Snackmasters is a brilliant new food series to Channel 4 which combines the lovable Fred Sirieix and the hilarious Jayde Adams.
The First Dates Maître d’hôtel and female comedian bring us a unique culinary TV programme that combines competition and a whole load of interesting facts.
The show takes a look at the UK’s favourite snacks and how they’re made. And to top it off, each week two of Britain’s best chefs have to compete to recreate the snack as best they can.
Episode 2 of Snackmasters saw the chefs tackle a late 70’s snack. They had to rustle up a humble bag of pickled onion flavour Monster Munch!
Is Monster Munch made of corn on the cob?
Within the first 10 minutes of the show it was revealed that onion powder and flavour enhancers are part of what makes pickled onion flavour Monster Munch.
But, it’s ground maize that makes up the basis of Monster Munch crisps. And this is the same stuff as corn on the cob!
Comedian and snack taster and tester Jayde Adams went to the crisp factory during episode 2 and found out that over two-thirds of the Monster Munch mixture is ground maize.
- SEE ALSO: Meet comedian Jayde Adams – the Snackmasters host has a famous boyfriend!
Monster Munch’s chemical makeup
It turned out that there are some ingredients in the Monster Munch that aren’t that easy to come by.
Recreating this snack was harder than imagined as the crisps contain Monosodium Glutamate and Disodium 5′-Ribonucleotide.
The two competing chefs on Snackmasters had their work cut out when it came to sourcing the chemical flavour enhancers required.
The pickled onion crisps aren’t just cooked
Believe it or not, the Monster Munch cooking process is far from simple. They’re dehydrated and then passed through an oven.
On Jayde’s tour of the Monster Munch factory, she discovered it takes just ten seconds to turn the Monster Munch maize and water mixture into the crisps that we all eat.
This was a process named ‘extrusion’ – which is just one of the many steps of creating Monster Munch.
- SEE ALSO: Meet Matt Worswick – Snackmasters chef tasked with a monster challenge!
What makes up the Monster Munch seasoning?
According to crisp factory expert Fiona, the special seasoning can’t be revealed.
Jayde said: “Me and the viewers will need to know what is the special seasoning?”
Quality Manager Fiona said: “The seasoning is made up of a powder which is then mixed in our mixing tank with a small amount of oil which is then applied to the base product.”
We may never know the secret seasoning recipe. But UK snackers consume 142 million bags of pickled onion flavour monster Munch a year!
WATCH SNACKMASTERS EVERY TUESDAY AT 9:15 PM ON CHANNEL 4 FROM OCTOBER 1ST 2019.
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