The Twinkies were a massive hit, They were being sold almost as fast as they could be produced.
Banana, in comparison to strawberries, were always in season. This made the production of Twinkies a lot more profitable and consistent. As soon as The U.S. began to get into the war, the shipment and trade of bananas was cut off almost immediately. The boats that where used to bring the bananas to and from the tropical places like Jamaica and Cuba were confiscated for the war effort. These boats carried a lot of tropical fruit in refrigerated containers. After the cutoff of bananas to the U.S. , the Continental baking company had decided to switch from a banana cream filling to a more simple vanilla cream filling. America loved these new Twinkies Even more than the original banana flavor.
The name 'Twinkies' was actually Developed in a pretty odd fashion. it was taken from the Shoe brand "twinkle toe shoes", there was no apparent reason for calling these short breads "Twinkies" other than simply the funny name.
The Twinkies had become the staple of a mans every day meal.
A man named Lewis Browning, claimed that he had eaten a twinkle every day for almost 60 YEARS, he took an enormous amount of pride in this accomplishment. 60 years of eating Twinkies daily roughly translates to about 22,000 twinkies.
The Twinkie was also featured as a part of the Millennium time capsule of 1999.
https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-twinkie-myth-1328772
https://www.thespruceeats.com/the-history-of-the-twinkie-1328770
I really liked reading your article as it shines light upon the popularized snack that we know today. After doing some research on the production of Twinkies, it turns out the early filling machines exploded Twinkies easily if the too much filling was put in. There was a foot operated pedaling mechanism that would require a specific pedal pressure to squeeze the correct amount of filling into the Twinkies. If too much as added, the Twinkies would explode.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/68114/11-sweet-facts-about-twinkies
I really liked reading your article, because I had no idea that Twinkies had such an important relationship to WWII. One connection I made when reading your article was to the Origin of the Slinkie which was created in Richard James in 1943 while he was attempting to create a device that could keep sensitive ship equipment safe at sea.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.toyhalloffame.org/toys/slinky
Something I found interesting regarding this post was the mentioning of the Millennium time capsule, something which I have not heard about. The capsule is in no way different from a generic time capsule, except for the fact that it is supposed to be opened in 2100 and houses defining symbols of the 20th century. Interesting things inside the capsule include a Hawaiian flag, WWII Helmet, photos of Earth from space, and even a manuscript of the Cherokee Alphabet. The capsule itself is modeled after the flag, as the separate compartments clearly engrave the stripes and stars of the American flag.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.mentalfloss.com/article/58157/whats-inside-millennium-time-capsule
I found it very interesting how Twinkies related to WWII. I had no idea that Twinkies have been around for that long. I found out that Hostess Brands, the company that created them, originally produced fruit snacks and treats on a per-season basis, which limited sales. The first introduction of the Twinkie in 1930 proved to be a commercial success. As you had mentioned, due to rationing, bananas were limited, and so the recipe was revised, using vanilla instead. Americans loved the new Twinkies even more, which allowed Hostess to cement itself as one of the largest wholesale bakers in the country, even almost 90 years later.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.businessinsider.com/twinkie-recipe-banana-world-war-ii-2012-11