October 31st, is a prominent American children’s festival day. On Halloween, children dress up as monsters or ghosts and go house to house shouting, “trick or treat(give us sweets, or we’ll play a trick on you),” to collect candies and chocolates. This festival has become a global celebration where people enjoy cosplaying and delicious feasts. So, what kind of food do people enjoy on Halloween, and what interesting history lies behind the treats children receive? We introduce some fascinating stories and helpful information about Halloween-related food.
Haribo, which can be purchased with acorns
Haribo jelly boasts a chewy and sweet taste. Among them, Haribo jelly is very popular. But there are some unique features of Haribo. Firstly, Haribo products have different characteristics depending on the country they’re sold in. This is because the recipes and ingredients used to make them differ, resulting in different flavors. Secondly, Haribo can be purchased with acorns. This tradition dates back to the 1930s when Haribo founder Hans Riegel allowed acorns to be exchanged for jelly at the Haribo factory. Thirdly, Haribo contains gelatin made from pigs. However, it is said that they are now made without gelatin. This is because the main target customers are vegetarians and Muslims who do not eat pork.
Chocolate-flavored gum can’t be made because it melts
One of the treats received on Halloween is chocolate. But why isn’t there a “chocolate flavored gum”? The gum contains a gum base and flavoring. The base refers to substances like vinyl acetate and ester gum. When you chew gum, the sugar and flavor dissolve in your saliva and disappear, but the gum base does not dissolve and remains. In other words, when polar and non-polar substances meet, they do not dissolve. Saliva is a polar substance, and the gum base is a non-polar substance.
Chocolate is made by extracting cocoa mass from the fruit of the cocoa tree and mixing it with sugar and milk. Cocoa butter, solidified fat extracted from cocoa mass, is a non-polar substance made by solidifying fat. Since gum and chocolate are non-polar substances, they cannot be easily combined, making it challenging to create chocolate-flavored gum.
The first space candy, Chupa Chups
Candy is also one of the treats received on Halloween. The brand that comes to mind when we think of candy is Chupa Chups. The person who created Chupa Chups is Enric Bernat. Enric invented the first stick candy, GOL, by sticking a wooden stick into a candy. He wanted to grow it into a global brand like Coca-Cola, so he asked an advertising agency for a brand name. The brand name Chupa Chups was derived from the Spanish word chupar, which means to lick or to suck.
Enric also made the lollipop more hygienic by renewing it with a plastic stick and making a hole so children could safely eat the candy. To expand his target audience to adults, Enric successfully marketed the candy with the slogan ‘Smoke Chupa Chups’ as a candy to eat instead of smoking. Later, Russian astronauts took Chupa Chups to the space station, making it the first space candy.
Thanks to seasoned chicken, we could become a chicken god
Chicken is one of the representative foods of Halloween. Chicken is one of the foods that is very popular in our country. White farmers enjoyed roasting chicken in the oven, preferring the breast and leg parts. At that time, the farm owners left the neck wings, which are parts with many bones, to the enslaved Black people. The origin of chicken is frying the remaining parts in oil.
In Korea, the production of chicken and oil began in earnest in the 1970s, and whole chicken appeared. Although chicken shop brands began to appear one after another, some people did not like fried chicken because it was greasy and tough. A seasoned chicken that satisfies these complaints and fits the taste of Koreans was developed and with the continuous production of chicken brands like Kyochon Chicken, chicken has become the ‘soul food’ of Koreans.
Pumpkin Soup Recipe
Halloween’s representative pumpkin character, Jack O’Lantern. You can make a delicious soup with pumpkin.
1. Clean the pumpkin, put it in a bag, and microwave it for 4-5 minutes.
2. Then, put butter in a deep frying pan and melt it over medium heat so it doesn’t burn.
3. When more than half of the butter has melted, add flour and stir it so that it doesn’t change color, then gradually add milk. If the milk and flour are well mixed, add flower salt and stir well to prevent the bottom from sticking, and boil it.
4. For the pumpkin, cut about 1/4~1/5 of it to make a lid, remove the pumpkin seeds, and put it in a bowl.
5. Pour the soup into the pumpkin until it’s 70% full, add mozzarella cheese, and cover it with the pumpkin lid.
6. Microwave it for about 4 more minutes to melt the cheese and soften the pumpkin to finish.
7. You can sprinkle parsley powder according to your preference, or you can crush and eat crackers.
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