KFC describes its closely guarded original fried chicken recipe as “one of the biggest trade secrets in the world.” The company says the original handwritten recipe is housed in a 770-pound safe encased in two feet of concrete and guarded by video cameras and motion detectors¹.

肯德基将其严密守护的原创炸鸡配方称为“世界上最大的商业秘密之一”。该公司表示，最初的手写配方被放在一个770磅（约合350公斤）重的保险箱里，外面还封了两英尺厚水泥，另有摄像头和动作探测器监控。

It is the Fort Knox of fried chicken.

它就是炸鸡界的诺克斯堡（Fort Knox，美国国家金库所在地。——译注）。

Despite all that, the recipe for the spice blend used to prepare the chicken may have been accidentally revealed to a reporter for The Chicago Tribune by Joe Ledington, a nephew of the man who made the recipe famous. The newspaper printed the article, along with what might be the recipe, last week.

尽管如此，这个用来腌制鸡块的香料配方有可能已经被乔•莱丁顿(Joe Ledington)无意间泄露给了《芝加哥论坛报》(The Chicago Tribune)的一名记者。乔是让这个配方出名的人的侄子。上周，这家报纸发表了一篇文章，里面提到了这个有可能为真的配方。

The reporter, Jay Jones, was sent to Corbin, Ky., to write a story for The Tribune’s travel section about the town where the colonel served his first fried chicken.

芝加哥论坛报》记者杰伊•琼斯(Jay Jones)原本是被派往肯塔基州科尔宾城撰写一篇有关这个城镇的旅游文章。

While there, he arranged a meeting with Mr. Ledington, whose uncle, Col. Harland Sanders, founded Kentucky Fried Chicken and was its snowy-haired ambassador.

肯德基(Kentucky Fried Chicken)创始人哈兰•桑德斯(Harland Sanders)上校就是在这里卖出了自己的第一块炸鸡，如今他白发苍苍的形象成为这个城镇的一个标志。在科尔宾期间，琼斯约见了桑德斯的侄子莱丁顿。

Mr. Ledington greeted the reporter with a family scrapbook that he said had belonged to Claudia Ledington, the second wife of Colonel Sanders, who died in 1996.

为了对这名记者的到来表示欢迎，莱丁顿让他浏览了一本家族剪贴簿。他说这个剪贴簿原属于桑德斯上校的第二任妻子克劳迪娅•莱丁顿(Claudia Ledington)，后者于1996年去世。

Her last will and testament² was stuffed in the back of the scrapbook and its final pages contained a handwritten recipe for a blend of 11 spices, Mr. Jones said.

琼斯表示，剪贴簿的后面有克劳迪娅的遗言和遗嘱，最后一页有一张手写配方，显示有11种原料。

“That is the original 11 herbs and spices that were supposed to be so secretive,” Mr. Ledington told the reporter, later adding that as a boy his job in the family business was to mix the spice blend in a tub on the roof of the garage.

“那是最初的配方里使用的11种香草和香料，这是要保密的，”莱丁顿对记者说道。后来，他还提到他小时候在家族企业里的工作，就是在车库屋顶上用一个盆子调配这些原料。

“The main ingredient is white pepper,” Mr. Ledington told the newspaper. “I call that the secret ingredient. Nobody knew what white pepper was. Nobody knew how to use it” in the 1950s, he said.

“主要原料是白胡椒，”莱丁顿对这家报纸讲道。“我把它叫作神秘配料，”他说。50年代的时候，“没人知道什么是白胡椒。也没人知道怎么用。”

In a later phone interview, The Tribune said, Mr. Ledington walked back his claim, saying he had never shown the recipe to a reporter before and did not “know for sure” if it was as authentic³ as he first said. He did not respond to a phone message on Wednesday requesting an interview.

芝加哥论坛报》表示，在后来又接受电话采访时，莱丁顿推翻了原来的说法，称自己从来没有给一名记者看过配方，也不“确定”这个配方是不是真的。他没有回应时报周三以语音留言形式发出的采访请求。

Kentucky Fried Chicken takes any threat to its secret recipe very seriously, and in the past has sued to keep it under wraps.

肯德基对其秘方受到的任何威胁都慎重以待，以前为了保密曾提起诉讼。

In an email on Wednesday, a spokeswoman for Yum! Brands, the corporate⁴ parent of KFC, which is based in Louisville, Ky., said the recipe contained in Ms. Ledington’s will was incorrect.

周三，肯德基的母公司百胜餐饮集团(Yum! Brands)的发言人在一封邮件中表示，莱丁顿的遗嘱中包含的配方是不正确的。百胜的总部位于肯塔基州的路易斯维尔。

“Many people have made these claims over the years and no one has been accurate — this one isn’t either,” the company said in a statement.

“多年来，很多人都这样说过——但没有一张配方是正确的，这张也不例外，”该公司在一份声明中表示。

So, how do you make Colonel Sanders’s secret spice blend? The world may never know. In the meantime, here is the recipe that the colonel’s nephew showed The Chicago Tribune:

那么，如何配制桑德斯上校的秘密调料呢？公众或许永远也不会知道。不过，这里有一份上校的侄子展示给《芝加哥论坛报》的配方：

11 spices — mix with 2 cups white flour

11种调料与两杯面粉相混合

2/3 tablespoon salt

三分之二匙盐

1/2 tablespoon thyme

半匙百里香

1/2 tablespoon basil

半匙罗勒

1/3 tablespoon oregano

三分之一匙牛至

1 tablespoon celery salt

一匙芹菜盐

1 tablespoon black pepper

一匙黑胡椒

1 tablespoon dried mustard

一匙干芥末

4 tablespoons paprika

四匙辣椒粉

2 tablespoons garlic salt

两匙蒜盐

1 tablespoon ground ginger

一匙姜粉

3 tablespoons white pepper

三匙白胡椒