Twinkie ingredients, lovingly photographed
From wheat flour to Red #40, photographer Dwight Eschliman takes surprisingly compelling photographs of every ingredient in a Twinkie.
What you're looking at here is monoglyceride—an emulsifier that helps blend usually not-easily-blendible ingredients. If you've ever made your own vinaigrette, you're already familiar with the concept. Oil and vinegar don't want to join up, and separate into layers when you pour them together. But, whisk in some honey, and you've got yourself a blended oil-and-vinegar dressing. The honey (or mustard. yum.) acts as an emulsifier.
There's not much info like this on Eschliman's Web site, but you can read more about several of the ingredients he photographed in this Planet Green slideshow.
For the record, I'm posting this more out of fascination than anti-Twinkie sentiment. From what I understand about heavily processed foods, such as the Twinkie, they aren't inherently deadly objects. The issue is more about the way cheap ingredients make sweet treats so inexpensive that we can afford to eat way, way too much of them. But the ingredients themselves fail to inspire a lot of fear in me. It's more just a matter of knowing that Twinkies (or, in my preference, frozen Zebra Cakes) are a (very) sometimes food.
Via Sarah Henning
Photo taken by Dwight Eschliman.
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Maggie Koerth-Baker
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