Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogel Bomb here. Every Halloween in the
Speaker 1: United States, bags of triangle shaped, yellow, orange, and white
Speaker 1: candies fill trigger treat bags all over the country, and
Speaker 1: there are many bags to fill. According to the National
Speaker 1: Confectioners Association, candy companies produce nearly thirty five million pounds
Speaker 1: that's almost sixteen million kilograms of candy corn every year.
Speaker 1: That's about nine billion individual pieces. Candy corn is a
Speaker 1: sweet replica of dried corn kernels. It's considered a mellow cream,
Speaker 1: which is a type of candy made from corn syrup
Speaker 1: and sugar that has a marshmallow like flavor. Although candy
Speaker 1: corn tastes rich, it's actually fat free, but that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean as a health food. It is mostly sugar. Most
Speaker 1: people know the traditional candy corn with three stripes, yellow
Speaker 1: at the thick end, orange in the center, and white
Speaker 1: at the peak, but it also comes in a variety
Speaker 1: of other colors and flavors depending on the holiday. Brown,
Speaker 1: orange and white for Thanksgiving, green white and red reindeer
Speaker 1: corn for Christmas, pink, red and white cupid corn for
Speaker 1: Valentine's Day, and pastel colored bunny corn for Easter. The
Speaker 1: traditional variety is most popular in the fall, especially around Halloween.
Speaker 1: October thirty is National Candy Corn Day. However, candy corn
Speaker 1: didn't become associated with Halloween until after World War Two,
Speaker 1: when trigger treating became popular. Candy corn has been around
Speaker 1: for more than a century. One George Renninger of the
Speaker 1: Wonderly Candy Company, probably invented it in the eighteen eighties,
Speaker 1: perhaps because its look was reminiscent of farm life. It
Speaker 1: caught on with city folk nostalgic for a rural past,
Speaker 1: and its tricolored look was revolutionary for the candy industry
Speaker 1: at the time. The Goltz Candy Company started making candy
Speaker 1: corn in Ndred and still makes it today under the
Speaker 1: Jellybelly Candy Company name. The recipe for candy corn hasn't
Speaker 1: changed that much since the late eighteen hundreds, but the
Speaker 1: way it's made has changed quite a bit. In the
Speaker 1: early day is workers mixed the main ingredients sugar, water
Speaker 1: and corn syrup in large kettles. Then they added fondant,
Speaker 1: which is a sweet, creamy icing also made from sugar,
Speaker 1: corn syrup and water, and marshmallow for smoothness. They then
Speaker 1: poured the mixture into kernel shaped mold in corn starch trays.
Speaker 1: They had to do this in three passes, walking backward,
Speaker 1: one pass for each color. Because the work was so tedious,
Speaker 1: candy corn was only available from August to November. Today,
Speaker 1: machines do the work and marshmallow has been replaced with
Speaker 1: one of its key ingredients. Gelatin. Manufacturers use a corn
Speaker 1: starch molding process to create the signature design, so it's
Speaker 1: a molded candy. The molds are made by packing corn
Speaker 1: starch into frames and then stamping the kernel shape into
Speaker 1: the corn starch tip down, or a plastic mold can
Speaker 1: be coated with a fine layer of corn starch. Either way,
Speaker 1: pumps and jet the batter into the molds, layer by layer,
Speaker 1: starting with the white tip, and the candies are left
Speaker 1: to cure for a day or two. Another machine will
Speaker 1: then shake the hardened candies out of the corn starch
Speaker 1: molds and down through shoots. Any excess corn starts shakes
Speaker 1: loose in a big sifter. Then the candy corn gets
Speaker 1: a wax glaze to make it shine, and workers package
Speaker 1: it for shipment to stores. The whole process takes three
Speaker 1: or four days. Today's episode was written by Stephanie Watson
Speaker 1: and Katherine Whitburn and produced by Tyler Clay. Brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeart Radios How Stuff Works. For
Speaker 1: more about candy corn, check out an episode of my
Speaker 1: other show Sabor called The Scorn of Candy Corn. It's
Speaker 1: from November. And for more on lots of other sweet topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff works dot com and
Speaker 1: and for more podcast in my heart Radio, visit the
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.