Twinkie
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A Twinkie is a "Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling" created by Hostess, and baked by Continental Baking Co., which is owned by Kansas City-based Interstate Bakeries Corporation. Twinkies measure 4" x 1" (10 cm x 2.5 cm) and are usually sold in packages of two. They have a shelf life of 25 days (Very long for a baked good). Various urban legends have stated that Twinkies have shelf lives anywhere from several years up to one century in duration, but there is no evidence to support this.
In the United States, the Twinkie is commonly regarded as the quintessential junk food. Each Twinkie contains about 145 kilocalories (607 kilojoules). Five hundred million are produced each year.
How Twinkies are made
The Twinkie was invented on April 6, 1930 by bakery manager James Dewar, making thrifty use of shortcake pans that were usually only used 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 the outbreak of World War II. [link]Though Continental Foods has never revealed how Twinkies are made, most people believe that they are baked, because the bottoms look brown. The Washington Post reported on April 15, 2005 that "the cakes are baked for 10 minutes, then the cream filling is injected through three holes in the top, which is browned from baking. The cake is flipped before packaging, so the rounded yellow bottom becomes the top." Hostess was the implied source of this information.
Ingredients
- Enriched Wheat Flour - enriched with ferrous sulphate (iron)
- B vitamins:
- * Niacin
- * Thiamine mononitrate [B1]
- * Riboflavin [B12] and
- * Folic acid
- Sugar
- Corn syrup
- Water
- High fructose corn syrup
- Vegetable and/or animal shortening containing one or more of
- * Partially hydrogenated soybean
- * cottonseed or Canola oil
- *lard and
- * beef fat
- Dextrose
- Whole eggs
- Contains 2% or less of:
- * Modified corn starch
- * Cellulose gum
- * Whey
- * Leavenings:
- ** Sodium acid pyrophosphate
- ** Baking soda
- ** Monocalcium phosphate
- * Salt
- * Cornstarch
- * Corn flour
- * Corn syrup solids
- * Mono and diglycerides
- * Soy lecithin
- * Polysorbate 60
- * Dextrin
- * Calcium caseinate
- * Sodium stearol lactylate
- * Wheat gluten
- * calcium sulfate
- * Natural and artificial flavors:
- ** Caramel color
- ** Sorbic acid (to retain freshness)
- ** Color added (yellow 5, red 40)
Fried twinkies
According to the Hostess website, Christopher Sell invented the "fried twinkie" at the ChipShop, his restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. It was described by the New York Times in this way: "Something magical occurs when the pastry hits the hot oil. The creamy white vegetable shortening filling liquefies, impregnating the sponge cake with its luscious vanilla flavor. . . The cake itself softens and warms, nearly melting, contrasting with the crisp, deep-fried crust in a buttery and suave way. The shop adds its own ruby-hued berry sauce, which provides a bit of tart sophistication."
By 2002, the Arkansas State Fair had introduced the fried Twinkie to great popular acclaim, and the notion spread to other state fairs across the U.S., as well as some establishments that specialize in fried foods.
Twinkies in popular culture
- The Minnesota Twins are nicknamed the "Twinkies" by fans, a joking reference to the team's tradition of ineptitude dating back to their days as the Washington Senators. During the seventh-inning stretch rendition of Take Me Out to the Ball Game, it is traditional in the Metrodome, the Twins' home park, to replace "the home team" with "the Twinkies".
- The twinkie defense is a derogatory term for a criminal defendant's claim that some unusual factor (such as allergies, coffee, nicotine, or sugar) diminished the defendant's responsibility for the alleged crime. The term arose from the trial of Dan White, who was convicted in the fatal shootings of San Francisco mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk, but the "Twinkie defense" was in reality only a minor and insignificant element of the defense case. (Compare Chewbacca Defense.)
- A Twinkie is used by Egon Spengler in the first Ghostbusters movie, to illustrate the severity of ghostly activity in New York City:
- "Let's say this Twinkie represents the normal amount of psychokinetic energy in the New York area. According to this morning's sample, this would be a Twinkie... thirty five feet long weighing approximately six hundred pounds."
- Twinkies are featured in the Family Guy episode Da Boom. Y2K occurs and Peter and his community have to find a Twinkie factory in Natick, Massachusetts in order to survive - a joke that Twinkies can even survive nuclear radiation. This factory did exist in real life, but has since closed. The only remaining Twinkie factory is in Chicago.
