Knowhow-Now Article

You Can Copy Fast Food Recipes 

Fast food recipes are closely guarded secrets known only to a select few in the higher rungs of the corporate ladder.  Most quick service restaurants have a menu item that they are popular for and chances are every precaution is taken to safeguard the ingredients of this item. Although the procedure to prepare it will of course be known by kitchen staff,  they are often as much in the dark as anyone else as to the spices and herbs that are in the foods they cook. It is interesting to note what measures establishments take in order to keep recipe components and proportions hush-hush; it is more interesting still to see how many chefs continuously try to figure out what these components are .

How Pre Measured and Pre-packed Ingredients Keep Secrets

In restaurants or diners that are part of a chain, food items are received pre measured and pre-packed. A burger joint, for example, receives the number of patties it is expected to sell for the next twenty-four hours. Some joints will receive a corresponding number of buns, relish jars, ketchup packs and dressings while some can order these on their own but only at approved outlets.

Likewise, a diner or restaurant serving fried chicken will receive the number of pieces it is expected to sell, all cut up in the appropriate size. It will also receive pre measured packets of the flour mixture for predetermined batches of chicken pieces. Kitchen staff will know how to apply the batter and how to cook the pieces in terms of temperature and cooking time but the seasonings that go into the flour base go into the chain’s vault secrets for their fast food recipes.

The preparation process for menu items is often quite detailed. The kitchen crew member who is responsible for frying chicken does it at a prescribed temperature and for a stipulated number of minutes. Most of the time, the crew have standard procedures for how many pieces should have been breaded and ready for frying; how many should be in the fryer and how many in the counter (heated at 150 degrees) ready to be served. The preparation of chicken in diners is something most consumers take for granted but it is in fact a precise, well orchestrated dance that involves several steps exclusive to the fast food outlet brand involved.

One of these steps involves the production of extra crisp chicken skin. One chain achieves this by applying the breading to the chicken pieces, submerging them into a bowl of ice water, rolling them again in the breading mixture, giving them  a final gentle tap to remove loose flour  then frying them for fifteen to eighteen minutes at 350 to 370 F.

Guessing What Is In The Recipe

Prep and cooking procedure is the easier part to figure out in fast food recipes; the real challenge is guessing what goes into them. Some expert cooks have made a career of discovering the ingredients in popular fast food items. Many have created websites and membership clubs for the purpose of sharing copycat recipes and the fun of being able to serve fast food menu items at home. Some of the best-loved fast foods have become very easy to duplicate because copycat or clone recipes are available in the internet.

Possibly three of the most often cloned menu items are pizza, fried chicken and buffalo wings. Try an internet search using the following keywords: copycat recipe then the name of the dish or menu item. A quick search with just the keywords copycat recipe buffalo wings yielded 64,000 results in less than a second! That’s how easy it has become to duplicate the food in quick service restaurants.

Some people wonder why anyone would want to find the recipe for food items that are easily available in diners and fast food establishments. Well, for one thing, some cooks want to serve healthier versions in their homes and some just want to pick up the challenge of the professional way commercial foods are prepared. But, for a great majority of copy cats, the answer is plain and simple: healthy or not, a lot of fast food items just taste really good.

From Around The Web

Home made fast food takeout recipes: http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/07/homemade-fast-food-takeout-recipes.html

23 Copycat fast food recipes: https://www.buzzfeed.com/candacelowry/fast-food-favorites-you-can-easily-make-at-home?utm_term=.pl0rj2NnN#.jvvRLBodo

Ten more fast food recipes that you can make at home: http://lifehacker.com/5665491/top-10-fast-food-recipes-you-can-make-at-home

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