Twinkie, Deconstructed (34 page)

Pine trees

Pizza

Planters Cotton Oil Mill

Plaque

Plaster

Plastic

Platinum

Pockle (phosphorus, oxygen, chloride [P-O-C])

Point of origin

Pollution

Polyethylene

Polysorbate

Polysorbate

Polysorbate

Polyurethane foam

Potassium bicarbonate

Potassium carbonate

Potassium hydroxide

Potassium iodide

Potassium sorbate

Potatoes

Pound cakes

PPG Industries

Pregelatinized starch

Preservatives

Procter & Gamble

Propylene gas

Propylene glycol

Propylene oxide

Protein

Pteroic acid

Pteroyl-L-glutamic acid

Purac

PVC (polyvinylchloride)

Questar

Quicklime

Quincy, Massachusetts

Raw food

Raw sugar

Red No.

Reduced iron

Refined sugar

Refractometer

Rennet

Rhodia

Riboflavin

Rice

Riha, Bill

Rillieux, Norbert

Ring dryer

Ronzoni pasta

Rose hips

Rumford Baking Powder

Rust

Sabatier, Paul

Sackett, Augustine

St. Joseph, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

Ste. Genevieve, Missouri

Sal soda

Salad dressings

Salaratus

Saltpeter

Saturated fats

Schaeffer’s Salt

Scheele, Carl Wilhelm

Scurvy

Sea salt

Sensient Colors Inc.

Sensient Technologies

Serving sizes

Sesame seeds

Shanghai Dyestuffs Research Institute Company, Ltd.

Sheetrock

Shelf life

Shellac

Shoemaker, Kevin

Shortening

Silica

Silver Springs, New York

Simmons, Amelia

Sinopec

Slim-Fast Optima

Smith, Terry

Smuckers Reduced Fat Natural

Style Peanut Butter

Soap

Soda ash

Soda Springs, Idaho

Sodium

Sodium acid phosphate

Sodium acid pyrophosphate (SAPP)

Sodium aluminum sulfate

Sodium bicarbonate (
see
Baking soda)

Sodium carbonate

Sodium carboxymethyl-cellulose (CMC)

Sodium caseinate

Sodium chloride (NaC1)

Sodium ferrocyanide

Sodium hydroxide

Sodium methoxide

Sodium monochloroacetate

Sodium nitrite

Sodium sesquicarbonate

Sodium silicoaluminate

Sodium stearate

Sodium stearoyl lactylate

Soft drinks

Solae Company

Solution mining

Solvay process

Sorbic acid (trans trans 2, 4-hexadienoic acid)

Sorbin

Sorbit

Sorbitan monostearate (SMS)

Sorbitol

Sourdough

South Beach Diet

Southard, Oklahoma

Soy flour

Soy grits

Soy protein isolate

Soybean oil

Soybeans

Spanish barilla

Sparks, Maryland

Spent bee grain

SPI Polyols

Spinach

Sponge cake

Sports drinks

Starbucks

Frappuccino

Low Fat Latte ice cream

Starch

Stearic acid

Steel pickling

Steep water

Straw

Sucrose

Sugar

Sugar beets

Sugar Trust

Sugarcane

Sulfanilic acid

Sulfate

Sulfur

Sulfur dioxide

Sulfuric acid

Sunflower oil

Surfactant

Suzy Q’s

Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa Mix

Sydney, Iowa

Table sugar (
see
Sucrose) Tallow

Tapioca starch

Tartaric acid

Tate & Lyle

Terre Haute, Indiana

Texas City, Texas

Thiamine

Thiamine hydrochloride

Thiamine mononitrate

Thinned starches

Thomas, Glenda

Thompson, Benjamin

Tianjin Zhongjin Pharmaceutical Company

Titanium dioxide

Tobacco

Tofu

Tollhouse Mint Brownie Bars

Toothpaste

Tortillas

Trans fats

Trees

Tribasic phosphate

Triglycerides

Triscuits

Trona

Trudeau, G. B.

Tryptophan

Tums

Turmeric

Twin Rivers Technologies

“Twinkie defense,”

UK Patent Office

Union Pacific Railroad

Union Sugar Company

Uniqema

United States Gypsum (USG)

United Sugar

University of Iowa

Unsaturated fats

Uranium

Urine

Vanadium

Vanadium oxide

Vanilla

artificial

Vanillin (4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde)

Vaseline Intensive Care Dry Skin Lotion
n

Vegetable oil

Veggie Slices Cheese Alternative American Flavor Organic

Velveeta cheese sauces

Vinegar

Vitamin B1

Vitamin B2

Vitamin B3

Vitamin B9

Vitamin C

Vitamins

Vulcan Spice Mills

Wakefield, Nebraska

Walsh, Kelly

Wanaque Reservoir, New Jersey

Washing soda

Water

Watt, James

Waukegan, Illinois

Waupun, Wisconsin

Waxy maize or corn

Wayne, New Jersey

Western Phosphate Field

Wheat

Wheat starch

Whey

Whey protein concentrate

White, Dan

Wills, Lucy

Wise

Cheez Doodles

Sour Cream and Onion Potato Chips

Wish-Bone Fat Free Chunky

Blue Cheese salad dressing

Wonder Bread

World War I

World War II

Xanthan gum

Yeast

Yellow #2 dent field corn

Yellow No.

