Show of hands...who has ever eaten a Twinkie? If you haven't, then you've probably had something similar to a Twinkie. And by similar, I mean something with a list of unreadable, mystery ingredients. If you haven't had this experience, congratulations, you're Omish.Steve Ettlinger is one of those people who had a Twinkie and actually tried to decipher the ingredients list. The results of his quest are recorded in Twinkie Deconstructed.
I went into this book thinking I would be horrified by what I learned and never touch processed foods again. Strangely, the book almost had the opposite effect. Understanding what all the ingredients were made them more accesible. Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of strange, scary, and downright head scratching details in this book.
Examples? Well, did you know the original flavor of Twinkies was banana? Ewwwwww. There are also plenty of ingredients that have more industrial uses than culinary ones. And I was amazed at how much acid was used to process some of these ingredients. And I'm talking strong, burn your face off acids. Then there are the ingredients that are mined. Yes, mined. It's amazing how minerals and rocks can be turned into Twinkies and Ding Dongs.
It's an eye-opening, educational, and at-times technical journey. I'm not sure it's a book for everyone but if you have an interest in food science or chemistry, it's probably up your alley.
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