h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Does anyone know how they make Cheezels? (Or any similar cheese-flavoured corn-snack from your own country.)

I just wouldn't know where to start....

So you're the one who buys them! Are you sure you want to know what goes in them?

Yeah, I think I'm the one who keeps the Cheezel market in existence...

And I don't want to know what goes IN them - I can read that from the side of the packet. All sorts of stuff like Emulsifier 279 and Gluterol 347 I suspect. What I want to know is HOW they make them - are they heated? Cooled? Baked? Fried? Cut from long thin tubes? It just struck me the other day that if someone said to me "Make cheezels or I will kill you" then I would be in serious trouble.

Cheezles are an extruded snack food. They take coarse corn flour (polenta or something like it) and make it into a dough with water. This mix is then run through an extruder. Extrusion technology was invented as a way of shaping plastic but the technology is now used extensively in the food industry. Basically, in an extruder, the dough is put through a series of screws which "work" the dough. The energy from this process cooks the dough (or if you want to get technical, gelatinises the starch). Once the dough has passed through the screws it is in a very high pressure environment. It is then forced through a die. The die provides the dough with shape. As the dough is forced through the die into the air two things happen. First, the change in pressure casues the dough to expand as the water in the dough is changed to steam. The steam escapes from the dough and you are left with a low moisture crunchy material. Secondly, the expanded dough is cut into bite sized pieces. At the end of the extrusion process, you have a something that looks like a cheezle but has no flavour. This type of extrusion is called direct expansion extrusion.

The second part of the process is to deep fry the base product and then to coat it in cheese flavouring. The flavouring contains stuff like cheese powder, antioxidants, anticaking agents, emulsifyers etc. Other snack foods made this way are Twisties, Burger Rings, Cheetos etc

Heaps of foods are made using extruder technology. Dry pet food and breakfast cereal to name a few.... but that is another story

You are a legend.

(PS - how much does an extruder cost?)

Not too sure. You could probably pick up a second hand one for less than $10000 ($AUS).

These are industrial machines and not really suitable for the kitchen. However, it would be quite easy to set one up in a garage and start cranking out the snackfood.

I'm assuming that the so called Cheezels are some odd American snack that has never been heard of anywhere else in the galaxy. For the benefit of the human race therefore, would somebody mind explaining just what they are? And I don't mean -what- they are, I mean *what* they are.

Thanks

They are like Cheetohs (USA) or Cheesey Wotsits (UK). Wonder what they will choose as the global name for these - Cheezil Wotohs?

Ahhh you spelled Cheetos wrong!!!! There are only 2 ee's and one 'h' in cheetos, no matter how grammatically wrong it is!!! AHHHHH!!!

And Redhotcheetos are just that- ONE WORD!!! Redhotcheetos.

I'm sorry.

And what the- Cheezles are from the US? I've never heard of a Cheezle in my *life*!!!

Sorry again.

UM, I'm American, and I have *never* hears of Cheezles. Nither have my family of the friend that I have here with me. I thought they come from Europe.

God loves America, and if America doesn't have Cheezles or Cheezels, then, by God, America shall have Cheezles (or Cheezels)!

I shall, right this minute, buy a second hand plastic extrusion machine and start churning out Cheezles (jingle: "You'll be puzzled by the plasticky taste of Cheelzes"). Somebody help me incorporate...

Really? WOW! But...erm... if you make them, they wouldn't really be cheezles, would they? They'd be maheshvv-els. And can't those machines run a bit steep? Can't you just send over a package of the store kind to, say, a PO box?

Hey I think you lot have just found the answer to the problem of where to get food from in the event of a nuclear war. Seeing as you can get these Cheezels, or Cheezles or what ever the hell you want to call them, by mixing any old crap together stick it into an extrusion thingies make sure it looks and tastes more like food than plastic - although you wouldn't need to spend much time on this, present manufacturers obviously haven't - and Bob's you radiation poisoned Uncle you sorted for the next couple of nuclear winters.

Um..resurrecting the oldest askh2g2 thread..and this is relevent because um...I Sure do have a yen for Cool Ranch Doritos!

And while I'm at it, some root beer and red vine licorice.
Mmmmmm...root beeeeer