37 ingredients Twinkie eaters ingest

Dwight Eschliman Photography

Oh, Twinkie snack cake. As a nation, we’ve adored you for 80 years. But what are you made of?

Author Steve Ettlinger spent years unearthing the answers to that very question. Using a Twinkie label as a guide, he interviewed chemical engineers and industrial bakers and even traveled 1,600 feet below the surface of the Earth to see where Twinkie ingredients — the same ingredients used in plenty of processed foods — are, ummmm, mined. He chronicled his findings in his fun-to-read book, “Twinkie, Deconstructed.”

The book inspired photographer Dwight Eschliman to photograph the 37 or so ingredients in a Twinkie snack cake. Eschliman’s photos can be seen here, with each ingredient appearing in descending order of prominence. (A few Twinkie ingredients such as calcium sulfate, a food-grade equivalent of plaster of Paris, are not pictured.) Just click “Next” at the left to continue the journey into snack-cake science.

To read the full story about Ettlinger’s and Eschliman’s work, click here.