Short Stuff: Candy Corn | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here. too and Dave's here in spirit which is. appropriate because this is a kind of a. Halloween themed episode of short stuff. is it not Chuck it's. spoopy spoopy spoopy is that what you. said for real yeah are you gonna do this. bit every. year I don't remember you saying it so. yes as long as I forget the next day. yeah yes every year I'm going to do.

this spoopy SP p o o p y is a. light-hearted. spooky okay is that your own trademark. slogan no look it up okay I will look it. up I'll actually I'll forget all about. it and won't look it up and then next. year I'll agree to look it up again now. we should all pause let you look it up. okay since this is short stuff we'll. just let the tape roll all right all.

right oh look there it is yep you're. right. spoopy no I didn't make it up it's a. thing okay you know what else is a thing. Chuck candy corn candy corn that's right. it is a thing it's one of the most. divisive candies it's probably the most. divisive holiday candy of all time where. do you land oh I don't like it at all. okay do you like. it I mean there's a bit of a a Nostalgia.

play um I don't I I definitely can't say. that I I think it's like oh boy this. tastes great I can't wait to eat it. right but like if someone throws a candy. corn in my mouth and I happen to be. chewing I'll be like oh that old that. old memory but I don't go I gotta we. need to get one of those House Divided. license plates right sure so candy corn. um is actually super old we know it's at. least coming up on 150 years old they.

think it came out in the 1880s and by. the way thanks big time to uh. history.com Better Homes and Gardens. always a treat.com. um MB henry.com and candystore.com a lot. of Dooms in there but um one of the uh. one of the things about candy corn is. it's it's Origins are murky so people. just generally say yeah this guy's the. inventor yeah exactly uh I mean are we.

going to that guy. um no let's talk about where it came. from originally we think yeah because. previous to the actual corn they were. making these kinds of candies and that's. not to say the ones that were shaped. that way and colored that way but we're. talking about mellow cream yeah you know. those candy pumpkins yeah that's mellow. cream right exactly that to me is Quint. essential mow cream even more than candy. corn yeah and apparently they used to. make all sorts of phony vegetables made.

out of that junk because Americans were. still farming and they could you know if. you had a little uh seven-year-old you. could be like you got to work in the. field all day when you come home you're. going to get this mellow cream asparagus. tip or mellow cream Bach Choy yeah oh. boy you would think these little kids. who are being forced into child labor. the last thing they would want to see in. their candy were agricultural products. but apparently that's all they had to. choose from the other thing to about.

this this context that candy corn. emerged from is that um these candies. were available year round mhm um and the. thing that made candy corn Stand Out. Among its peers is that it had three. colors technically two colors and the. presence of all. color yeah I like that I like the way. you put it so let's talk about the guy. who actually um is credited with. inventing this probably is who cares at.

this point he's been credited for so. long it doesn't really matter yeah and. he's from Philadelphia and they like to. take credit for everything so uh we're. talking about George uh reninger is how. I would pronounce it or reninger maybe. and he worked at the. wonderly candy company in Philly the. Brotherly Love City yeah and the reason. why he's credited is that he was an. employee there and they are known to be. the first company to start producing. these and I guess he was a candy.

designer there um so wonderly candy. company was the first to put these out. they were out for a little while um and. you could like I said they were. available year round all of these things. were and they weren't associated with. Halloween you could find them at just. about any celebration where they had. candy treats MH but the thing to know. about them is they were so you know like. candy cigarettes or little candy people. that you eat or candy things that look. like other stuff mhm that's what C candy. corn was originally meant to to be and.

of course candy corn it's in the name. but we think of it today as like little. kernels of corn that you would like eat. it was originally marketed as candy corn. in the sense that corn was chicken feed. so this was basically candy chicken feed. is how candy corn started out yeah. because apparently and this is something. that I didn't know this to me is the. fact of the show is that uh including a. little bit after World War I but. previous to that and in and a few years.

after apparently corn was kind of like a. like a a a it's not a vegetable it's a. starch right yes it's a it was a garbage. starch like people it wasn't on the. plates of uh most Americans and you had. to have been uh really hard up for food. apparently to eat corn as a human it was. just for chickens exactly so this is. what kids were eating they would go to. the store and get a box of chicken feed. from the goal candy company so this is.

the company that really exposed candy. corn to the world which is I love corn. do you like corn yeah I like corn on the. cob for some reason once you take it off. the cob I think it's. disgusting oh even in like uh a dish. like OTE or like a a salad or something. it depends it it really depends on the. dish but like if it's canned I I mean oh. God I can barely like talk about. it you know the old uh story of when I. was missing that front tooth and I would.

eat corn and that would be little rows. of uneaten corn every like 2 inches that. was a Mad Magazine cover too it was so. um Candy Corn's out there the Genies out. of the bottle as they say kids are. eating this candy chicken feed but then. by like the mid 20th century people ate. corn normally and by the mid 20th. century Halloween was very much. associated with candy I think around. this time is when candy corn really. became linked to hallowen like it would.

be weird to see candy corn at Easter but. that's how I used to be friends yeah but. now it's linked uh starting in the mid. 20th century like you said to Halloween. and we will take a break yeah yeah and. we'll talk about how you make this stuff. right after. [Music]. this.

