In recent days, I was doing a search for “Chicken Bucket” and I stumbled across a couple of intresting items.
One was a commentary about a free posting of a manual for the original Chicken Bucket, which some bright spark has decided to try and sell via Ebay –
[http://www.discusscooking.com/forums/f84/free-wearever-chicken-bucket-instructions-42239.html]
The other interesting result I found was a posting claiming that after a four year effort, the Colonel’s Secret and Original Recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken using eleven herbs and spices had finally been worked out –
[http://kfc.forumup.co.uk/about1529-kfc.html]
Fantastic! I’ve never tasted the Original Recipe on account of being born in ’66. To be honest, I’ve never been a real fan of KFC but I understand that could be easily attributed to sampling increasingly less try to intent chicken offerings from KFC franchises around the world in the 70’s through to present day.
What I like about this announcement is that a group of people have finally reached a consensus in their exporation to crack the secret to a recipe or flavour profile and that they feel confident that it is a very true-to-original recreation. This is one of the goals I have for my shortcrust pastry – emulating the Four’n Twenty Pie crust, and to trying to reproduce a good rendition on the Chiko Roll Egg Dough Pastry. The Shortcrust Challenge is almost solved, and the Chiko Roll Case is still to be pursued.
What I’ve also discuvered is that man people like to diparage such pursuits saying that the target product is crap anyway. But that is not the issue. Like it ort hate it, being able to do it yourself is a culinary challenge. On top of that, I happen to like KFC Chicken, Pies and Chiko Rolls. As such, when you’re a long term expat, being able to make such treats is not only a culinary challenge but an essential connection with your own culinary culture. It’s nice to have something from home, or that reminds you of home, especially when it’s not even exported.
In the end, the pursuit of a high quality, reproducable and representative recipe of a particular dish is more important that the actual dish itself. It’s the sense of achievement that shines, above all eles. So, congratulations to the TCK group for their efforts and for shaing the trials and tribulations along the way.
That’s all from the Bait Layer today,
Get that int’ ya!
(reposted from the Bait Layer Blog)