- In "The Simpsons" Episode "Milhouse Doesn't Live Here Anymore," Homer hears a rumor that Twinkies, if stored for ten years, will become liquor. Later in the show, Homer is seen drunk out of his mind holding a twinkie with a straw in it.
- In the first two Die Hard films, overweight desk-cop Al Powell (played by Reginald VelJohnson) is often seen stereotypically with a Twinkie (either stocking up or eating). Later in the series, Bruce Willis's character in the sequel greets Powell over the phone with "Will you take the fucking Twinkie out of your mouth?".
- In the movie UHF, George (played by "Weird Al" Yankovic) eats a Twinkie-Weiner Sandwich, which is made by these directions: Slit open a Twinkie, insert a cooked hot dog, top with Easy Cheese. This is one of Yankovic's self-professed favorite snacks, and is one of the quirks that he is best known for (though he has switched to meatless hot dogs since becoming a vegetarian). Yankovic notes that he enjoys dipping the snack in milk. A variation of this is used on the E show The Soup that host Joel McHale calls Hamwinkies.
- Famous online comedian Seanbaby, also fulltime video game reviewer for Electronic Gaming Monthly, made a full list of articles in his official website ridiculing the established comic book character (like Batman or Spider-Man) advertising twinkies and Hostess Fruitpies from the early 1970s and 1980s.
- Blue Man Group's theatrical show includes a skit called the Twinkie Feast, in which the three Blue Men invite an audience member on stage to feast on Twinkies.
- In early 2006, Twinkies with banana flavored filling were marketed in connection with the release of the motion picture "King Kong".
- A fictional product called Hamwinkies, which consists of a Twinkie stuffed with a slice of smoked ham (other variations include being covered with chocolate, and deep fried) has made appearances on the show The Soup. The box art for the product is modified from the Twinkies packaging, with the name Mostess replacing Hostess, and a contented cartoon pig resting atop of a chocolate-covered Hamwinkie. Joel McHale, the show's host, has eaten Hamwinkies on camera several times.
- In September 2002, the premiere edition of the [Short Kutz] DVD Series was released, featuring "Twinkie Clock," an absurd spoof of late-night commercials in which Twinkies are used as disposable alarm clocks.
- An urban legend holds that twinkies are chemically syntheized and require no baking. As a result, they supposedly have a nearly limitless shelf-life and could potentially "survive a nuclear war" (like cockroaches). In practice, twinkies last only about 25 days before degrading substantially in quality -- though they do last longer than most other baked goods due to the fact that the filling is not actually dairy.
Slang use
Twinkie, in some communities, is commonly used as slang. For the most common use, as gay slang, see Twinkie (gay slang).Far less commonly, the term "twinkie" might be used disparagingly for an Asian-American who emulates Caucasians (yellow on the outside and white on the inside), similar to the term "oreo" for African Americans. In the movie Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, the main character, Harold, is labelled a Twinkie by his Asian-American peers due to his lack of connection with his Korean origins. An alternate synonym for the use is "Banana".
TV journalist Linda Ellerbee, in the opening paragraphs of her autobiography And So It Goes, defines a twinkie as the kind of blow-dried TV news reporter who doesn't fully understand the news he or she is reporting--citing herself as an example.
A twinkie or simply twink in gamer slang is a somewhat derogatory term for a young gamer who doesn't fully understand the hobby, or a more experienced gamer whose lack of understanding is presumed to be willful. "Twinking" is a term used in many role-playing games referring to the player's use of the rules to create the most effective character possible through in-game rules, especially when skills or abilities selected contradict the character's personality, if it is such a game where depth of character is an issue. In the former sense it is less pejorative than munchkin but more pejorative in the latter sense (since the more experienced gamer ostensibly should know better). Another, equal known use of the term describes a high-level character in an RPG (typically an MMORPG) who has a low-level, alternate character equipped exclusively from the high-level character's cash and/or equipment reserves.
A 'twinkie' is also used in Western Canadian street youth communities to describe a member of an affluent or otherwise 'stable' home environment yet chooses to live the street kid lifestyle without necessity. Though it could be argued that the slang prejoritive 'mark' would be the same.
In some Native American circles a twinkie is a person who believes in sickeningly sweet and artificial version of American Indian religion(s) or claiming to be Native American for fraudulent purposes [link].
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