If you've ever looked at the ingredients list on a Twinkie and wondered what calcium caseinate and sodium acid pyrophosphate actually look like, check out photographer Dwight Eschliman's 37 or So Ingredients.
Are these the components of a familiar yellow snack cake or a chemistry experiment?
The photographs capture each ingredient on a clear lab plate, which makes the collection of mostly white powders seem even less like food. Eschliman says he has an obsession with deconstructing objects into their component parts, and processed food products are of particular interest, since his health-conscious mom didn't let him eat them while he was growing up.
So this project is "the product of a kid that was raised to be suspicious of foods that weren't assembled in mom's kitchen, and bordering on obsessive compulsive." We just call it fascinating.
• Check it out: 37 or So Ingredients - Dwight Eschliman
Via food52.
Related: Video: Jell-O Bouncing in Super-Slow Motion
(Images: Dwight Eschliman)
Soda Recipe: Homemade Ginger Ale
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
TW Salt Mill by Wil...
Which Wall Color Gives the Best Sleep?
Ana Creates a Community at Home
gross, yes. but also fascinating that those things can be turned into a totally delicious twinkie.
Fascination indeed! What a great series of photographs.
To the first comment, if you really think about it, it's not as gross as it seems. The first several ingredients after wheat flour are the B vitamins and minerals that the FDA requires all big food companies to include in processed foods. And also, it's a baked good, so most of it is going to be a liquid, powder or translucent solid (shortnenings).
It is disheartening that most there are so many baking agents, texturizers, preservatives and sugars added to this. Then again, it is a processed food, so what else would anyone expect?
Anyway, I've never been fond of twinkies--toxicly sweet for my taste.
But again, this series is fantastic! He should do more of these.
All baking is a chemistry experiment.
It would be more useful if each photo showed the amount of each ingredient in a Twinkie.
I would also be interested to see all the ingredients representing the exact amount in a single Twinkie and arranged in the same shot so we can see what proportions of each ingredient comprise a Twinkie. These photographs are conceptually interesting but this series of powders and a few liquids could better contextualize what we get in a Twinkie if each ingredient weren't isolated like they are.
@Anita83 -- Don't tell Denmark that those B vitamins and minerals aren't gross.
Denmark Bans Marmite and Other Vitamin-Fortified Foods
Slow Lorus, I saw that article last week. Then I read the comments and was shocked with how rude Europeans can be. I guess I always thought they were more PC and considerate of generalizations than us Americans.
Anyway, I wasn't defending processed foods or our food policies. I was just stating the facts. Like you said, in their isolated states and when you know what they are, don't look gross. Those photographs are great looking photos. Photographing each ingredient during processing and in a plant would be far more interesting and maybe repulsive.
about 10 years ago when there was a hostess strike the New York Times printed the recipe for twinkies. I have made it a few times and it tastes perfect - without all the additives (except it calls for a box of yellow cake mix).
this is so weird cos i sometimes get that box of 10 single twinkies and have one for breakfast at work. today i found a loose one on my desk and i was SO HAPPY !! they just make me HAPPY.