Yellow prussiate of soda

Yogurt

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve Ettlinger has been an author, editor, and book producer since 1985, and has created more than a dozen popular reference books that have sold more than a million copies. He has appeared on
The Today Show
,
CBS This Morning
,
Good Morning America
,
Fox News
,
Live with Regis and Kathie Lee
, the Food Network, and dozens of other television and radio shows.

Ettlinger lived in Paris for six years, where he managed to eat at many of the world’s finest restaurants. He has previously worked as an assistant chef and enjoys old home repair and renovation, cooking, sailing, and African drumming. A graduate of Tufts University, he lives in New York City with his wife, Gusty Lange, and their two children.

1. The Twinkies ingredient list, like that of other processed foods, is not etched in stone. It varies over time and even from bakery to bakery as laws (i.e., trans fats are now banned) or prices or cooking techniques change, so don’t freak out if your Twinkie box doesn’t match the list used here.

10. The late 1800s was a period of newly improved commerce and communication, some sophisticated (railroads, newspapers, telegraph) and some not (snake oil and other creative traveling salesmen). This was fertile ground for the wild claims and major ad campaigns of early baking powders—Clabber Girl
^®
and Davis
^®
, as well as Oetker and Kraft’s Calumet
^®
Baking Powder, all still alive and competing today, even if (curiously) Rumford
^®
, Clabber Girl
^®
, and Davis
^®
are now all made by the same company—including spurious assertions that competitors’ powders, among the first chemicals sold as convenience food, were made with poison. This led to the demand for honesty in packaging, which in turn led to the 1905 ingredient labeling laws that formed the basis for the labels we have today—and the inspiration for this book.

11. Several of the professionals I spoke with willingly tasted Twinkies, often for the first time since they were kids, and though they usually scoffed at their own diminished desire for such sweet things, they were impressed with Twinkies’ successful blend of flavors. One renowned flavorist, consultant to the biggest consumer food product companies in the world (who shall remain anonymous for obvious reasons) offered the following (technically and scientifically accurate) assessment upon a Twinkie tasting: “Gee, that’s
great
!”

12. Candles, soaps, plastics, pastels, lubricants, and cosmetics (such as Vaseline
^®
Intensive Care Dry Skin Lotion) all claim stearic acid as an ingredient, there mostly to add slipperiness and bulk.

13. Small change is in the air, however, and domestic casein production might well begin again. The USDA has or had what appears to be a small, secret program to sell some surplus dried milk to several U.S. companies that can make caseinates, but has some kind of gag order and is not forthcoming with details.

14. Because Perkin extracted the aniline from coal tar, and because for years coal tar was the only source of benzene for dyes, they are still known as “coal tar” dyes despite the fact the most of them are made from oil and natural gas.

2. Some hydrogen is burnt with chlorine to make hydrochloric acid (HCl), an important part of a bunch of other food ingredient recipes.

3. Most of the professionals asked to name the vitamin manufacturers actually cite a company that has been defunct for several years, hardly a reassuring element in the food-processing picture.

4. Folic acid may even contribute to reduced stroke and heart disease.

5. In a way, flour is overshadowed by the sugar and sweeteners that follow it on the ingredient list. In the future, sugars may be broken down on the label by sucrose vs sweeteners, much as fats are now labeled. Sophisticated consumers will embrace that change and the cane sugar industry, which is always battling the corn sweetener industry, will love it.

6. Now American Sugar Refining Inc., of which Florida Crystals is part owner.

7. Almost half is grown from genetically modified (GM) seeds, created by companies like Monsanto to resist its Roundup
^®
herbicide; the trend, thanks in part to Monsanto’s strong marketing skills, indicates that there will be more GM corn in the future.

8. Most important, shortening has a much higher melting point than butter, more akin to lard’s, so it acts as a space holder to create air pockets in cakes or pie shells, making them tender and flaky.

9. This explains why beef fat showed up on more Twinkies ingredient labels in 2006 (it appeared less often before), and why the shortening is now called “vegetable and/or animal shortening.” That’s why Twinkies are no longer kosher, not that all of them were. Apparently only one or two of the various Hostess bakeries made kosher Twinkies, for what it’s worth. Kosher foods are often viewed by consumers who don’t need to eat kosher foods as slightly better than nonkosher foods, even snack cakes, somewhat akin to the way “all natural” labels boost sales on things like ice cream.