'Word of Mouth' Taste-Tests Reverse-Engineered KFC Recipe
"A single bite of the homemade KFC is enough. It's like biting into a dew-fresh ripe peach after eating a canned one. It's obviously the same thing but an order of magnitude better."
Earlier in the week, the news splashed that a Long Island, New York, man claimed he had reverse-engineered the KFC's 11 herbs and spices. The secret recipe that Ron Douglas unlocked depends heavily on Accent, a commercial MSG-based flavoring.
Everyone blogged about the discovery, but did anyone try it? At least one blog we read did.
In England, Tim Hayward (above) of the Guardian's Word of Mouth went for it. But he went one better, asking Word of Mouth readers to help him come up with a version that didn't use MSG. He then taste-tested the Colonel's bird, the Ron Douglas mix, and the reader-sourced version:
Cooking from scratch enables us to do two things that the Colonel can't: use great chicken and drain the grease more efficiently. This gave us a real head start, and the results were stunning. A single bite of the homemade KFC is enough. It's like biting into a dew-fresh ripe peach after eating a canned one. It's obviously the same thing but an order of magnitude better. As before, none of the flavours predominated enough to be identifiable but, having made up the mix from scratch, we now know the secret. Herbs and spices be damned, that staggering, mouthfilling, umami facepunch of a flavour is down to the two tablespoonfuls of MSG.
GFC, our own mix, was very, very good. Nice flavours, well chosen and matched. It's refined, elegant and I'd proudly serve it at a family picnic. An elegant Southern church lady would gladly remove a cotton glove to pick up an MSG-free GFC drumstick. She would compliment us on our British reserve, our eccentric quirkiness and our general pluck, but as far as stimulating the senses goes, she'd politely opine, "why, it's like comparing iced tea and crystal meth".
Has anyone else out there jumped on the Ron Douglas recipe and tried it at home? I'd be curious to hear what your results were. [via MetaFilter]
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19 Comments:
I knew a guy at University who has a quasi-girlfriend we nick-named 'KFC'...because he only wanted her when he was drunk.
It's hard to understand just how much fried chicken is a part of British life. If you walk down Edgeware Road in London, you will see chicken places every third shopfront. Why? Two reasons. One, it's fairly cheap and filling. Two, it's one of the few meals that all religions and cultures can eat. No beef, no pork.
The names are also very creative. There's Tennessee Fried Chicken, Virginia Fried Chicken, California Fried Chicken, and even Kentucky Fried Food.
NotAmerican at 11:33AM on 07/25/09
no surprise there; it's well known that one of the colonel's secret "spices" is MSG. just might give it a go; surely it'll be delish.
avisualperson at 1:33PM on 07/25/09
Wow. Maybe now this guy can turn his reverse engineering skills on something worth eating in the first place.
Garvey at 12:23AM on 07/26/09
Everyone keeps talking about this story but no one ever posts the damn recipe! What is it?!? I need this bad.
SmokedMeat at 12:26AM on 07/26/09
Ron Douglas shares the ingredients for his version of KFC's 11 herbs and spices recipe
— 1 teaspoon ground oregano
— 1 teaspoon chili powder
— 1 teaspoon ground sage
— 1 teaspoon dried basil
— 1 teaspoon dried marjoram
— 1 teaspoon pepper
— 2 teaspoons salt
— 2 tablespoons paprika
— 1 teaspoon onion salt
— 1 teaspoon garlic powder
— 2 tablespoons Accent
nhh2727 at 12:44AM on 07/26/09
I'm interested in trying this "Accent". I'm going to make chili, split it at the end, and mix Accent into one vs salt in the other to see the difference.
