As Steve Ettlinger dropped down a Wyoming mine shaft, plummeting 1,600 feet in an open-mesh cage, he wondered how many other food writers had ever donned hard hats and emergency breathing equipment in pursuit of a story. But it was too late to turn back. He'd promised his editor a book tracing the ingredients in a Hostess Twinkie to their origins—and one of them was down this shaft. At the bottom, he and his hosts climbed into an open Jeep and hurtled for 30 terrifying minutes through pitch-black tunnels. Their destination: the site where a mineral called trona—the raw ingredient of baking soda—was being clawed out of a rock face by giant machines. "To say that this does not suggest Twinkies or any other food product would be an understatement," observes Ettlinger. "There you are at an open rock face, wondering why they do all this for the sake of a little snack cake."

Read the whole story

Twinkies contain actual flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, water and a trace of egg. But the rest of the 39 ingredients are not generally what you find in your pantry. A sampling:

THE FILLING

* Shortening (in the form of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil and/or beef fat) is the main ingredient.
* Polysorbate 60 is a gooey substance that helps replace cream and eggs at a fraction of the cost. It's derived from corn, palm oil and petroleum.
* Cellulose gum gives the crème filling a smooth, slippery feel.
* Artificial vanillin is synthesized in petrochemical plants. The real thing comes from finicky tropical orchids that are pollinated by hand on the one day they bloom.

THE CAKE

* Lecithin is an emulsifier made from soy. It's also used in paint to keep pigments evenly dispersed.
* Diacetyl mimics the taste of butter, since the real stuff would go rancid on a store shelf.
* Cornstarch is a common thickener. But it's more often used to make cardboard and packing peanuts.
* Yellow No. 5, Red No. 40 give the cake the golden look of eggs.
* Sorbic acid, the only actual preservative in Twinkies, comes from petroleum.

TWINKIE FACTS

* Calories: 145 each
* Shelf life: 25 days—not years, as urban legend would have it
* History: In 1930, James Dewar found a way to use idle baking pans. He named the cakes after seeing an ad for "Twinkle-Toe" shoes. Shelf life was just two to three days.