50 Fun Facts About Halloween Food

What was candy corn originally called when it went on sale in the 1880s?

Chicken Feed: the kernel-shaped butter creams were first sold under that name with a rooster on the box, pitched to a largely rural, farming America.

Which company makes the most candy corn, around seven billion pieces a year?

Brach's, part of Ferrara since 2012, makes about seven billion pieces of candy corn a year, roughly 85 percent of the US market.

Candy corn's yellow, orange and white bands are usually said to stand for what?

The fall harvest: the yellow, orange and white bands and the tapered shape imitate a kernel of corn, so the candy has long been sold as a harvest-season treat.

Which company, renamed Jelly Belly in 2001, began making candy corn in 1898?

Goelitz Confectionery began producing candy corn in 1898 and was renamed the Jelly Belly Candy Company in 2001.

What are the spiced treats handed to door-to-door singers at Allhallowtide, ancestor of trick-or-treating, called?

Soul cakes: the 'soulers' who received them promised to pray for the givers' dead relatives, and the custom lingered in parts of England until the 1930s.

In which country did children ask door to door for 'bread for God' at Allhallowtide?

Portugal: Pão-por-Deus, 'bread for God', sees Portuguese children collect cakes, sweets and nuts door to door on All Saints' Day; the Philippines has a similar custom, Pangangaluwa.

What is the traditional Irish Halloween fruit bread with charms baked inside called?

Barmbrack, from the Irish bairín breac or 'speckled loaf', is studded with raisins and sultanas; the charms baked inside foretell the finder's year ahead.

In the Irish fortune-telling loaf, finding which object meant you would marry within the year?

A ring foretold marriage within the year; the pea meant no wedding, the stick an unhappy marriage, the cloth poverty, and the coin wealth.

Colcannon, another Irish dish in which Halloween charms were hidden, is mashed potato mixed with what?

Its Irish name means "white-headed cabbage", and it is also eaten on Saint Patrick's Day.

In Scotland, bobbing for apples is known by what name?

Dooking, the Scots word for ducking, has players lift apples from a tub of water with their teeth; Scottish children call the game 'dookin' for apples'.

Why do the apples float in the bobbing tub?

They are less dense than water: roughly a quarter of an apple's volume is air trapped in its flesh, so it floats, which makes it perfect for the game.

Which Newark candy-maker is credited with inventing the red candy apple in 1908?

William W. Kolb, a Newark confectioner, was experimenting with red cinnamon candy for Christmas in 1908 when he dipped apples in it and sold them for five cents each.

What is the Commonwealth English name for the whole fruit dipped in a hard red sugar coating on a stick?

They were first sold in London in the 1890s; caramel apples are made by a distinctly different process.

Botanically, what kind of fruit is a pumpkin?

A berry: botanists class pumpkins and other squashes as pepos, berries with a hard rind, which makes the pumpkin a fruit rather than a vegetable.

Candy apples stopped being handed out to trick-or-treaters largely because of rumours about what?

Razor blades hidden inside: from the late 1960s reports of blades and pins in Halloween apples spread, though sociologist Joel Best found nearly all were hoaxes or caused only minor injury.

Bonfire toffee, eaten at Halloween and Guy Fawkes Night in Britain, gets its strong flavour from what?

Black treacle, boiled with sugar and butter, gives bonfire toffee its dark colour and bitter flavour; in Scotland it is called claggum and in Wales loshin du.

In Scotland, what sticky treat is strung from the ceiling alongside the apple-bobbing tub at Halloween?

Treacle scones, coated in sticky treacle and hung by string, must be eaten without hands, a Scottish Halloween game played beside the apple tub.

Before pumpkins, jack-o'-lanterns in Ireland and Britain were carved from which vegetable?

Mangelwurzels and rutabagas were also hollowed out; Scottish guisers in 1895 carried scooped-out turnip lanterns door to door.

How much did the record-setting heaviest pumpkin of October 2023 weigh?

2,749 lb: Travis Gienger's pumpkin, weighed at Half Moon Bay, California, in October 2023, set the world record; giant pumpkins are varieties of Cucurbita maxima.

Roasted pumpkin seeds are known by what Spanish-derived name?

Pepitas, from the Spanish for 'little seed', are hulled pumpkin seeds; ground, they thicken Mexican pipián sauce and the Yucatán dip sikil pak.

Pumpkin pie spice is generally a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and which other spice?

Cloves round out the classic blend with cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger; allspice is sometimes added, and the mix contains no pumpkin at all.

Which coffee chain launched the pumpkin spice latte nationally in autumn 2004?

Starbucks tested the Pumpkin Spice Latte in Vancouver and Washington, D.C. in 2003 and rolled it out across the United States in autumn 2004.

The world's largest pumpkin pie, weighing well over a ton and a half, was baked in 2010 in which state?

Ohio: the 3,699-pound pie, 20 feet across, was baked at the New Bremen Pumpkinfest in September 2010 using 2,796 eggs and 109 gallons of evaporated milk.

In old Halloween nut-burning divination, each pair of nuts on the fire stood for whom?

A courting couple: in Burns's 1785 poem 'Halloween', nuts named for two sweethearts are set on the fire; if they burn quietly side by side, the pair will marry.

Pan de muerto, baked in Mexico for the Day of the Dead, is usually decorated with dough shaped like what?

Bones: strips of dough laid across the round loaf represent bones, the central knob a teardrop, and the loaf is dusted with sugar and scented with orange blossom.

