Do you remember those Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials from all those years back? You know, the ones that touted the Colonel's secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. Turns out, that blend is such a secret that when the company (now simply known as KFC) realized that the combination of vaults and locks might be a little vulnerable, they hired a security company to beef up the level of protect, and used an armored guard to move the recipe from one location to another. That's one special spice blend. The video of the transfer is after the jump.
9-11-2008 @11:09AM Barry said... Um, thanks for the auto-start video. Those sirens at the beginning really let everyone in the office know I was working on serious business. Come on, guys. You're killing me.
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9-11-2008 @11:35AM Gary Burke said... I worked at a KFC in the 80s. The "secret recipe" is flour, salt, and pepper. It came in big bags from the supplier. The reason why KFC chicken tasted the way it did was because of pressure cooker deep-fryers that speed-cooked the chicken in 90 seconds while preserving moistness and making a crispy skin. They no longer use the pressure cookers, too expensive/dangerous I guess, and as a result KFC now tastes like ass. But this "secret recipe" nonsense is pure advertising theater.
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9-11-2008 @4:10PM Ed T said... I'd heard the "secret" blend of spices the Colonel used was a just a packet of dry, Good Seasons Italian salad dressing mix added to the breading flour, salt, and pepper. This doesn't jibe with the report above from a former KFC employee, but maybe the spices were pre-mixed in the pepper supplied to franchisees.
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9-11-2008 @4:24PM emdoozie said... As I stated on an earlier post comment on this topic, it would be sweet if this appeared in Ocean's 11 or Mission Impossible as the "Item" which must be stolen in high tech glory. I am assembling a team. Anyone want in?
-doozieUp
http://doozieUp.com
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9-12-2008 @12:16AM Jed said... So-they hired a Brinks security truck, but I still counted at least 5 police cruisers in that video. I sincerely hope that KFC paid for those police cruisers and that taxpayer money didn't go towards this publicity stunt.
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9-12-2008 @4:21AM Jim said... Actually, KFC has gone back to the "Kentucky Fried Chicken" name in the US since April 2007.
And Gary, you don't know what the hell you're talking about!
"The 'secret recipe' is flour, salt, and pepper." - Um, no, it's not. It's got at least some paprika in it, judging from the red specks in the breading.
"The reason why KFC chicken tasted the way it did was because of pressure cooker deep-fryers that speed-cooked the chicken in 90 seconds..." - Again, no. Original Recipe takes around 16 minutes to cook, Extra Crispy slightly longer, as it's cooked in open fryers.
"They no longer use the pressure cookers, too expensive/dangerous I guess" - They certainly *do* use pressure cookers for Original Recipe. They don't use the pressure cookers for Extra Crispy, but they never did.
Did you REALLY work at a KFC? The pressure cooker has a monstrosity of a machine that had all kinds of safeguards built in. For example, when you put a batch of Original Recipe in the cooker, you'd open a door and slide the chicken in as if it were a regular (albeit larger) home oven. The chicken was then automatically lowered into a huge vat of grease, and once inside a door sealed this "inner chamber" shut, which created the pressure. It also locked both the "inside" and "outside" door; even if you smashed the door window with a hammer, it still wouldn't break the seal to the inner door.
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