1952-2009 - The Painful Degradation of the O.R!

The following represents, and is an explanation of, the gradual degradation of Colonel Sanders' world famous chicken recipe, over a period of almost 60 years...

Finally, the mystery is revealed:

1952-1971:

This represents the "Golden Age" of the O.R... the era which made Kentucky Fried Chicken loved - and Colonel Sanders himself, adored - the world over!

Colonel Sanders, you see, was a real stickler for quality, he expected nothing less than "the best" for his customers; and in the case of his world famous recipe, he had handpicked only the world's best herbs and spices for it; such as Tellicherry Pepper, Jamaican Ginger, green Cardamom pods, as well as rich, dark nutmeg from the heart of India.

And although there is evidence to suggest that Brown and Massey (the two businessmen who bought KFC from Colonel Sanders in 1964), lowered the overall quality of the herbs and spices within the recipe starting in the year 1965 (a decision which riled Colonel Sanders no end), most importantly of all, they never tampered with the absolutely crucial ratios of the O.R...

Yes, for the most part, this era represents the "hey day" of Colonel Sanders' recipe, Kentucky Fried Chicken!

Quote:

Margaret Sanders wrote in her book, The Colonel's Secret": "Soon after the initial deal (i.e. the sale of KFC in 1964), Brown and Massey wasted no time in getting rid of several of Father's beloved personnel... They [then] hired a bunch of "experts" who immediately started fooling around with Father's secret recipe by buying cheaper herbs and spices. Father had very special expletives he used for their so-called "experts", as well as for Brown and Massey themselves by that time."

1971-1986:

The Heublein Corporation bought KFC in 1971, and immediately began tampering, not only with the quality of the herbs and spices, but for the first time, with the ratios as well. It actively lowered the nine herbs and spices (after the two peppers) in order to cut costs... The initial shock to the innocent KFC Franchisees was enormous, and at the behest of Colonel Sanders himself, many of them secretly started a practise which became known as "zinging" (wherein each Franchisee would add different herbs and spices to the "official" Corporate O.R seasoning, in order to bring the flavor back as it was, in the 60's.)

Even so, business promptly began dropping off as customers left for the competition in droves, disillusioned with what the O.R was becoming... After much ballyhooing from Colonel Sanders himself - as well as the notable drop in profits (which was proven by the Corporation's desperate, and doomed-to-fail, move into "Roast Beef" during this time) - the Corporation gave in, and brought the O.R back to an "acceptable" quality level by the year 1976 or so...

But for many folks, it was too little too late, and the damage had been done.

Quote:

Margaret Sanders wrote in her book, "The Colonel's Secret": "When Heublein took over the reigns of Kentucky Fried Chicken, they immediately hired a bevy of "experts" to make their new acquisition more profitable and to justify the price they had paid for the satisfaction of their stockholders. During one of my visits to Shelbyville, my heart went out to Father as I watched him storm and bluster about having to advertise and plug a product of which he had become ashamed. 'It's my face that's shown on that box of chicken and in the advertising. It's me that people recognise, and they stop me everywhere I go to complain. The Goddamn sonsofbitches don't know anything but peddling booze, and sure as hell, don't know a damn thing about good food!' There was turmoil at the Headquarters as the popularity of the Original Recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken had taken a nose-dive after Heublein's "experts" had supposedly improved it." ------- "Finally [in 1976] Heublein hired Mike Miles, who understood the problem and began turning the company around. Miles called his turnaround campaign "Re-Colonelizing". They built a kitchen in the Headquarters building so Father could teach new Franchisees and reeducate existing Franchisees how he originally prepared his chicken and gravy. It was successful. The public started buying Colonel Sanders' Original Recipe again. Father both liked and trusted Mike Miles, and was happy with his stable presence in the company. Mike was able to regain some of Father's faith."

