FOOD NEWS
The History Of Cornell Chicken Begins At The Prestigious University
BY JULIA HOLLAND
Cornell chicken dates back to the 1940s and 50s, when Cornell professor and food scientist Robert Baker concocted the now famous sauce and baste-and-flip cooking method.
Cornell chicken consists of chicken halves roasted on a coal-fired pit and basted with a marinade of egg, oil, vinegar, poultry seasoning, salt, and pepper.
His food science knowledge came into play with the basting, reasoning that eggs will ensure the seasonings stick to the skin while helping the oil and vinegar not to separate.
Baker also argued that vinegar will kill bacteria born from using raw eggs, making the sauce reusable. He even designed a scalable model so that the chicken could be mass-produced.