Is the colonel’s secret recipe finally out?

Has Colonel Sanders’ nephew inadvertently revealed to the world the secret blend of 11 herbs and spices behind KFC’s fried chicken empire?

The company says the recipe published in the Chicago Tribune is not authentic. But that hasn’t stopped rampant online speculation that one of the most legendary and closely guarded secrets in the history of fast food has been exposed.

It all started when a reporter visited with Joe Ledington, a nephew of Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Colonel Harland David Sanders.

The reporter was working on a story for the Tribune’s travel section about Corbin, Kentucky, where the colonel served his first fried chicken. At one point, Ledington pulled out a family scrapbook containing the last will and testament of Sanders’ second wife, Claudia Ledington.

On the back of the document is a handwritten list for a blend of 11 herbs and spices to be mixed with two cups of white flour. Joe Ledington initially told the reporter that it was the original recipe

“That is the original 11 herbs and spices that were supposed to be so secretive,” 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.

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

In a later phone interview, The Tribune said, 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 authentic as he first said.

KFC – which is a subsidiary of Yum Brands Inc. – calls its recipe “one of the biggest trade secrets in the world.” It says that the recipe the reporter saw is not the real thing.

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

The Louisville, Kentucky-based company says that the original recipe from 1940 handwritten by Sanders is locked up in a digital safe that’s encased in two feet of concrete and monitored 24 hours a day by a video and motion detection surveillance system.

Joe Ledington could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.

The New York Times contributed.

Social media is lighting up on the possibility that, at long last, Colonel Sanders’ 11 herbs and spices have been revealed. KFC says it hasn’t, and the original source, a relative, now says he doesn’t know. Anyway, here it is.

The 11 spices:

2/3 tablespoon salt

1/2 tablespoon thyme

1/2 tablespoon basil

1/3 tablespoon oregano

1 tablespoon celery salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 tablespoon dried mustard

4 tablespoon paprika

2 tablespoon garlic salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

3 tablespoon white pepper

Mix spices above with 2 cups of white flour

This story was originally published August 26, 2016 at 10:58 PM with the headline "Is the colonel’s secret recipe finally out?."