W7 Secret Secrets Are No Fun

            I would like to start off by wondering what makes a “secret” recipe.  Are the ingredients secret?  Or, is it only the amounts of ingredients that makes a recipe unknown to others?  I suppose some secret recipes can simply use methods that the cook wants to keep under wraps.  Either way, secret recipes dominate American society.  I’ve often wondered what the “23 flavors” are in a Dr. Pepper, or the 11 herbs and spices that Colonial Sanders used to make his world famous original recipe.  These are multi million dollar businesses that thrive on the fact that no one can replicate their recipes, and therefore the company will have little or no competition.  Sometimes, others can come close to copying the secret recipe, such as off brand versions of Dr. Pepper, like Mr. Pibb or the delightfully generic Dr. Thunder sold at Wal Mart.  However, all of these taste slightly different than the original.

            I understand the appeal of keeping a recipe secret on a major corporate scale, but what about locally?  Jackie O’s in Athens does not disclose the brewing method for their Raze Wheat Beer.  This is likely not due to any corporate monopoly on the recipe, but because they wish for their beer to be unique.  Their sweet, grapefruit juice colored brew certainly is unique in Athens, Ohio, and they likely keep the recipe away from major brewing companies for that reason.

            If Dr. Pepper and KFC are hiding their recipe from competitors, and Jackie O’s is keeping its brewing method away from other local breweries, just who is my mother hiding her maple chicken recipe from?  Maple chicken, as odd as it sounds, is what I ask for each time I go home to Cleveland for the weekend and my mom wants to make a special dish.  It consists of a chicken breast covered in pretzels, and an unknown sauce which includes maple syrup.  She will not tell me exactly what is in the sauce, or how much of the mystery ingredients to include.  I sometimes wonder if she fears that the list of ingredients may sound less appetizing on paper, so it is better if I just shut up and eat the delicious dish.  I wonder if she fears that if I knew what was in the sauce the maple chicken wouldn’t be my favorite home cooked meal anymore.  Either way I have always been curious, and wanted to solve this mystery.  And to be honest, no matter what is in that sauce, I could never be grossed out by my mom’s maple chicken recipe, it’s that good.