The "Vice President of Cake" politely declined

The "Vice President of Cake" politely declined to open the company's factory doors to him, thus Stephen Ettlinger knew he would be required to do his research without the aid of Hostess. Donning a hard hat, a head lamp and breathing equipment, he descended 1,600 feet into a Wyoming mine shaft. At some point he wondered if his quest to discover the natural sources of all 39 ingredients of Hostess Twinkies had gone too far. As a child he had heard (if not even raised the issue himself), the whispers about the lunch box treats:

"I have heard that the Hostess Company has not produced any new Twinkies in as many as two decades or more. Instead, the Twinkies you buy in stores have been sitting in a Hostess warehouse for years."

Like most Americans, Steve Ettlinger eats processed foods. And, like most consumers, he often reads the ingredients label—without a clue as to what most of it means. So, when his young daughter asked, “Daddy, what’s polysorbate 60?” while eating ice cream at the beach on a hot summer day, he was at a loss—and determined to find out.

Ettlinger recently published Twinkie Deconstructed : My Journey to Discover How the Ingredients Found in Processed Foods Are Grown, Mined (Yes, Mined), and Manipulated Into What America Eats. Twinkie Deconstructed takes us from phosphate mines in Idaho to corn fields in Iowa, from gypsum mines in Oklahoma to oil fields in China, to demystify some of America’s most common processed food ingredients—where they come from, how they are made, how they are used—and why. Beginning at the source (hint: they’re often more closely linked to rocks and petroleum than any of the four food groups), Ettlinger reveals how each Twinkie ingredient goes through the process of being crushed, baked, fermented, refined, and/or reacted into a totally unrecognizable goo or powder with a strange name—all for the sake of creating a simple snack cake.

A Twinkie is a "Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling" distributed by Continental Baking Co., which is owned by Kansas City-based Interstate Bakeries Corporation. Twinkies measure 4" x 1.5" (10 cm x 3.75 cm) and are usually sold in packages of two (though they can be sold in packages of three) or boxed in groups of ten individually-wrapped cakes. In Latin America and Mexico, Twinkies are sold under the name Submarinos (submarines) due to their shape roughly resembling said vessel by the Bimbo brand of products.

 

The Twinkie was invented on April 6, 1930 by bakery manager James Dewar, making thrifty use of shortcake pans that were used only during the strawberry season. Twinkies originally contained a banana cream filling, but this was replaced with a vanilla cream filling during a banana shortage, caused by World War II. The original flavor would be revisited more than half a century later as an alternative flavor.

Although not as impressive as the "urban myth" claims, Twinkies do beat industry standards with a shelf life of twenty five days. A current legend says that: "A little boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he packed his suitcase with Twinkies and a six-pack of Root Beer and he started his journey."

They remain as Hostess best selling snack cake producing half a billion a year!

TWINKIE INGREDIENTS: Enriched Bleached Wheat Flour (Flour, Ferrous Sulfate, "B" Vitamins (Niacin, Thiamine, Mononitrate (B1), Riboflavin (B2) Folic Acid)), Sugar, Corn Syrup, Water, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening (Contains One Or More Of: Soybean, Canola Or Palm Oil), Dextrose, Whole Eggs, Contains 2 (Percent) Or Less Of: Modified Cornstarch, Cellulose Gum, Whey, Leavenings (Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Monocalcium Phosphate), Salt, Cornstarch, Corn Flour, Corn Dextrins, Mono And Digylcerides, Polysorbate 60, Soy Lecithin, Natural And Artificial Flavors, Soy Protein Isolate, Sodium Stearoyl Lactylate, Sodium And Calcium Caseinate, Calcium Sulfate, Sorbic Acid (To Retain Freshness), Color Added (Yellow 5, Red 40). May Contain Peanuts Or Traces Of Peanuts.

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Spider-Man was introduced in Amazing Fantasy #15, 1962. Due to positive sales and fan mail resulting from the issue, the character received his own title, The Amazing Spider-Man, the following year, which became Marvel's best-selling series. The character quickly became a cultural icon; a 1965 Esquire poll of college campuses found that college students ranked Spider-Man and fellow Marvel hero The Hulk alongside Bob Dylan and Che Guevara as their favorite revolutionary icons.

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