Twinkie
Encyclopedia
The Twinkie is an American snack cake
made and distributed by Hostess Brands. They are marketed as a "Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling".
in 1930 by James Alexander Dewar, a baker for the Continental Baking Company
. Realizing that several machines used to make cream-filled strawberry shortcake
sat idle when strawberries were out of season, Dewar conceived a snack cake filled with banana
cream, which he dubbed the Twinkie. During World War II
, bananas were rationed and the company was forced to switch to vanilla
cream. This change proved popular, and banana-cream Twinkies were not widely re-introduced. The original flavor was occasionally found in limited-time promotions, but the company used vanilla cream for most Twinkies. In 1988, Fruit and Cream Twinkies were introduced with a strawberry filling swirled into the cream. However, the product was soon dropped. Vanilla's dominance over banana flavoring would be challenged in 2005, following a month-long promotion of the movie King Kong. Hostess saw its Twinkie sales rise 2 percent during the promotion, and in 2007 permanently restored the banana-cream Twinkie to its snack lineup.
, and deep-frying it to create a variation on the traditional snack cake. It was described by a The New York Times
story 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 pièce de résistance
, however, is a ruby-hued berry sauce, adding a tart sophistication to all that airy sugary goodness". The Texas State Fair had introduced the fried
Twinkie to great popular acclaim, and the notion spread to other state fair
s across the U.S., as well as some establishments that specialize in fried foods. Fried Twinkies are sold throughout the U.S. in fairs as well as ball games.
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 Herb Caen
's description of the trial of Dan White
, who was convicted in the fatal shootings of San Francisco mayor George Moscone
and city supervisor Harvey Milk
. During the trial, psychiatrist Martin Blinder
testified that White had suffered from depression
, causing diminished capacity
. As an example of this, he mentioned that White, formerly a health food
advocate, had begun eating junk food. Twinkies, specifically, were never actually mentioned in the case.
claims that Twinkies have an infinite shelf life
or can last unspoiled for a relatively long time of ten, fifty, or one hundred years due to chemicals used in production. This urban legend is false, although Twinkies can last a relatively long time (25 days or more) because they are made without unstabilized dairy products and thus spoil more slowly than most bakery items.
in an attempt to demonstrate to his students "that in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most—not the nutritional value of the food". He lost 27 pounds over a 2 month period, returning his body mass index
(BMI) to within normal range.
Snack cake
Snack cakes are a type of baked dessert confectionery made with cake and icing.-Canada:The main manufacturer in Canada is Vachon Inc. which makes and distributes such products as May West, Jos. Louis, Passion Flakie, and Ah Caramel!.- United States :...
made and distributed by Hostess Brands. They are marketed as a "Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling".
History
Twinkies were invented in Schiller Park, IllinoisSchiller Park, Illinois
Schiller Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 11,850 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Schiller Park is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the village has a total area of , all of it land....
in 1930 by James Alexander Dewar, a baker for the Continental Baking Company
Continental Baking Company
The Continental Baking Company was one of the first bakeries to introduce fortified bread. It was the maker of the Twinkie and Wonder bread. Through a series of acquisitions and mergers it became Hostess Brands.-History:...
. Realizing that several machines used to make cream-filled strawberry shortcake
Shortcake
Shortcake is a sweet biscuit .Shortcake is typically made with flour, sugar, baking powder or soda, salt, butter, milk or cream, and sometimes eggs. The dry ingredients are blended, and then the butter is cut in and mixed until the mixture resembles cornmeal...
sat idle when strawberries were out of season, Dewar conceived a snack cake filled with banana
Banana
Banana is the common name for herbaceous plants of the genus Musa and for the fruit they produce. Bananas come in a variety of sizes and colors when ripe, including yellow, purple, and red....
cream, which he dubbed the Twinkie. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, bananas were rationed and the company was forced to switch to vanilla
Vanilla
Vanilla is a flavoring derived from orchids of the genus Vanilla, primarily from the Mexican species, Flat-leaved Vanilla . The word vanilla derives from the Spanish word "", little pod...