[Music]. all right uh you went to that website. always treat.com and uh they had a. pretty good story there about how they. used to manufacture this and it's not a. whole lot different than they do it. today obviously it's automated today but. uh back then you would get a bunch of. dudes and they would get sugar and corn.

syrup and some other you know magical. ingredients and they would cook it in. these big kettles and boil it all up. they would add a little marshmallow. maybe a little fondant to smooth it out. a little bit and uh 45. lbs uh at a time they would make this uh. warm slurry and they would pour it into. buckets called Runners and then these. guys called stringers would uh walk. backwards down a line pour this candy.

into these little uh little molds these. little trays in that classic iconic. kernel shape yeah and the trays were. made of corn starch and it would take. three passes and for some reason I don't. understand why the stringers the guys. pouring the Candy Corn slurry into the. mold would walk backwards do. [Music]. you no I don't I was trying to think it. might be easier to pour I mean it was. probably had something to do with this. setup I mean I could understand if.

you're left-handed you're walking. backwards but if you're or if you're. right-handed yeah I think right-handed. you'd be walking backwards if the thing. was on your left there's no explanation. I can find for why they would walk. backwards well they are from Philly so. maybe they were just like we're candy. corn stringers we walk backwards yeah. probably that's know that's that answer. is as good as any but the the whole. thing is they would take three passes. because they would put the white in then. the yellow and then the orange and. that's how it was originally made and.

basically nothing has changed except. like you said it's become automated they. use essentially the same ingredients. which are you ready for this mhm it's um. like you said made with sugar it's made. with fondant which is sugar water and. corn syrup it's made with corn syrup. which is a whole bunch of different. sugars mostly glucose vanilla flavoring. and marshmallow cream which is made from. corn syrup sugar water and eggs there's. a lot of sugar in these things. and they melt them into a slurry all.

those ingredients and they pour them. into corn cornstarch molds just like. they did 100 something years ago yeah. boom boom boom they just layer up the. colors just like that uh more than and. this is according to the National. confectioners Association the NCA says. 35 million pounds of this stuff which. amounts to 9 billion pieces of candy. corn are produced annually in modern. times yes and even and keep in uh. tradition they make the machines work.

backward for some reason when they're. pouring the slurry that's right and are. we done of course not because somehow. you found actual survey statistics on. how popular this stuff was yeah because. there's a thing it's been around for. almost 150 years for a reason and the. reason is there are some people out. there who actually like candy. corn yeah I know it's weird it's a weird. thing to say but it's true so much so. that the National Retail Federation a.

font of um statistics that have to do. with shopping purchasing and consumerism. in general said that in 2019 95% of. people who shopped for Halloween stuff. bought candy corn 95 not one of them I. wasn't either we're in that weird 5% but. I can't believe it the thing is is I. don't think all those people are are. eating candy corn necessarily no and it. turns out if you go on to uh crafty. websites there are all kinds of uh fun.

little crafts you can do with candy corn. because it is a you know the color. itself lends itself to uh sort of fall. feelings and fall crafts so you can do. all kinds of stuff basically you can hot. glue it on whatever you want to. basically yeah I saw a cute one um I. can't remember where but if you spike a. pumpkin you can make a little um candy. corn pumpkin Hedgehog a that's cute. that's adorable okay so um I found some. more stats too chuck all right let's.

hear it like oh I don't know where is it. popular yeah candystore.com looked over. 16 years of their shipping data that's. amazing to identify the top three. favorite candies for each state and. candy corn was in the top three it was. not the first for any state but it was. in the top three for a bunch of. different states from South Carolina to. Maine to North Dakota to Michigan to New. York and then Nationwide it was number. eight that's amazing and we should thank. Leslie the temp at candystore.com that.

month who they tasked with with doing. this right for sure po Leslie uh yeah. poor Leslie that's all right it probably. wasn't a bad job all right uh they also. did a poll and I think Leslie was in. charge of this too because did they pull. 3,000 people. 3247 did they pour did they pull 3500. no I guess they pulled everyone that. they had their email contact for uh. which was like you said. 3,247 and they said that uh do you like.

it do you hate it why and Nostalgia. which is what I mentioned that was one. of the big reasons why people get this. stuff it's something they had when they. were a kid that they might have liked. the taste of when they were a kid and. then as adults they'll say well you know. I gotta I got to be in that false spirit. and let's let's grab a bag yeah and then. um sweetness was another one for people. who like candy corn and then conversely. sweetness was a big reason people don't. like candy corn yeah one of the.

respondents said it was like biting into. a sugar cube and that's pretty close to. Accurate there's the waxy texture that. puts some people off including me I. actually don't mind that part I tell you. what though I haven't had one in years. but it's an unforgettable flavor yeah I. I have had it I can bring that flavor to. mind too I just I don't want it again. essentially yeah I'm with you um and. overall though out of the 3247 Americans. they pulled 56% were fans and 44% were.

not so um the there are more people at. least according to that poll who' like. candy corn then don't that's right and. if you thought it couldn't get any. better everybody Leslie drilled down. even further and found out how people. how people eat them uh 51% just pop it. in their mouth and crunch it like it's a. piece of popcorn normal uh. 16% start with the widest bit which is. the yellow bit. and then.

33%. conversely uh flip it over and start at. that little smaller white end M which is. amazing to me that someone actually. takes that tiny of a bite of something. that's small yeah some people like that. tiny little white part as if it tastes. any different right it definitely does. not it shouldn't if it does you might. want to take it back to the store cuz. there's something wrong with your candy. corn yeah this white part tastes good M. you got anything else I got nothing else. well we're getting close to Halloween. everybody which means short stuff is.

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