1986-1991:

The PepsiCo Corporation bought the KFC Company in October of this year from R.J Reynolds (which had owned the famous Company since 1982). Whereas R.J had virtually made it a policy to "leave a good thing be", essentially leaving the major Franchisees to run the Company, PepsiCo had other ideas... swiftly moving in, and brutally decimating the poor Company of many of its longterm employees. The huge Pepsi Corporation forced it's own "culture", ideas and policies onto KFC Corp, cutting corners and costs at every turn, in a desperate bid to wring every last drop of "profit" from it...

Indeed, it wasn't long before the O.R itself became a victim of their money-grubbing ways, it's ratios cut once again, in order to increase profits as much as possible. It got so bad, that in 1988, the-then President of KFC, Donald E. Doyle - who had been in the role since 1983 - quit in disgust, citing "differences of opinion" with the PepsiCo Corporation...

Many good folk recall that it was in this particular era (around 1986), when the taste of the O.R truly started going downhill... at lightning speed.

1991-Present:

In early 1991, after meeting upon meeting, wherein desperate PepsiCo execs argued to and fro over how to extract more profits from the ailing, and once awesome, Company, they decided that "Kentucky Fried Chicken" needed an image boost and an overall "revamp"...

You see, instead of analysing the history of the O.R and realising that sales were ALWAYS good when the quality of the product was at its peak, they blamed the Colonel himself, incorrectly thinking that the "young and upwardly mobile" folk of the early 1990's thought the Company to be "old-fashioned" and "out of date"... They couldn't point the finger of blame at themselves, and their manipulating technicians, who had lowered the quality and ratios of the spices within the O.R... No! Instead, they decided that Colonel Sanders himself no longer had any "appeal", and that the way "forward" (read: the way towards more profit), was through a snappier image!

So, they changed the name of the Company to "KFC", and promptly began removing the image of Colonel Sanders from all Company packaging... Fortunately, or not, the move backfired dramatically, and profits sunk through the floor as people decided that if Colonel Sanders wasn't "there" anymore, then the O.R couldn't have been there either!

Ironically, they were right, as during this process the Colonel's already crippled recipe had undergone yet MORE ratio changes... The product became so bland, that KFC Franchisees themselves became furious over the issue, pleading with HQ to do something about it... You see, unlike in the 70's wherein Colonel Sanders himself would give quiet off-the-cuff tips on how to improve the recipe, the Franchisees of the 90's were a largely new breed, who were well out of touch with such cunning, yet well intentioned, initiatives...

And so it was, that in 1995, the then-President of KFC, David Novak, finally "came to the party"... However, he didn't bring back quality herbs and spices, and he didn't seek to improve the super low ratios of the O.R (even though they were plainly OBVIOUS!) ... no, that would cost PepsiCo too much in the way of the "almighty" dollar... Instead, he made a compromise, and instituted a new prepping process - marination - in which the chicken would be soaked in water, containing a heavy combination of salt and MSG.

Indeed, this brought some of the overall "flavor" back into the chicken; however - and this is true to to this very day - the O.R of even the 1980's (let alone the 50s, 60s and 70s) was now absolutely, and irretrievably, lost.

All,

I plan to update the above posts with relevant quotes from Colonel Sanders', KFC employees, and other folk close to the O.R throughout history

For now, soak it in my fellow replicators... there is much to be learnt from the above.

As always, the left side is the "one cup" mix, whilst the right side is the extrapolation of that mix to 26 ounces (as KFC has always packaged the O.R in 26 ounce packages)

Cenolol Sednars?

kiwi wrote:

Cenolol Sednars?

lol That was intentional Kiwi!

As the recipe becomes more diluted throughout the decades, it becomes less like Colonel Sanders' O.R ... to represent this, I symbolically messed first with the spelling of C.S name in the period 86 to 91, and then I completely twisted the spelling of "Kentucky Fried Chicken" for the period 1991 to the "Present Era", because the recipe of today's KFC can not rightfully be called Colonel Sanders' Original Recipe, because it isn't... full stop.

And, I think y'all agree with me there