four ingredients: flour, salt, pepper and monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer. The cooking procedure is believed to be the other half of the secret. Colonel Sanders became famous for using a pressure cooker shortly after its invention in 1939."
http://www.bigoven.com/119073-Original-Recipe-Kentucky-Fried-Chicken-recipe.html

 

[crushing]

Maybe five ingredients. . .in addition to MSG as a flavor enhancer there is a dash of BS as a marketing enhancer.

Oh yeah, the publicizing the move with all the security. . .anotherh marketing enhancer.

 

[Skip Cooper]

Yeah thanks for the Futurama reference there Skip.

Wow! I wasn't aware that I made a Futurama reference. I don't remember watching that show that much, perhaps something stuck in my subconscious...I wish I could take credit for it.

 

[MA-Caver]

Too bad they changed the gravy recipe. Sanders himself was furious about that, but he had no choice because he sold the company.

Yeah, but last time m'family had KFC the gravy was pretty much the same (flavor wise) but they may have gone and changed HOW it was made. Probably removed a lot of the fat that usually can be found in gravy. I dunno I still like it.

KFC - Salt, Pepper, MSG, Flour.
Scientific analysis hasn't turned up 11 anything in the current recipe.
"In 1983, in his book BIG SECRETS, author William Poundstone hired a laboratory to analyze a dry sampling of the spice mixture. The surprising discovery was that instead of identifying eleven herbs and spices, the analysis showed only four ingredients: flour, salt, pepper and monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer. The cooking procedure is believed to be the other half of the secret. Colonel Sanders became famous for using a pressure cooker shortly after its invention in 1939."
http://www.bigoven.com/119073-Original-Recipe-Kentucky-Fried-Chicken-recipe.html

Yeah this site has a lot of the "secret ways" and all that. Tried one or two once... you do have to mix them juuuussst rite or else be disappointed and probably wasted the bucks buying the stuff.
KFC was probably one of the first to use pressurized cooking for their chicken which basically seals the flavor into the meat. When I worked there (LONG time ago) the secret recipe was in a package and was prescribed to be mixed in with regular ole' flour then the chicken dumped in a milk/water mixture then dipped into the powder... extra crispy means doing it twice. Then the whole thing gets put into a basket and that is put into the deep fryer, the lid closed, pressurized and about 10 minutes later (chicken was thawed btw) voila you got the chicken everyone vies for.
If you got a nose for it there's a lot more than just salt, peppah, MSG, there's also cayanne pepper, some typical italian spices and I'd guess maybe cilantro.

 

[CoryKS]

Just saw the clip on CNN with the security guy walking out of the corporate office handcuffed to a metal suitcase with the words "KFC TOP SECRET" prominently displayed on the front. Surrounded by security and journalists. I think we can safely say this was a PR stunt.

 

[arnisador]

It sounds like a pro wrestling stunt.