Is there such thing as the ultimate pancake….maybe but there is the ultimate fried chicken made by a man from Kentucky who landed himself in Mississauga Ontario.

Growing up pancakes were mostly available in the pancake house or alternatively, in the local breakfast place. I always wondered how people made the perfect pancake, or if there is such a thing. Is that like the perfect fried chicken, and if you think Kentucky fried chicken is fast food, it isn’t so fast and don’t dare to put it down because it was 100% KFC genius and the process patented.

Before we go to KFC patents – I will offer you the ultimate pancake made at home and it is as easy as making toast. There is a slight degree of imperfection on the left side where the pancake drooped – It happened as I checked the underside of the pancake when it wasn’t quite cooked enough – see below in the photo:

Step one is buy the right pancake mix and get to work and here she is all ready to go with the mix and syrup – of course Maple.

The instructions are in Japanese to pay careful attention to the following steps below if you have any intention to make a fluffy pancake. The first challenge and making a pancake is flipping it that’s where everything can go wrong so keeping this in mind will help you to make the ultimate pancake.

The main reason I write about a pancake and Kentucky fried chicken is because cooking is all about; control of temperature, control of timing and texture is all in the control over processes. It doesn’t matter what you cook always keep in my: https://mesubim.com/2019/09/12/taste-3t-sequence/

Here we go Japanese pancakes:

Take a bowl: which is approximately 12-15 cm with a good depth of 10cm or more.
Step 1: add one egg and whisk it until it is annihilated and frothy

Step 2: add the mix into the bowl and whisk until the mixture is all mixed evenly and make sure not to leave any mix on the sides of the bowl.

Step 3: take a skillet: 20 cm and heat it up for one minute and turn off the heat and wait 1 minute for the pan to cool and then add the pancake mix. Make sure to pour all mixture it to the center of the pan and let the pancake evenly distribute itself in the pan.

Step 3: turn on the heat and watch the topside of the pancake as it will dry as the mixture cooks. I usually take the pan off and on the burner to make sure the heat transfers and cooks the pancake evenly but does not scorch it. This is a delicate phase and you should use some trial and error.

Bubbles: the top surface will bubble and dry as the heat evenly distributes as the topside evaporates and the pancake cooks. Once the bubbles are mostly gone – “drying out on the topside of the surface, you can flip the pancake” – and you are almost done!

Cook the other side: for a minute or more but it takes some practice to determine the other sides cooking time but I estimate one minute. The pancake can be easily managed given it is essentially cooked and easy to flip.

Eyes: you can make a physical examination by using a utensil to lift it to see the underside’s cooking. But basically the pancake is cooked and the time you flip it – it is just to finish the pancake and color the opposite side.

Now here we switch topics and go to KFC’s magical mystery tour – the exceptional patent and there are very few food engineers comparable to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Sanders

KFC relied heavily on patents that protected its unique method
for deep frying chicken without drying it out.

These original patents have since expired and been
substituted with equipment‐specific patents.

The drum roll by KFC was their foundational patent and mostly because getting a leg’s meat tender and crispy was the genius of KFC. The patent was # US3245800 “Process for producing fried chicken under pressure” and it was all in the pressure cooker where the meat tenderized and remained crispy.

The control over the temperature was the secret and the breading would remain in tact and the chicken would cook evenly, and the air drying jets the crumbs and the control over the process made it absolutely one of the most genius ideas to be commercially and globally rolled out ever.

I cant believe the incredible analysis undertaken by Sanders to create the perfect fried chicken during the Great depression. It blows my mind he thought of the breading process, conduction, air and the idea to confine the food in a closed chamber maintaining an atmospheric environment of a relative humidity within the range of about 70 to 95% under controlled dry bulb and wet bulb temperature conditions within the chamber. It is all mostly carried out in Step 1 below:

Step 1:

• Cut raw chicken into serving pieces
• Coat the pieces with a moist breading material
• Wholly immerse the pieces in a bath of oil heated in a pressure cooker to 350‐400F
• Hermetically close the pressure cooker
• Reduce the temperature of the oil rapidly to 250‐275F
• Cook pieces for about 2 minutes while increasing pressure to 15 psi above atmospheric pressure
• Continue cooking pieces (at the same pressure and temperature) for about 8 minutes

15 psi pressure is sufficiently close to the “vapour pressure” of water at 250F to substantially prevent boiling away of moisture from the chicken and breading material.

It is this technical benefit that made KFC’s deep frying process
“inventive” and, therefore, patentable.

US5721001 “Fried food producing method and apparatus therefor”:

• Insert food into a closed bottom cooking tray
• Place the cooking tray in a processing tank
• Charge and maintain a flow of heated cooking oil at a given flow rate laterally into and across the cooking tray
• Immerse the food in the oil to fry the food while allowing the oil to overflow a side of the cooking tray
• discharge the oil from the tray upon the lapse of a predetermined immersing time

US5185172 “Method for simulating open flame broiled meat products”:

• Coat a grill with a caramelizing layer
• Clamp meat between the grill and a pan having an alternating series of crows and reservoirs, to provide a uniform meat thickness between an upper portion of the pan crows and the grill
• Transport the clamped meat past heated upper and lower air jets to uniformly cook the meat by simultaneously:
  (i) impinging the heated air jets against the meat;
  (ii) heating the pan crows to transfer heat to the meat by conduction;
  (iii) collecting expressed juices and fat in the pan reservoirs; and
  (iv) charring and transferring the caramelized layer from the grill to the meat to emulate burn marks from open flame grilling.

US5246719 “Process of preparing a batter‐free breaded poultry product”:

• Adhere to the surface of a piece of uncooked poultry a dust of ungelatinized, high gluten flour free of batter‐forming components and which is not capable of forming a continuous film of batter when it is applied to the surface
• Hydrate the dust under conditions which render the hydrated dust capable of adhering to breading
• Adhere breading to the hydrated dust

US5077065 “Method for extending the holding time for cooked food”:

• Cook the food for 15‐20 minutes
• Confine the food in a closed chamber for a holding time 12‐18 times the duration of the cooking time; maintaining an atmospheric environment of a relative humidity within the range of about 70 to 95% under controlled dry bulb and wet bulb temperature conditions within the chamber.

Packaging patents:

KFC only registered patents for its composite bucket and interactive box:

Equipment patents:

KFC has various patents that cover its unique cooking equipment, including: pressurized cooking system, pumping system, hot oil recirculating system, deep fat frying system, pressure release valve, frying equipment, cooking apparatus (x2), oven (all since expired), rotisserie and griddle:

KFC Designs:

As would be expected, KFC’s designs focus on its unique packaging items: