Photo: Steve Ettlinger,.
Steve Ettlinger, the author of Twinkie, Deconstructed, has displayed this Twinkie in his home for 21 years.
Do you sometimes think about treats you enjoyed as a kid and wonder if they are still around?
Double Bubble bubblegum? (Still around.) Necco wafers? (Yes.) Dixie ice cream cups with pictures of movie stars inside lid? (Nope, but if you can live without the actual ice cream, try eBay.)
Hannah Goeke has a fun story at the Boston Globe about the Hostess cupcakes called Twinkies. “Two things will survive the apocalypse, as the myth goes,” she says, “cockroaches and Twinkies. In Maine, one of those famous snack cakes is turning 50 this year after a high school chemistry teacher decided to put its shelf life to the test in an experiment that continues to this day.
“During a class discussion on food additives in 1976, a student asked teacher Roger Bennatti how long a Twinkie would last. Bennatti sent a student down to the store to pick up a couple.
“ ‘I ate one and put the other one up on top of the chalkboard,’ he recalled in a phone interview.
“According to Hostess, the company that makes Twinkies, the golden sponge cake has a shelf life of about 45 days. But the George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill, Maine, is now celebrating the 50th anniversary of their Twinkie experiment.
“When he retired in 2004, Bennatti recalled, his students only had one question. ‘What will happen to the Twinkie?’ The snack had been sitting untouched in the classroom for nearly 30 years, but seemed no worse for wear.
“Libby Rosemeier, assistant head of the George Stevens Academy and one of his former students, carried on his legacy. The Twinkie is now stored in an airtight glass box in a school office, brought out occasionally for curious visitors.
“The Bangor Daily News wrote about the long-running experiment when Bennatti retired, and the sturdy snack became a sensation.
“But Bennatti says Hostess never got in touch with him.
” ‘Are you kidding me? They want me dead,’ he quipped. ‘No food company wants their claim to fame to be, hey, this lasts 50 years.’ …
“To last so long, Twinkies contain few [health department] recommendations, replacing dairy and a real cream filling with a mix of sugar and shortening, corn syrup, water, salt, and cellulose gum. The snack is mainly made of flour, sugar, eggs, and over 30 other ingredients, according to Steve Ettlinger, the author of Twinkie, Deconstructed.
“While the original Twinkie recipe had fresh ingredients, the cakes spoiled too quickly during delivery to stores, Ettlinger said. The manufacturer started looking for substitutes.
“Ettlinger began studying Twinkies to learn more about additives and asked Hostess headquarters and bakeries to find out what the filling contained. ‘I asked one in particular in Biddeford, Maine; they said if I told you, I’d have to kill you,’ Ettlinger said. …
“Ettlinger preserved a Twinkie in its original packaging in his home for 21 years.
“ ‘I got fascinated with them … I’m about to turn 77. I’m gonna write in my will that that Twinkie is gonna go to either my daughter or my son.’ ” (Gee, I hope they don’t fight over it!)
More at the Globe, here.
What were you favorite childhood treats? Are they still being sold?
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