cream. This change proved popular, and banana-cream Twinkies were not widely re-introduced. The original flavor was occasionally found in limited-time promotions, but the company used vanilla cream for most Twinkies. In 1988, Fruit and Cream Twinkies were introduced with a strawberry filling swirled into the cream. However, the product was soon dropped. Vanilla's dominance over banana flavoring would be challenged in 2005, following a month-long promotion of the movie King Kong. Hostess saw its Twinkie sales rise 2 percent during the promotion, and in 2007 permanently restored the banana-cream Twinkie to its snack lineup.
Deep-fried Twinkie
A deep-fried Twinkie involves freezing the cake, dipping it into batterBatter (cooking)
Batter is a semi-liquid mixture of one or more flours combined with liquids such as water, milk or eggs used to prepare various foods. Often a leavening agent such as baking powder is included to aerate and fluff up the batter as it cooks, or the mixture may be naturally fermented for this purpose...
, and deep-frying it to create a variation on the traditional snack cake. It was described by a The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
story 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 pièce de résistance
Pièce de résistance
Pièce de résistance is a French term , translated into English literally as "piece of resistance," referring to the best part or feature of something , a showpiece, or highlight. It can be thought of as the portion of a creation which defies Pièce de résistance is a French term (circa 1839),...
, however, is a ruby-hued berry sauce, adding a tart sophistication to all that airy sugary goodness". The Texas State Fair had introduced the fried
Deep frying
Deep frying is a cooking method in which food is submerged in hot oil or fat. This is normally performed with a deep fryer or chip pan; industrially, a pressure fryer or vacuum fryer may be used....
Twinkie to great popular acclaim, and the notion spread to other state fair
State fair
A state fair is a competitive and recreational gathering of a U.S. state's population. It is a larger version of a county fair, often including only exhibits or competitors that have won in their categories at the more-local county fairs....
s across the U.S., as well as some establishments that specialize in fried foods. Fried Twinkies are sold throughout the U.S. in fairs as well as ball games.
Twinkie defense
The Twinkie defenseTwinkie defense
"Twinkie defense" is a derisive label for an improbable legal defense. It is not a recognized legal defense in jurisprudence, but a catchall term coined by reporters during their coverage of the trial of defendant Dan White for the murders of San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk and mayor...
is a derogatory term for a criminal defendant
Defendant
A defendant or defender is any party who is required to answer the complaint of a plaintiff or pursuer in a civil lawsuit before a court, or any party who has been formally charged or accused of violating a criminal statute...
's claim that some unusual factor (such as allergies, coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
, nicotine
Nicotine
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants that constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of the dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots and accumulation occurring in the leaves...
, or sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
) diminished the defendant's responsibility for the alleged crime. The term arose from Herb Caen
Herb Caen
Herbert Eugene Caen was a Pulitzer Prize-winning San Francisco journalistwhose daily column of local goings-on, social and political happenings,...
's description of the trial of Dan White
Dan White
Daniel James "Dan" White was a San Francisco supervisor who assassinated San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, on Monday, November 27, 1978, at City Hall...
, who was convicted in the fatal shootings of San Francisco mayor George Moscone
George Moscone
George Richard Moscone was an American attorney and Democratic politician. He was the 37th mayor of San Francisco, California, US from January 1976 until his assassination in November 1978. Moscone served in the California State Senate from 1967 until becoming Mayor. In the Senate, he served as...
and city supervisor Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk was an American politician who became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California when he won a seat on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors...
. During the trial, psychiatrist Martin Blinder
Martin Blinder
Martin Blinder, M.D. is a physician and forensic psychiatrist licensed to practice in Hawaii, California, Kentucky and Georgia. He is Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal, Family Therapy, past Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, and Past...
testified that White had suffered from depression
Clinical depression
Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by an all-encompassing low mood accompanied by low self-esteem, and by loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities...