Nickiter at 1:50AM on 07/26/09
As far as I can see, they don't indicate how much flour you're supposed to mix all those herbs/spices into, or how much chicken this be good for. Hrm. I guess it's just trial and error then.
blisseau at 4:01AM on 07/26/09
@Nickiter -- Accent isn't a replacement for salt. It's MSG, which is a flavor enhancer. If you leave out the salt in your experiment, you'll have bland food. More appropriately, use your normal recipe (with the salt) as the control and then just add Accent to half and examine the resulting difference.
dvchurch at 11:00AM on 07/26/09
it's like mrs. dash, goya sazon, many of those seasonings; packs a punch, that accent! and not to turn this into an MSG-thread but some info here regarding MSG and it's other forms:
http://www.truthinlabeling.org/nomsg.html
avisualperson at 11:06AM on 07/26/09
THE TRICK FOR KFC IS THE PRESSURE FRYER THAT YOU BUY ON EBAY(DO NOT DEEP FRY IN A REGULAR PRESSURE COOKER)
THIS RECIPE COMES FROM H.S SANDERS OF SANDERS MOTOR COURT,CORBIN,KENTUCKY(WE KNOW WHO THAT IS!) IN A BOOK PUBLISHED IN 1951,IT HAS NO COVER ON IT AND HAS BEEN DAMAGED OVER THE YEARS.
4 CHICKENS CUT INTO PIECES
1 1/2 QUART MILK
4 TO 5 EGGS
5 1/2 TO 7 1/2 CUPS FLOUR
4 TB SALT
HYDROGENATED FAT 325 DEGREE
HEAT FAT TO 325 COOK CHICKEN UNCOVERED
WHEN CHICKEN STARTS TO BROWN PLACE LID ON FRYER
AND BRING PRESSURE TO 15 POUNDS AND COOK FOR 7 MINUTES.
COOK ONLY A FEW PIECES AT A TIME AND RESERVE CRACKLINGS FOR FRIED CHICKEN GRAVY.
retroburger67 at 11:57AM on 07/26/09
I LEFT OUT A FEW DETAILS IN THE RECIPE.
MIX EGGS AND MILK TOGETHER.
MIX SALT , FLOUR AND BLACK PEPPER TOGETHER.
SOAK CHICKEN IN MILK/EGG MIXTURE.
DREDGE IN SEASONED FLOUR(ACCENT AND GARLIC POWDER COULD BE ADDED TO FLOUR,HOWEVER ITS NOT IN THIS RECIPE)SHAKE OFF EXCESS BREADING. I HAVE FOUND IF I LET CHICKEN SET FOR 15 MINUTES OR SO BEFORE FRYING IT COMES OUT BETTER.
retroburger67 at 12:23PM on 07/26/09
Whoa, take it easy with the caps-lock key, retroburger. THAT'S INSANE.
Adam Kuban at 1:09PM on 07/26/09
KFC uses a pressure cooker (fryer) which most people don't have at home. Even if you get the spices right, normal frying methods won't produce the KFC taste!
jlewfoodie at 2:25PM on 07/26/09
To respond to the MSG phobics, Jeffrey Steingarten's
If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn't everyone in Asia have a headache?
peekpoke at 4:05PM on 07/26/09
And a SeriousEats article on same MSG subject
peekpoke at 4:10PM on 07/26/09
I would say he is close, but no cigar. THe cumin in the chili powder should be ground celery seed, there should be a hint of nutmeg, amd some white pepper. Maybe its cheating, but I have worked on tjis in the past for their competitors. Also, the chicken is marinated in a brine including sodium phosphates, MSG and spice extractives. the phosphates help it hold moisture and give it the tight texture.Pressure frying is a key, the flour is also important. the original Colonel sanders formula is totally unrelated to the KFC of today.
Meat guy at 5:55PM on 07/26/09
I had heard that they used a brine also for a whole day and a half, Meat Guy. I wondered about that.
trabil22 at 6:11PM on 07/26/09
I made the GFC version of the recipe ... including a marinade in milk overnight, followed by poaching the chicken in the milk to insure complete cooking. Then I mixed the herbs and spices they listed with 2 cups of flour. I was really pretty disappointed. It wasn't half as good as the recipe for fried chicken I worked out a while ago dry brining the chicken, then marinating in buttermilk and onions.
DaveFaris at 8:13PM on 07/26/09
I just tried Douglas's "KFC" mix and honestly it didn't taste anything like KFC. Granted, I didn't use a pressure fryer - I "oven fried" the chicken instead, so the texture wasn't the same. However, I was hoping that the spice mixture would at least taste similar, but it didn't really *shrugs*
I'll probably try it again to make sure my tastebuds weren't mistaken the first time.
blisseau at 11:14PM on 07/31/09