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Kentucky Fried Milestone: Original Recipe turns 70

August 17, 2010

Colonel Sanders' iconic Original Recipe, with 11 herbs and spices, was created in 1940. KFC marked the 70th anniversary milestone Tuesday by cooking a world record-setting 2,000-plus pounds of fried chicken "served" in a giant bucket.

Initial estimates have the bucket's weight at 2,493 pounds.

The 8-by-9-foot, 1-ton bucket featured graphics seen on the limited time “retro” bucket currently available in KFC restaurants. It included an image of Colonel Sanders and the patent number for the Original Recipe.

KFC donated a large portion of the chicken to a food bank in Louisville, Ky., where KFC's headquarters are located.

Additionally, free samples from the bucket were available for Louisville lunch-goers. KFC's supplier Pilgrim's Pride donated the chicken for the celebration.

World-record servings of fried chicken have been cooked up before. In 2008, a KFC franchisee in Qatar accomplished the feat. In July, the city of Brookville, Ind., unofficially broke the record with 1,645 pounds of chicken.

The Original Recipe is currently locked in a safe in Louisville. To protect the recipe's secrecy, two companies separately blend different parts before they're combined in a computer processing system.