billjv
New Member
Account Disabled
Posts: 5
|
Post by billjv on Jun 24, 2021 20:51:32 GMT
I'm thinking for my next experiments I am going to start with just basics and build on them based on recipes here. I need to experience how the different H&S add to a basic battered chicken. I really want to see how salt, black and white pepper, and msg and cake flour interact and go from there. Has anyone else taken this approach?
|
|
|
|
Post by cascader on Jun 25, 2021 2:17:28 GMT
|
|
billjv
New Member
Account Disabled
Posts: 5
|
Post by billjv on Jun 25, 2021 12:06:45 GMT
Very interesting reading! After all I've read, it seems to me that pepper (black, white, course, fine, exotic, etc.) is the focus at the heart of the note. In my own mind (and this is subject to much debate/criticism) I tend to think that the Colonel, especially in the early days, would not necessarily have access to a lot of the more "exotic" H&S I've seen thrown around in the forum and elsewhere. He himself stated that the ingredients were all things you would find in most any kitchen. If that is the case, then my feeling is that the H&S are more common than uncommon. My belief is that the entire note rests on the combination of black vs. white pepper of various grinds, MSG, and small/trace amounts of other H&S, in which some were probably reduced/eliminated for cost reasons by corporate KFC, who I am sure distilled his OR down to it's most essential ingredients. From a corporate perspective, every ingredient they could cut or reduce without significant flavor difference meant huge differences in operating costs regarding the cost of preparing the mix for mass distribution. My latest experiment seemed way too heavy on white pepper, almost to the point of unpleasantness. The ratio of black to white is debated endlessly on this forum, but I think it holds the biggest part of the KFC recipe note. I'm sticking with this belief as I tweak my own experiments, and I'm going to make some batches using only the most essential stuff as I see it. It seems really suspect to me that the Colonel, in early 1960's or before, in backwoods Kentucky, would have developed his recipe using H&S that aren't available everywhere in the local Piggly Wiggly. This also harkens back to the arguments that the Colonel's OR back then tastes only marginally like the KFC of today. That is probably true for many reasons - but from what I have watched, read and learned I really believe that regarding the way the Colonel was, the kind of cook he was, and the times he lived in all speak to the use of very simple H&S combinations, with ordinary, non-remarkable ingredients found in any decent grocery store in small town America. If that is indeed the case, then all the talk about exotic peppers from Asia or other similar discussions about spices that are relatively rare seems like a red herring to me. I know I'm making some pretty bold assumptions, but to me they have some logic to them. |
|