, causing diminished capacity
Diminished Capacity
Diminished Capacity is a comedy film directed by Terry Kinney and starring Matthew Broderick, Virginia Madsen, and Alan Alda. It was released at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and opened in theaters in July 2008...
. As an example of this, he mentioned that White, formerly a health food
Health food
The term health food is generally used to describe foods that are considered to be beneficial to health, beyond a normal healthy diet required for human nutrition. However, the term is not precisely defined by national regulatory agencies such as the U.S...
advocate, had begun eating junk food. Twinkies, specifically, were never actually mentioned in the case.
Experimentation
A website entitled the T.W.I.N.K.I.E.S. Project was launched in 2000 by Christopher Scott Gouge and Todd William Stadler. This site chronicles a series of regimented scientific experiments testing, amongst others, the insulative, electrically resistive, radioactive, and gravitational properties of the "Standard Twinkie".Shelf life
A common urban legendUrban legend
An urban legend, urban myth, urban tale, or contemporary legend, is a form of modern folklore consisting of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true...
claims that Twinkies have an infinite shelf life
Shelf life
Shelf life is the length of time that food, drink, medicine, chemicals, and many other perishable items are given before they are considered unsuitable for sale, use, or consumption...
or can last unspoiled for a relatively long time of ten, fifty, or one hundred years due to chemicals used in production. This urban legend is false, although Twinkies can last a relatively long time (25 days or more) because they are made without unstabilized dairy products and thus spoil more slowly than most bakery items.
Twinkie diet
In 2010 a college professor named Mark Haub went on a "convenience store" diet consisting mainly of Twinkies, Oreos, and DoritosDoritos
Doritos is a brand of seasoned tortilla chips created by Arch West and produced since 1964 by the American food company Frito-Lay ....
in an attempt to demonstrate to his students "that in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most—not the nutritional value of the food". He lost 27 pounds over a 2 month period, returning his body mass index
Body mass index
The body mass index , or Quetelet index, is a heuristic proxy for human body fat based on an individual's weight and height. BMI does not actually measure the percentage of body fat. It was invented between 1830 and 1850 by the Belgian polymath Adolphe Quetelet during the course of developing...
(BMI) to within normal range.
See also
- ChocodileChocodileChocodiles are a confection created by the Hostess Brands company. The package describes the snack cake as a "chocolate coated sponge cake with creamy filling." The Chocodile is Twinkie shaped, but unlike the Twinkie which is sold in packages of 2 or 3 cakes, the Chocodile is sold individually...
- Deep-fried Mars BarDeep-fried Mars barA deep-fried Mars bar is an ordinary Mars bar normally fried in a type of batter commonly used for deep-frying fish, sausages, and other battered products...
- Ding DongDing DongA Ding Dong is a chocolate cake that is sold by Hostess Brands. It is round with a flat top and bottom, about three inches in diameter and a little more than an inch high, similar in shape to a hockey puck. A white creamy filling is injected into the center, and a thin coating of chocolate glaze...
- Dorito
- Ho Hos
- Hostess
- May WestMay WestA May West is a round dessert cake with cream filling. It was created in Canada, and continues to be particularly popular in the Province of Quebec. It is currently made by Vachon Inc., a division of Saputo Inc....
- Twinkie the KidTwinkie the KidTwinkie the Kid is the mascot for Twinkies, Hostess's golden, cream-filled snack cakes. He is a registered trademark of Hostess Brands. He has appeared on product packaging, in commercials, and as collectible related merchandise.-Description:...
- ZingersZingersZingers are an American snack cake sold under both Dolly Madison and Hostess, snack food brands owned by Interstate Bakeries Corporation.-Product line:Zingers are similar to Twinkies and come in devil's food, vanilla, and raspberry flavors....
- ZombielandZombielandZombieland is a 2009 American zombie comedy film directed by Ruben Fleischer from a screenplay written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Abigail Breslin as survivors of a zombie apocalypse...