It's National Candy Corn Day

Candy Corn was invented by George Renninger, an employee of the Wunderle Candy Company.  He was born December 14, 1856 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of John Renninger from Germany and Johanna Kimmerle of Ireland.   He married Sarah Lunney of Irish descent. They had eight children.  George died September 28, 1944 of lung cancer.

      His recipe was bought by The Goelitz Confectionery Company, now called Jelly Belly Candy. The recipe for candy corn was simple: sugar, corn syrup, water, and other ingredients were put into massive kettles that could hold up to 45lbs of the mixture. It was cooked into slurry and, once well blended, marshmallow and fondant were added to the kettles. This served to smooth out the texture and make the candy soft to the bite. The mixture was poured into buckets called “runners” and workers called “stringers” would walk backwards while they poured the mixture into large kernel-shaped, cornstarch molds. The workers passed over with the buckets three times, each time with a different color: white, orange, and yellow. Fun fact: candy corn is made from bottom to top. The yellow bit is the top and the white is the bottom.