"I can show you what every family member got," he says, poring over the papers. "This was my dad, Robert Ledington. He was the first one. He got $209,888."

But what I'm really interested in is the handwritten note on the back of the document. At the top of the page, in blue ink, it reads, "11 Spices — Mix With 2 Cups White Fl." That's followed by an enumerated list of herbs and spices. Eleven herbs and spices. And the measurements for each.




Could this be what I think it is? The 11 herbs and spices?

Ledington tells me, yep, this is it.

"That is the original 11 herbs and spices that were supposed to be so secretive," he says with conviction.

(In a subsequent phone interview with a Tribune editor, Ledington dialed back his certainty and expressed reluctance about sharing a recipe that — if it's legit — ranks among corporate America's most closely guarded secrets. "It could be; I don't know for sure," he said about the handwritten list of ingredients, adding that this was the first time he'd shown it to a reporter. "I've only had that album for four years, since my sister passed away.")

During our chat, he quickly points out that the writing isn't his uncle's. He's not sure who jotted down the list of 11 ingredients. But he says he's sure it's authentic because, as a boy, he helped blend those herbs and spices on the flat concrete roof of his uncle's garage.

"I mixed them over the top of the garage for years," he recalls, noting that the job came with the fringe benefit of getting to use the swimming pool at Sanders' motel-restaurant complex — a nice perk during the hot summer months.

"The big thing we did was mix it with flour and bag it up and sell it to restaurants," Ledington says. "Actually, my job was cutting up chickens and bagging up chicken mix. That's what I did as a 10-, 11-, 12-year-old kid."

The main ingredients for the coating, according to this recipe, are paprika (4 tablespoons), white pepper (3 tablespoons) and garlic salt (2 tablespoons). But Ledington says one ingredient is the real star.

"The main ingredient is white pepper," he says. "I call that the secret ingredient. Nobody (in the 1950s) knew what white pepper was. Nobody knew how to use it."