Next year, in 2014, is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’s 50th anniversary. Published back in 1964 by Roald Dahl, this children’s sugar-laced book has been, and continues to be, a must read around the world. As adults we still dream of the wonderful concoctions Wonka made.
So I’ve jumping a little ahead and making the famous three course dinner chewing gum. I figure you may want to throw a party next year. A package of three course dinner chewing gum as a party favor would be pretty cool. You'll find the (free) packaging download available for 'Willy Wonka's 3 Course Dinner Chewing Gum' at the bottom of this post.
I’m also going to be tackling the 40+ other mentions of food in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. My calculations give me an estimate of 3-4 months of smashing this all out. Stick around. This is going to be fun. And exhausting. And possibly very frustrating on my end. I’m expecting at least a handful of big fat fails to get this all spot on. Which should be plenty of amusement for you!
Then suddenly, the machine let out a monstrous mighty groan, and at the same moment a tiny drawer (no bigger than the drawer in a slot machine) popped out of the side of the machine, and in the drawer there lay something so small and thin and grey that everyone thought it must be a mistake. The thing looked like a little strip of grey cardboard.
The children and their parents stared at the little grey strip lying in the drawer.
'You mean that's all?' said Mike Teavee, disgusted.
'That's all,' answered Mr Wonka, gazing proudly at the result. 'Don't you know what it is?'
There was a pause. Then suddenly, Violet Beauregarde, the silly gum-chewing girl, let out a yell of excitement. 'By gum, it's gum!' she shrieked. 'It's a stick of chewing-gum!'
'Right you are!' cried Mr Wonka, slapping Violet hard on the back. 'It's a stick of gum! It's a stick of the most amazing and fabulous and sensational gum in the world!'
This piece of gum I've just made happens to be tomato soup, roast beef, and blueberry pie, but you can have almost anything you want!'
~
'Fabulous!' shouted Violet. 'It's tomato soup! It's hot and creamy and delicious! I can feel it running down my throat!'
'Stop!' said Mr Wonka. 'The gum isn't ready yet! It's not right!'
'Of course it's right!' said Violet. 'It's working beautifully! Oh my, what lovely soup this is!'
'Spit it out!' said Mr Wonka.
'It's changing!' shouted Violet, chewing and grinning both at the same time. 'The second course is coming up! It's roast beef! It's tender and juicy! Oh boy, what a flavour! The baked potato is marvellous, too! It's got a crispy skin and it's all filled with butter inside!'
'Blueberry pie and cream!'
-Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
I was a little wary of making this gum after my 'want-to-hurl' after effect of making Alice in Wonderland's Drink me potion (roast turkey infused in milk= yyyyuuuuck). However with a different approach, we made roast beef gum... and it actually wasn't too bad. I sat there chewing a small bite sized piece for a minute or two while the flavour lasted with no inkling to spit it out.
The whole concept of three courses of dinner in one stick was impossible in my little kitchen (we'll leave that technology to the scientists), so instead we made three different sticks of gum and packaged it up as one. With the right ingredients, this is surprisingly easy.
To
make gum, you're going to need a gum making kit. Yes I'm bolding this up, cuz there's
no way around this one, unless you can get your hands on gum base pellets
separately (which, if you live in the states, you lucky ducks, is completely possible.
Glee gum seems to sell it). So go ahead and buy or order it ahead of time. I bought the Copernicus Bubblegum Kit
You’re also going to need along with the gum base pellets
corn syrup
powdered/icing sugar
wax paper
disposable mixing containers that are ok in microwaves
wooden stirring sticks
Meanwhile, get the flavours together. You’re making blueberry pie, tomato soup and roast beef.
Blueberry pie flavour
I’m going to give you choices. Lots of them.
a) Although the kits come with flavour in powder form (preferable), liquid is ok too. You can buy liquid blueberry flavouring in the cooking section or a beermaking store.
b) You can infuse a ¼ cup of vodka for a week or so with blueberries, or better yet a baked blueberry pie.
c) Combine those ideas. Buy the liquid blueberry flavouring (which should be alcohol based) and pop in some baked pie crust for the liquid to soak up the flavour. If you want to hurry up the process, heat it up on the stove in a small pan. Strain the liquid and discard the pie crust remnants.
Tomato Soup
This one’s easy. You just need the powdered Cup-of-Soup mix in tomato flavour.
Finally, Roast Beef
We’re going to condense roast beef down to a powder. To do this, I went the easy route and bought the store bought slices of roast beef. Turn your oven onto the lowest temperature on grill, and lay out a few slices of roast beef on a baking tray in the oven. Keep an eye on it, but give it an hour or two until the meat is dehydrated. It’ll be crispy and dry in your hands. When you’re sure the moisture is out, break it into rough chunks with your fingers. Take your coffee grinder (or an old one. Or a new one. They’re only $12 in Kmart here), give it a good clean so no coffee taste is left and blend the meat until it’s a fine powder. You don’t want any larger flecks. Either blend until those are gone or pull them out.
Store it into an airtight container until you’re ready to use it. I wouldn’t leave it for yonks, but the idea is the same as beef jerky/ road kill/ biltong. So no you don’t have to store it in the fridge, just a cool dark place is good.
If you’re wanting to make the ‘roast potato with butter’ side, use the same process. Make your food, dehydrate, grind to a powder. Store.
Making the Gum
When you get your bubble gum kit, and are ready to make it, split it into three. Set aside the mini package of bubble gum flavouring for some other day.
1/3 of the pellets, about 14g
1/3 of powdered/icing sugar, 38 g
1/3 of the corn syrup, ~1tsp
Take the wax paper and cut off 30cm in length. Lay it down over your work space. Bubble gum is sticky if you haven’t heard!
Pour out ¾ of the powdered sugar onto the wax paper and make a well in the centre.
In the disposable cup, put in the 14g of pellets, 1tsp of corn syrup, and 1/3tsp of your flavour. Put the cup into the microwave and zap it in 10 sec increments until gum ingredients hve melted. By 25 secs, the pellets had melted in mine microwave.
Stir with the wooden spoon until mixed together and pour into the powdered sugar well. With the wooden stick, as the mixture is hot, stir the powdered sugar and the gum mixture together until it’s become less sticky.
At some point the mixture will be touchable and less sticky. At this point you can pick it up and knead it together. When it’s kneaded well together, I added in one tiny drop of colour at this point. Mixing the colour beforehand didn’t help as the powdered sugar made it muted.
If the gum gets too hard, place it on a small bit of baking paper and microwave it for 5 secs. You can roll it out (use a marble rolling pin so it doesn’t stick) and cut it up, or you can use chocolate molds to create cool shapes. If using the plastic molds, spray the mold with cooking oil first, otherwise good luck getting them out.
Press the warm kneaded gum putty into the mold and let cool for 5 minutes.
Clean up your space, toss out the used disposable cups and stirrers and start again with your next flavour with clean cups, paper and stirrers.
Finally wrap it up in wax paper or foil and store.
Now for the free downloadable packaging for Willy Wonka's 3 Course Dinner Chewing Gum from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I've laid it out four on a page to make use of your paper
Packaging on US letter sized paper
Packaging on international A4 sized paper
Disclaimer: Wonka, Nestlé, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl, etc, their product names, logos, brands and other trademarks are the property of their respective trademark holders. They are not affiliated, and do not endorse, or sponsor this blog, BrytonTaylor.com.
Please note the packaging offered for download is for private use only and cannot be sold.
