Post by Ken_Griffiths on Apr 26, 2019 11:50:15 GMT
As some may know already, my wife Jane, was in catering for over 30 years and is a trained chef. She used to work in hotels in a UK City, but retired earlier this year. She (who must be obeyed) has obviously helped me with my research over the now 'many' years I have been researching this recipe and she has always maintained a particular viewpoint that in the 1940’s and 50’s, things were much simpler in those days and less precise and the only real precision the Colonel may have had in those days was to weigh things in whole or part ounces for catering purposes, sometimes on quite a large scale for his customers.
Jane has said to me before that imagine also when the Colonel was franchising his recipe in the early days and someone phones up and asks for a bag or two of seasoning. If he didn’t have the 100lb Barrel to begin with or his Barrel was empty, the Colonel or his wife Claudia would need to get hold of some herbs and spices and put together a seasoning bag quickly and get it sent out.
Jane is also of the opinion (same as me) that initially (in the very early days of franchising) that the Colonel and Claudia sold the recipe complete...
The view here is that they bought a 25lb bag of flour... they removed 5lb from the bag and replaced it with 3-3/4lbs Salt and 1-1/4lb herbs and spices... this was in the days prior to the ferry boat trip and before the Colonel added MSG into his recipe. The now seasoned 'complete mix' was labelled and sent out to the franchisee.
Much later, when MSG came along .. they then reduced the salt level to 3lb (off the shelf sized bag) they sold the flour in its original off the shelf 25lb bag too and then made their own seasoning bag, consisting of 1-1/4 lb herbs and spices and 6oz of MSG.
Because the salt and flour bag were now both 'off the shelf' and readily available for resale... this reduced the amount of mixing that Claudia had to do... As time went on, the Colonel pushed sales of the (now) three separate bags (flour, seasoning and salt bags) moreso than the 'complete mix' 25lb bag, as it was less work for Claudia in her 'ageing' years. Eventually the 'complete mix' bag, died out ...er....completely !!
Thats what my Wife certainly thinks happened and I tend to go along with much of the things she is suggesting.
Jane therefore thinks if the above is true the 1-1/4lb 'original recipe' would most probably be in whole/part ounces... here then, is the recipe she has come up with, bearing in mind she has tried to also think of putting together these ingredients in a way that she describes as 'simple as possible'...
I will call it Jane’s Recipe ... then I can blame her for it, if it is no good ... ha ha!!
Janes Recipe (Whole/Part Ounces)
MSG 6oz (Not in Vial or Barrel)
White Pepper (Indonesia Muntok) 6oz (Vial G)
Black Pepper (Indian Tellicherry) 5oz (Vial K) ... (note the two peppers add up to 11oz)
Garlic Salt 2-1/2oz (Not in Vial)
Sage (Dalmatian) 1oz (Vial B)
Coriander Seed (Romanian) 1oz (Vial A)
Ginger (Jamaican) (ground) 1oz (Vial F)
Crushed Red Pepper (Hot) (ground) 1oz (Vial J)
Summer Savory (ground) 1/2oz (Vial H)
Thyme (Spanish) (ground) 1/2oz (Vial D)
Marjoram (Egyptian) (ground) 1/2oz (Vial I)
Clove (Madagascan) (ground) 1/2oz (Vial C)
Pimento/Allspice (Jamaican) (ground) 1/2oz (Vial E)
Total Recipe Weight 20oz (26oz including MSG)
So this recipe above would work with 3lb Salt and 25lb of flour.
Now I would never expect 'enthusiasts' to make the recipe in such large quantities,so I have broken/scaled this down for personal testing at home ... so it looks exactly like this:
Janes Recipe (Personal Portion Size in Grams)
MSG 3g
White Pepper (Indonesia Muntok) 3g
Black Pepper (Indian Tellicherry) 2.5g
Garlic Salt 1.25g
Sage (Dalmatian) 0.5g
Coriander Seed (Romanian) 0.5g
Ginger (Jamaican) (ground) 0.5g
Crushed Red Pepper (Hot) (ground) 0.5g
Summer Savory (ground) 0.25g
Thyme (Spanish) (ground) 0.25g
Marjoram (Egyptian) (ground) 0.25g
Clove (Madagascan) (ground) 0.25g
Pimento/Allspice (Jamaican) (ground) 0.25g
Total Recipe Weight 10g (13g including MSG)
The above recipe is for use with 200g of Flour and 22-24g of Salt depending on personal taste.
Note the recipe above uses Garlic Salt and not Garlic Powder in this instance... but that can be substituted with fine flake salt and garlic powder if you do not have garlic salt available. I would suggest using 1g fine flake salt and 0.25g garlic powder and thus keeping things as simple as possible.
I have put together this recipe (last night), but I haven’t personally tested it yet, as I need to buy some chicken, but hope to test it in the next day or so.
