The Cornell professor who invented the chicken nugget | Hacker News Reader

The Cornell professor who invented the chicken nugget

atlasobscura.com

100 pointssamclemens31 comments

Interesting article. Couldn't help be reminded of this scene in The Wire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyg_v7Vxo4A

I specifically came to this story looking for The Wire reference. Loved that show.

Interesting article, but I was disappointed that the article didn't talk about chicken nuggets at all!

The title isn't inaccurate, per se, but rather uses an obscure meaning of the word 'legacy' that's easy to misinterpret.

Came here to say the same thing, I was very confused by the end haha.

There is a write up of the chicken nuggets part [1].

Reading that inspires me to try a variation of chicken nuggets some time: slow-cooked, bone separated, bones pressure cooked and blended into a puree, added back to stripped chicken, refrigerate so the gelatin in the bone sets, make a coating from egg and freshly-ground ancient wheat grains, and nuggets baked made from that. The wheat germ is preserved, and while processed, contains nothing other than whole foods.

[1] http://www.slate.com/articles/life/food/2012/12/robert_c_bak...

> bone separated, bones pressure cooked and blended into a puree, added back to stripped chicken

To me, this part just sounds like it would make the end result unpalatable; I think I would stop at just making the bone broth, and adding that to the chicken (for the gelatin) - but get rid of the bones.

I should have clarified that I eat the bones for their calcium content. Blended in a Vitamix, they are turned into unidentifiable particles. You are free to add other binders, of course.

When you make this yourself you have to be careful not to let the sauce break. Add in the egg and oil and beat vigorously then slowly add the vinegar while mixing. You want a nice emulsified mixture. Also make sure you base every 5-10 minutes, thats a lot more frequent then you might do when normally cooking chicken, but you really need to build up the layers of sauce on the outside. Finally I have never gotten a good result off propane, so give it a try on coal if its not turning out right

I'd really love to make that recipe, but for some reason I keep getting a stack overflow exception when I get to "poultry seasoning".

Yeah, poultry seasoning is mostly sage and thyme. different brands will add in Oregano, Marjoram or rosemary, but they all grind it to a powder which ruins it for me. If you want to really class up your BBQ go get some Herbs de Provence and use that.

Not sure if you're trying to be funny here, or genuinely confused. In case of the latter:

https://www.mccormick.com/spices-and-flavors/herbs-and-spice...

http://www.food.com/recipe/mc-cormick-poultry-seasoning-copy... (I have not tried this, can not vouch for it)

As the sauce seems a lot like Mayonnaise, another egg and oil emulsion, a hand blender in a tight fitting cup might produce good results as in this recipe: [http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/10/two-minute-mayonn...]

It took me a while reading the recipe before it clicked what this is. The sauce is basically a thin mayonnaise — an emulsion of oil and egg with an acid added to it. Mayo is thicker and usually uses lemon juice instead of vinegar, but Cornell sauce is a variation of that theme.

If you use melted butter instead of oil, you'd get a Hollandaise sauce. I wonder how that would work as a marinade or basting sauce.

I used to make a chicken recipe on the grill that involved marinating in mayo. It was fantastic, but the heavy oil coating had a tendency to turn the chicken pieces into poultry Molotov cocktails, so I haven't made it in a while. (Now that I think about it, simply turning off the burner under the chicken would fix that.)

Seems like I've got some chicken grilling ahead of me.

The ratio is way off from what you would use in Mayo ( Mayonnaise is 1 part water to 16 parts oil, cornell BBQ is 2 parts water to 1 part oil ), but its along the same lines, which is why you want to get a good emulsion. There is a slight variation called roadside chicken that doesn't use the egg to emulsify so for that I always use a blender or food processor to get as much of a mixture as I can.

Didn't even realize Cornell chicken was regional... We've eaten it that way my whole life. I suppose the "Cornell" should have tipped me off.

Spiedies--all over the central region upstate.

Yessir. Apparently vinegar and chicken is an upstate New York thing, though...Buffalo Wings too!

Buffalo wings are everywhere though, I'll be going to get some in just a few minutes. Cornell chicken I've never heard of.

Buffalo wings are everywhere because of Central New York! It's our single greatest contribution to society ;)

And thanks to demand from the yankee transplants, Spiedies is easily found on supermarket shelves as far south as North Carolina.

Cornell is a common enough surname that it could've been named for it's inventor.

Sometimes the best things are memorialized in song: https://youtu.be/OEa8wqv4QM0

This is one of those moments where I'm thankful for the internet existing.

Cornell is such an odd university, thousands of little contributions over the decades to every field that touch the lives of everyone in the world.

I always get a kick when I learn about another little thing that was invented there.

>prototype chicken nugget

for some reason, this phrase resonates deeply with me.

This guy also invented the McRib, which I think is really his true legacy.

So, nuggets are made from the Cornell of the chicken. That also explains Cornell Sanders.

Is there another name for "Cornell Chicken"? I swear I've had it (or something very similar) down here in DC metro, but never heard the name.

I have noticed that vinegar plays a key role in a surprisingly large amount of the dishes that I enjoy making over and over again...

Also, you can add a teaspoon of vinegar (white, apple cider, balsamic, etc. as the mood strikes) to lots of dishes that don't call for any vinegar at all, to perk up the flavor in pleasant ways. My favorite use case for this is split pea soup.

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