Mexican sugar skulls made in moulds for the Day of the Dead are known as what?

Alfeñiques: moulded from a sugar paste of that name, the skulls are decorated with coloured icing and foil and often carry a name piped across the forehead.

In parts of Mexico, children ask '¿Me da mi calaverita?' — can you give me my little what?

Skull: 'calaverita' means little skull, and children who ask for one on Day of the Dead are given sweets, fruit or coins, a custom that merged with American trick-or-treating.

Which General Mills breakfast cereals, launched in 1971, return to shelves every Halloween season?

Count Chocula and Franken Berry launched together in 1971; Boo Berry followed in 1973, and Carmella Creeper, a zombie, joined the line in 2023.

An early Franken Berry recipe had which alarming side effect in 1972?

It turned children's stool pink: the red dye passed through the gut unabsorbed, a 1972 Pediatrics report dubbed it 'Franken Berry stool', and General Mills reformulated the cereal.

Which discontinued monster cereal turns up as a visual Easter egg in Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs?

Fruit Brute, discontinued in 1982, was a Tarantino favourite, seen in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction; it returned in 2022 respelled Frute Brute.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were created in 1928 by a former employee of which chocolate magnate?

Milton S. Hershey: H. B. Reese had worked on Hershey's dairy farm before founding his own candy company in 1923; Hershey bought the Reese company in 1963.

By what name were H. B. Reese's peanut butter cups first sold in the late 1920s?

Penny Cups: Reese's peanut butter cups sold for a cent apiece from 1928, and the cups soon outsold everything else his Hershey, Pennsylvania company made.

Italy's All Souls' Day almond biscuits, fave dei morti, are named after which food?

Broad beans: fave dei morti, 'beans of the dead', are small almond biscuits baked for All Souls' Day, recalling the ancient Roman belief that beans held the souls of the dead.

Which foods were traditionally used in the divination games of Halloween in Ireland and Britain?

Two hazelnuts roasted by the fire, one named for each sweetheart, foretold whether the match would last.

In an old Halloween charm, an apple peel thrown over the shoulder revealed what?

The peel was believed to land in the shape of the first letter of the future partner's name.

Which two colours are traditionally associated with Halloween decorations and party food?

Black and orange: orange recalls pumpkins and the autumn harvest, black the darkness and death of the season, and the pair dominates Halloween sweets, cakes and decorations.

In Ireland, what phrase did trick-or-treating children traditionally call out until the 2000s?

'Help the Halloween Party': Irish children called it at each door while collecting fruit, nuts and sweets, before the American 'trick or treat' took over in the 2000s.

Northern England's Allhallowtide 'harcakes' were a thin version of which oatmeal ginger cake?

Parkin, the sticky oatmeal and ginger cake of Yorkshire and Lancashire, was baked thin as 'harcakes' for Allhallowtide; it is also the classic Bonfire Night cake in the north of England.

From at least which era does the Allhallowtide custom of sharing spiced cakes with the poor date?

The 1400s: the practice is recorded from at least the 15th century in England, Wales, Flanders, Bavaria and Austria, with beggars and children receiving the cakes in return for prayers for the dead.

Which colcannon-like Irish dish was left in a spoon under a hawthorn tree for the fairies?

Champ, mashed potato beaten with scallions, butter and hot milk, is a Northern Irish staple; a spoonful was left under the hawthorn tree as an offering to the fairies.

In the Irish fortune-telling loaf, the small coin was traditionally which specific piece?

A silver sixpence was the traditional coin, foretelling wealth; the pea, stick, cloth and ring each carried their own prediction.

The word "pumpkin" may come from a Massachusett word meaning what?

Grows forth round: the Massachusett word pôhpukun is one proposed root, alongside the Greek pepon, 'large melon', which became the English 'pumpion'.

Which apple variety, often used for candy apples, was first grown near Sydney in 1868?

Granny Smith: the tart green apple was first grown by Maria Ann 'Granny' Smith at Eastwood near Sydney in 1868, and its firm flesh suits a hard candy shell.

Which thick Mexican drink of corn masa and chocolate is served warm on Día de Muertos?

Champurrado: a thick atole of corn masa, chocolate, piloncillo and cinnamon, it is served warm with pan de muerto on Día de Muertos and at Christmas posadas.

On which date does the National Confectioners Association mark National Candy Corn Day?

October 30, the day before Halloween, is National Candy Corn Day, a date promoted by the National Confectioners Association, the US candy industry's trade body.

Which employee of the Wunderle Candy Company is credited with inventing candy corn in the 1880s?

George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company invented candy corn; Wunderle first produced it in 1888.

What ingredient gives the Thanksgiving-season 'harvest corn' variant its brown wide end?

Harvest corn adds cocoa powder, giving a brown wide end, orange centre and white tip.

The confectioner's glaze that gives candy corn its shine is made from lac resin, a secretion of what?

Confectioner's glaze is made from lac resin, which is secreted by lac bugs — the same source as shellac.

Which US state grows more pumpkins than any other, most of them for canning?

Illinois grows more pumpkins than any other state, most of them processing varieties canned at Libby's plant in Morton, the self-styled Pumpkin Capital of the World.

In France, toffee apples go by the name pommes d'amour, meaning apples of what?

Pommes d'amour, 'apples of love', are a common festival treat in France; Brazil uses the same name, maçã do amor.