I guess the recipe cannot get any simpler than this ... my wife also says, that if the Colonel was able to remember it and he wrote it above the door jam in his north Corbin motel/restaurant pantry in July 1940 for his daughter Margaret, then it must have also been a simple recipe to write down quickly in that place too.
Could it really have been this simple.... perhaps I have been overthinking things, after-all?
Jane has said to me before that imagine also when the Colonel was franchising his recipe in the early days and someone phones up and asks for a bag or two of seasoning. If he didn’t have the 100lb Barrel to begin with or his Barrel was empty, the Colonel or his wife Claudia would need to get hold of some herbs and spices and put together a seasoning bag quickly and get it sent out.
Jane is also of the opinion (same as me) that initially (in the very early days of franchising) that the Colonel and Claudia sold the recipe complete...
The view here is that they bought a 25lb bag of flour... they removed 5lb from the bag and replaced it with 3-3/4lbs Salt and 1-1/4lb herbs and spices... this was in the days prior to the ferry boat trip and before the Colonel added MSG into his recipe. The now seasoned 'complete mix' was labelled and sent out to the franchisee.
Much later, when MSG came along .. they then reduced the salt level to 3lb (off the shelf sized bag) they sold the flour in its original off the shelf 25lb bag too and then made their own seasoning bag, consisting of 1-1/4 lb herbs and spices and 6oz of MSG.
Because the salt and flour bag were now both 'off the shelf' and readily available for resale... this reduced the amount of mixing that Claudia had to do... As time went on, the Colonel pushed sales of the (now) three separate bags (flour, seasoning and salt bags) moreso than the 'complete mix' 25lb bag, as it was less work for Claudia in her 'ageing' years. Eventually the 'complete mix' bag, died out ...er....completely !!
Thats what my Wife certainly thinks happened and I tend to go along with much of the things she is suggesting.
Jane therefore thinks if the above is true the 1-1/4lb 'original recipe' would most probably be in whole/part ounces... here then, is the recipe she has come up with, bearing in mind she has tried to also think of putting together these ingredients in a way that she describes as 'simple as possible'...
I will call it Jane’s Recipe ... then I can blame her for it, if it is no good ... ha ha!!
Janes Recipe (Whole/Part Ounces)
MSG 6oz (Not in Vial or Barrel)
White Pepper (Indonesia Muntok) 6oz (Vial G)
Black Pepper (Indian Tellicherry) 5oz (Vial K) ... (note the two peppers add up to 11oz)
Garlic Salt 2-1/2oz (Not in Vial)
Sage (Dalmatian) 1oz (Vial B)
Coriander Seed (Romanian) 1oz (Vial A)
Ginger (Jamaican) (ground) 1oz (Vial F)
Crushed Red Pepper (Hot) (ground) 1oz (Vial J)
Summer Savory (ground) 1/2oz (Vial H)
Thyme (Spanish) (ground) 1/2oz (Vial D)
Marjoram (Egyptian) (ground) 1/2oz (Vial I)
Clove (Madagascan) (ground) 1/2oz (Vial C)
Pimento/Allspice (Jamaican) (ground) 1/2oz (Vial E)
Total Recipe Weight 20oz (26oz including MSG)
So this recipe above would work with 3lb Salt and 25lb of flour.
Now I would never expect 'enthusiasts' to make the recipe in such large quantities,so I have broken/scaled this down for personal testing at home ... so it looks exactly like this:
Janes Recipe (Personal Portion Size in Grams)
MSG 3g
White Pepper (Indonesia Muntok) 3g
Black Pepper (Indian Tellicherry) 2.5g
Garlic Salt 1.25g
Sage (Dalmatian) 0.5g
Coriander Seed (Romanian) 0.5g
Ginger (Jamaican) (ground) 0.5g
Crushed Red Pepper (Hot) (ground) 0.5g
Summer Savory (ground) 0.25g
Thyme (Spanish) (ground) 0.25g
Marjoram (Egyptian) (ground) 0.25g
Clove (Madagascan) (ground) 0.25g
Pimento/Allspice (Jamaican) (ground) 0.25g
Total Recipe Weight 10g (13g including MSG)
The above recipe is for use with 200g of Flour and 22-24g of Salt depending on personal taste.
Note the recipe above uses Garlic Salt and not Garlic Powder in this instance... but that can be substituted with fine flake salt and garlic powder if you do not have garlic salt available. I would suggest using 1g fine flake salt and 0.25g garlic powder and thus keeping things as simple as possible.
I have put together this recipe (last night), but I haven’t personally tested it yet, as I need to buy some chicken, but hope to test it in the next day or so.
I guess the recipe cannot get any simpler than this ... my wife also says, that if the Colonel was able to remember it and he wrote it above the door jam in his north Corbin motel/restaurant pantry in July 1940 for his daughter Margaret, then it must have also been a simple recipe to write down quickly in that place too.
Could it really have been this simple.... perhaps I have been overthinking things, after-all?