[♪ INTRO]
Check out all these Halloween candies I got at the store, Sam!
I have a bunch of different chocolates, some little fruit candies
that our neighbor loves, and here’s my absolute favorite: candy corn!
What? How did they turn corn into candy?!
Well, they’re not actually corn, Sam.
Candy corn is made to look like little corn kernels,
which are actually small fruits that cover an ear of corn.
Humans have been eating corn for thousands of years,
but for most of that time, it wasn't as tasty as it is today.
The kernels were tough, and they weren’t sweet.
So back before candy corn existed,
you probably wouldn’t find stacks of corn on the cob at a backyard barbeque.
Instead, corn was dried out in the field,
and ground down into tiny pieces until they looked like yellow sand or powder.
Then, they could be used as an ingredient
to make breads, cakes, and other meals.
If you have ever baked anything with cornmeal or corn flour before,
then you've used these ingredients too!
Meanwhile, the corn kernels that weren’t ground down
were often fed to farm animals, like chickens.
That’s why when candy corn was invented in the 1880s,
some candy makers, or confectioners, called it “Chicken Feed”!
So is there actually any corn in candy corn?
Hm, I think I remember how candy corn is made,
but I’m not sure if it involves actual corn.
Let’s take a look at the ingredients list to learn more.
The first ingredients are sugar…and corn syrup!
Ah ha, at last she tells the truth! It is corn after all!
Sort of, yeah! Corn syrup does come from corn,
but if you take a look at a bottle of corn syrup, you might wonder how.
Corn kernels and corn syrup look so different!
First, you take the hard outside layer of corn kernels
and grind them down into a fine dust called corn starch.
Corn starch is a solid, and if you tried to eat it by itself it wouldn’t taste very sweet.
But if you heat it up and add some different chemicals,
you can turn it into corn syrup…a super sweet,
super sticky liquid that is full of sugar!
But this sugar is a bit different from the sugar you might find in your kitchen.
There are lots of types of sugars.
Candy corn includes two kinds: sucrose, like the sugar we have
here in the Fort kitchen, and glucose, the sugar inside corn syrup.
The glucose sugar in corn syrup is very sweet,
and it’s used to make a lot of foods taste much sweeter.
So some of the sugary sweetness of candy corn really does comes from corn.
Hmmm, ok. What else is it made out of?
It looks like there are a few more ingredients. Oh, I remember!
Once the sucrose sugar and corn syrup are mixed together,
confectioners add an ingredient called gelatin.
Gelatin helps liquids hold a solid but wiggly shape.
Like a gelatin snack cup!
That’s right!
If you look for gelatin in a store, you might find it as a powder,
or as thin see-through sheets.
But do you know where gelatin comes from?
No I do not!
It’s pretty cool. Gelatin is made from collagen,
which food scientists often get from animal bones.
Bones?! No way!
Now, it’s not like you’re eating ground up bones every time
you pop some candy corn in your mouth.
A lot of changes have to happen to turn it into gelatin.
Many people eat meat from animals,
and the bones can get left behind or put in the trash.
Making gelatin from the bones is a way to
use as much of an animal’s body as possible, so there’s less waste.
Gelatin is a solid at room temperature, but melts into a liquid when you heat it up.
That lets you mix it in with your other ingredients.
And then when the whole thing cools down, the gelatin turns back into a solid.
A pretty wiggly solid!
Yep, but a solid just the same!
Now, to create the special taste and feel of candy corn,
food scientists have to add a few more ingredients to the warm,
liquid mixture of sugar, corn syrup, and gelatin.
But the most important ingredient changes how the candy corn looks.
To create the classic yellow, orange, and white layers,
they add food dyes to different batches.
After the different colors are all mixed up,
they’re poured into special molds one after the other
so they can cool and harden into a solid candy that is just the right shape.
And guess what? To help the candies slide out of the molds easily,
the inside of the mold starts with a little dusting of…corn starch.
Hmmm. Sounds like candy corn is pretty corny after all!
I guess you’re right! That’s two ways that corn is used in making candy corn!
To help the candy taste even sweeter, and to keep the candy from getting stuck.
After the candies come out of their molds,
there’s one more ingredient that confectioners have to add.
It’s something called confectioner’s glaze, or shellac.
Cool, cool. And what is that?
A glaze or shellac is something you can use to make things shiny.
Once it’s out of the mold, candy corn pieces get
tumbled around like laundry in a clothes dryer.
But instead of drying off, they’re being coated in shiny shellac.
And you remember how gelatin is often made from animal bones?
Well, it turns out that shellac also comes from an animal.
Shellac comes from bugs.
Bugs?!
Yup. In order to protect themselves from predators, Lac bugs ooze out a special,
waxy coating on the trees they live on, creating special rooms for themselves.
This coating is very shiny, so humans have been collecting it for
thousands of years, mixing it into everything from makeup, to paint, to, well, food.
Maybe that’s the “spooky” part of candy corn:
one of its ingredients comes from bones, and another comes from bugs!
Oh boy! Bug candy sounds pretty good to me!
Well, I don’t think it’s bug candy. But I see what you mean.
Some people think it’s gross, some people think it’s cool. And I think it’s delicious.
What do you think, Sam?
Hmmm, even though it’s not my favorite candy, it does mean Halloween is coming,
so that’s pretty cool, and it taught me a bunch of new stuff!
And it has BUG GOO IT! So I guess it’s pretty amazing!
It is amazing that this candy has helped us learn so much today.
For that, let’s send a big thank you to candy corn.
Have you tried candy corn before? What did you think?
Ask your friends or family what they think about candy corn, too!
Sam and I can’t wait for you to join us for
more food science exploration and other discoveries!
Make sure to hit the subscribe button to see us again,
and we’ll catch you next time here at the Fort.
See ya!
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