Harrington's Sort and Cull

Did you see the recent article about KFC's decision to shake-up its iconic fast-food chicken coop by adding burgers to the menu? Colonel Sanders must be spinning in his grave like rotisserie chicken.

Granted, it's just a small experiment in several stores in Japan. Yet great trees from small acorns do grow. Today, Tokyo, tomorrow, finger-licking burgers are being devoured in this country from coast to coast.

My first take on this odd piece of counterintuitive news (a bit like a Starbuck kiosk in the Mormon Tabernacle) was something like, "Well, at least forlorn beef producers finally have something to cheer about in 2015." Alas, the devil for the cattle industry lurked in the story's details.

Far below the provocative headline, the story discussed the specifics of the new "burger" in the henhouse, including a mixing recipe that was not altogether friendly to the beef market. Apparently, the all-beef patty be damned in the company of breast, thighs, and legs. The KFC burger is staged to debut as an economic combination of ground beef and ground pork.

While the masters of fried chicken may be daring in terms of menu design, they're not idiots when it comes to cost accounting and inventory management. You can bet the original recipe that everyone from the white-suited CEO to the ball cap at the take-out window has taken serious notice of the huge spread between the price of ground beef and ground pork.

Last night I sat down eagerly awaiting my wife's signature chili, a gourmet treat second to none. But by the second delicious spoonful, I could tell something had changed. It wasn't a bad change, more along the lines of texture and body.

Cutting any critique off at the pass, Barb laid down the new law: "When extra lean beef surrenders its nearly $4 premium to ground pork, I'll welcome it back to our chili party. That is, if we don't grow to love pork in the meantime."

I can imagine that some conversation like this quickly surfaced in KFC's test kitchen. Who's to say such sensible talk will be barred from the holiest of beef shrines like McDonald's and Burger King?

(AG)

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