50 Fun Facts About Halloween Food

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

Confectioners aimed nature-shaped butter creams at a largely rural America; the Wunderle Candy Company made it first in 1888.

Which company is the largest candy corn maker, at roughly seven thousand million pieces a year?

It holds roughly 85 percent of the candy-corn market each Halloween season.

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

The wide yellow end is meant to look like a kernel on the cob.

Which company, now called Jelly Belly, began making candy corn in 1898?

It still makes candy corn today, though a rival dominates the market.

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

The recipients promised to pray for the souls of the givers' dead relatives; the custom survived in England until the 1930s.

In which country does the soul-cake custom continue as Pão-por-Deus?

In the Philippines the same practice on All Hallows' Eve is called Pangangaluwa.

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

Its Irish name means "speckled loaf", after the raisins, and finding the charm is meant to foretell marriage.

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

The other objects had their own meanings; a coin meant wealth and a pea meant no wedding.

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?

In Ireland and Newfoundland, "Snap Apple Night" is another name for Halloween itself.

Why do the apples float in the bobbing tub?

Players must use only their teeth, and hands are often tied behind the back to stop cheating.

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

He was experimenting with red cinnamon candy for Christmas, dipped some apples and sold the first batch at 5 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.

Hunter's Candy began selling caramel apples in 1936 in a town in which US state?

Rolling them in chopped toppings turns them into taffy apples; tart Granny Smiths are the classic choice.

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

Documented cases are extremely rare relative to the reporting and never caused serious injury, but the fear stuck.

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

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?

Contestants must bite them without using their hands, with predictably messy results.

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?

Giant pumpkins are varieties of Cucurbita maxima; ordinary carving pumpkins weigh 6 to 18 pounds.

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

They flavour Mexican mole as pipián and a Yucatán salsa called sikil pak.

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

Despite the name, the mix contains no pumpkin at all; allspice is sometimes added.

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

By 2016 pumpkin-spice products were worth about $500 million a year.

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

It used 2,796 eggs and 109 gallons of evaporated milk at the New Bremen Pumpkinfest.

Why did the Truman administration discourage pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving in 1947?

The voluntary campaign aimed to free up food for foreign aid after the war.

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

A baked teardrop often represents the goddess Chīmalmā's tears, and the domed top is said to stand for a grave.

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

They were originally gifts for children to eat, and the name of the deceased is often piped across the forehead.

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

The practice spread from the United States and Canada and mixes with Day of the Dead customs.

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

Boo Berry followed in 1972 as the first blueberry-flavoured cereal, and Carmella Creeper joined the line in 2023.

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

An indigestible pigment was to blame, and the recipe was reformulated.

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

It vanished from shelves by 1982 but has since been revived under a new spelling.

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

H. B. Reese had run the company's dairy barn; his brand became America's best seller.

Under what official name did H. B. Reese first sell his peanut-butter confections in the 1920s?

They cost one cent each and quickly became the company's most popular product.

According to the National Retail Federation, Americans were projected to spend how much on Halloween in 2023?

That was up from $10.6 billion the year before, and hundreds of millions of it goes on pet costumes.

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 colours are traditionally used to decorate Halloween party foods such as cakes?

Popular motifs include pumpkins, spiders and body parts.

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

In Scotland the door-to-door custom is called guising, after the disguises the children wear.

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

Souling survives in Sheffield and parts of Cheshire to this day.

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

It was found in England, Wales, Flanders, Bavaria and Austria.

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

It is made with scallions, butter and milk.

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

Other items included a pea, a stick and a piece of cloth, each with its own prediction.

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

The Wampanoag may have used it when introducing the squash to the Plymouth colonists.

Which apple variety is considered ideal for candy-coated apples in Australia?

Humid weather is the enemy of a good coating, since the sugar will not harden.

Guinness record-holder Molly Schuyler ate how many slices of pumpkin pie in 10 minutes?

She beat her own previous mark of 48 slices.

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

The day before Halloween is National Candy Corn Day, according to the National Confectioners Association.

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 chocolate-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.

In which city were toffee apples originally sold in the 1890s?

Toffee apples were first sold in London in the 1890s, before William Kolb's red candy apple appeared in Newark in 1908.

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.