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Showing entries for Category: diet
Twinkies: food, art or building materials?
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Since my last post on Twinkies, I've been trying to think of another reason to write about them and now I can. This is because I recently found out about a cookbook devoted to Twinkies recipes. Seriously. Now I know what you're thinking, "What does this have to do with health?"
I'm glad you asked. Everything.
Eating the" food" produced by these recipes does not promote health, but discussing them, as one discusses, say heart disease or diabetes, is important for overall health and well being, so we have a match there. A weak one to be sure, but a link nevertheless. You see, it's all about how to avoid falling prey to their attractiveness and allure.
I mean, don't you think Twinkie Sushi is alluring? ( I provide the recipe only to make you aware of how this really does not belong on your diet. Ever.) Perhaps not as a food item, but as art, well, that's another matter entirely.
I do like the thought of Twinkies as a building material. This way no one get's hurt, which is unusual with building materials.
The Twinkie Cookbook has a chapter on "Novelty Twinkies". In this chapter you can find such surprises as Twinkiehenge (pictured here), the Twinkie Train-I think you can imagine this one, and the Twinkie Easter Egg Hunt (perhaps you shouldn't try to imagine this.) Think of them as sculpture, if you will.
Some of these recipes, however, are serious attempts to create food items, such as the Twinkie Burrito, Twinkie Bananas Foster, and Twinkie-Misu. Now you must be careful or you may be tempted to actually make these
While I think the chapter on Twinkies and Meat is morbidly fascinating, I cannot imagine actually consuming Pigs in a Twinkie or Twinkling Turkey (a stuffing of sorts). Still there are some who undoubtedly want this. In case you are longing for a Twinkie Shake, let's pause for a moment and comtemplate the top ten ingredients, as a kind of voyage through ingredient land.
According to Steve Ettlinger the author of Twinkie, Deconstructed, Twinkies are primarily constructed from the following
- Wheat flour
- Bleach
- Enrichment Blend (Ferrous sulfate and B vitamins)
- Sugar
- Corn Sweetners
- Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Glucose and High Fructose Corn Syrup
- Corn Thickeners: Cornstarch, Modified Cornstarch, Corn Dextrins, and Corn Flour
- Water
- Soy: Partially hydrogenated vegetable and or animal shortening, soy lecithin and soy protein isolate
- Eggs
As such, they make wonderful columns, easter eggs, trains, and hunks of rock. Consider the Twinkie as an icon of our time; all 500 million of them sold each year. Staples of Archie Bunker's lunchbox and more recently a home and food source for a character in the hit movie, WallE. Perhaps the Twinkie is best considered as a TV and movie prop, a building material or source of artistic expression. If we truly are what we eat, let's hope the Twinkies sold are not actually all consumed.
Topics: health , diet , Twinkie , WallE
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