You Must “cure” Your Gummy Candy
If I have one hurdle as a food writer, it’s my texture issues – my aversion to gelatinous and shaky stuff. They were so bad as a kid that I refused to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (because of the jelly) and didn’t touch gummy bears until I was in my 20s. I also had a traumatic encounter with Jell-O in Pre-K, but we won’t talk about that here.
I’ve mostly gotten over this yeast aversion – I can even eat oysters if they’re small – but I still prefer my jellies to be more chewy and usually leave a bag of Haribo Goldbears open so they can “cure”.
I decided to tweet about it last night and was encouraged by the outpouring of support for this concept. Turns out I’m not the only one doing this; many sweet tooth prefer harder chewing gum. There are hundreds of us. Hundreds.
Drying, or deliberately staling, gummies removes some of the excess moisture, giving the gelatin bear or worm a firmer body with less wrinkling and more chewing and chewing. And I need to chew and chew .
Other chewers use the harder texture more aggressively: some keep their gummies dry on a plate in the refrigerator to take advantage of the cold circulating air, while others store them in the freezer for maximum chewiness.
I treat all my gummies, from twin snakes to bears, sour worms, and even fried eggs. If it has gelatin in it, I’ll cure it. Others, however, are a little more specific. Food critic Ryan Sutton prefers “soft bear” but cures his gummy cola bottles. To be fair, the extra chewy cola bottle is an S-level gum that offers an enhanced chewing experience.
After chewing gum, the second most popular hard candy was Peeps (a practice whose popularity has been previously documented ). I don’t like pips, but it makes sense to me to treat them because pips are too sweet and too soft – too light – fresh out of the package. Their curing hardens the sugar, giving the candy a grainy, not-quite-crispy rind that teeth can break through, as well as enhancing the chewy feeling we all crave.
Cured licorice, including Red Vines, Twizzlers and the like, has also been quite popular for good reason. I’m a big fan of Red Vines because they are naturally stronger, but exposing them outdoors makes them even tougher, giving my mouth something to do .
Perhaps that’s all we’re looking for chew hunters – a more palatable experience in the mouth, a candy for the unindulgent, a snack that offers little resistance. We work for pleasure, we sharpen our jaws, and do not suck on a tasty nipple of soft candy. Or maybe we just really like to chew. Chew fun.