Item from SpongeBob SquarePants by Stephen Hillenburg / Nickelodeon
The recipe for Bikini Bottom's most beloved burger — kept in a sealed bottle in the Krusty Krab safe, coveted by Plankton, and possibly the most important object in the known ocean.
The Krabby Patty Secret Formula is both very simple and absolutely irreplaceable — a recipe for a hamburger whose precise ingredients and preparation steps produce something that the entire population of Bikini Bottom will pay for repeatedly. Nobody knows what the secret ingredient is. Plankton has been trying to find out for the entire run of the series. The formula's real power is narrative: it is the axis around which the Krabs-Plankton rivalry turns. Getting it would not just win Plankton the business war — it would end a competition that began in childhood, when two former best friends each tried to make a better burger on the same day they stopped being friends. The formula has been obtained, briefly, at least once. The world did not end. The Krusty Krab remained. The formula was returned. This does not make it less important.
A piece of paper covered in ink, rolled up and sealed inside a small transparent light-blue glass bottle with a cork stopper. The bottle is plain. The formula inside is handwritten. It is kept in a safe in the Krusty Krab, whose combination is known only to Mr. Krabs and SpongeBob.
Also known as: The Secret Formula, The Krabby Patty Recipe, The Formula