Don't Dis My Peeps!

It's that time of the year again when store aisles are crammed with brightly colored marshmallow chicks, bunnies and other characters. Peeps have long been an Easter season tradition and Americans consume over 700 million Peeps every spring. So what is so magical about the squishy, sugary treat?

About 60 years ago, a Russian born immigrant chocolate maker named Sam Born perfected Peep production. Sam's candy company,"Just Born" purchased the rights to Peeps from the Rodda Candy Company who had been making the marshmallow squishy treats by hand since the 1920's. In 1953, Sam mechanized Peep production and started producing the Easter season treat en masse. Since then the recipe for traditional yellow Peeps has remained essentially the same: Sugar, Corn Syrup, Gelatin, and minute quantities of Potassium Sorbate (a Preservative), artificial colors, Yellow No. 5 (Tartrazine) and Carnauba Wax. Five little chicks have about 160 calories and 40 grams of carb with 36 grams listed as "sugars." Yummy! However, for the carb conscious there are sugar free Peeps in the ‘hood.

People often ponder Peep persuasions: do you like squishy, fresh Peeps or do you leave them in open air to harden and become stale? Do you eat the head/ears first? If so, what does this mean? What is your favorite Peep color? Back in the day, Peeps were yellow or white, now there are 7 rainbow colors to choose from: pink, blue, purple, yellow, green, orange and white. Yellow is still the most popular color of chicks and bunnies sold in the US. Today, Peeps come in vanilla and strawberry flavors, and for those non traditionalists, there are now chocolate dipped Peeps.

Peeps have been touted as indestructible and were subjected to experiments by Emory University scientists to test their ability to be dissolved, burned and/or disintegrated in stuff like boiling water, liquid nitrogen, cigarette smoke, sodium hydroxide, acetone and sulfuric acid. All left the plunged Peep pollo (that's chicken in Spanish!) intact. The exception was phenol, a potent corrosive chemical that alas, after about an hour, left only the eerie Peep eyes floating on the surface. Creepy! (www.peepresearch.org)

Peeps have been used in flower arrangements, as decorations and dress adornments and even as jewelry. Other Peep perversions include:
Peep pizza topping
Roasted Peeps
Frozen Peeps
S'mores Peeps
And my favorite: microwaved Peeps.

For a "Peep" show, place two Peeps in the microwave with a toothpick in their "hands" and start the microwave. Stand back and watch them duel like two swordsman in a fencing contest until one, or both of them blow up. Juvenile I know, but such a Peep show can entertain a fussy child for a few minutes. Beware though, exploding Peeps can result in a microwave clean up that rivals that of a CSI crime scene.

Like them or not, Peeps are here to stay. The Peeps Facebook page has hundreds of fans and the company website features Peep oriented recipes and a store for all things Peep. So this season, you may want to chill with your Peeps.