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Scientists Solve Riddle of Unpopped Popcorn
Kozar_The_Malignant writes "CNN is reporting that scientists have solved the problem of unpopped popcorn kernels left in a bag or bowl. The short answer is that unpopped kernels have leaky hulls (seed coats) that prevent the buildup of sufficient pressure to cause the pop. The research has been published online and will appear in the July 11 edition of the journal BioMacromolecules. From the article: 'In the varieties popped, the percentage of unpopped kernels ranged from 4 percent in premium brands to 47 percent in the cheaper ones.' So buying the good stuff for home use is probably worth it."
Not necessarily true. The quality of kernels is of minor concern, major concern is time to market and freshness. Keep your unpopped corn in a sealed container to maintain humidity level and keep it fron drying out. Microwave popcorns aren't all going to be equal, either, as the oil/salt compositions will vary which affect the hulls of kernels. I've found microwave popcorn has a very short shelflife compared to plain kernel corn. Freshly opened popcorn has fewer 'widows and orphans' than older corn, especially corn which has been left exposed to air.
Like all things, popcorn engineered to look better or pop better in a microwave isn't necessarily your best tasting corn, either. I only buy microwave corn when I feel I need some for within the next few days and usually not just for myself. If eating popcorn at home I'm more likely to air pop some good stuff and put on real butter and use actual popcorn salt (not that table salt which is appearing in cheaper theaters everywhere.)
I don't have a paper on this anywhere, but I have had considerable experience popping corn, particularly in college where it helped absorb lots of beer. Naturally popcorn which comes in jars is going to fare better than that in plastic bags, but how old the kernels are is the most decisive factor and a higher end popcorn distributor is more likely to have better packaging. A more porous hull is likely to dry out faster or be weakened by contact with hydrogenated oils in any case. Your 4% to 47% is most likely attributable to quality of packaging, how long the product took to get to market and how long it stayed on the shelf (including shelf time at home.) Granted, better advertised brands are more likely to move through distribution and stores than generic brands, which may give it some edge.
What's more near and dear to my heart, when I shell several zorkmids at the bijou for my greasy paper bag is what the fsck they're putting on the corn. Most of those butter replacements are horrible and concession stands should be required to post a warning that their 'Butter' isn't butter at all but a blended gookum of vegetable oils. There's only one theater left in my area which still uses genuine butter.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I pop my corn the old fashioned way. Heat, oil, and stirring. I've never seen anything worse than 5% old maids. In fact, the cheap popcorn often works best for this method of popcorn (harder shells, bigger pops). If you're really serious about yield throw out your microwave and go back to the basics. It's cheaper, tastes better, you have more control over the additives, it never burns like a microwave, and the yield is superior to microwaves.
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
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Going to celebrate the study with a huge bowl of popcorn, heaped upon by 10 heart attacks' worth of grease.
and I just wasted all my mod points on that great email database story! I would much rather have them back for this earth shattering news.
Obama is a twitter sock puppet
Those must be some BORED scientists...
Really... who thinks it's THAT important to find out? And has access to equipment...
Show this to your friends and family that don't know what a real hacker is
... my father was a colonel.
I only see three possibilities: no water in the kernal, not enough water in the kernal, or it leaks out during popping. 1 and 2 could be easily tested after popping some. Am I missing something?
Now I know there are more in the cheaper brands I know which I'll be buying in the future.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
...and ignore the unpopped kernels. Probably be cheaper.
Real reason to get better quality is it tastes better.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
I, for one, will rant and rave against using money for this research JUST to get all the kernels to pop (by selection methods). I will go on a hunger strike until they decide to offer, as well, half-popped kernels, as they are my favorite and vastly superior imho.
** "It's not my job to stand between the people talking to me, and the ones listening to me." -- Pego the Jerk
So I'm guessing we've also solved that cancer thing or that AIDs thing already. Right?
>from the i-can-sleep-tonight dept.
hope so.
now, if someone has a solution for the everfresh-beer-problem, i can really have the best sleep in years. entries only accepted if in O(log_2(n)).
First it was in the local paper, then on CNN's website, now here. I didn't realize that the mystery behind popcorn was such an issue.
(Yes, that's sarcasm you are smelling)
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
...the reason those kernels didnt pop was that they weren't Linux.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive." - C.S. Lewis
While I definitely see a big variety among different microwave popcorn vendors in terms of yield in the microwave - Ive noticed that taking the leftover kernels (what can I say, Im a cheapskate) and then later putting them in the air popper will drastically improve your results. I typically have maybe 5 or 6 KERNELs of popcorn out of 3 or 4 bags total that wont end up popped when going this route.
:)
And actually it tastes better than your typical styrofoam air popped bag popcorn anyway - it has the grease, salt, and butter already built in. It does make the popper machine a little dirty, but they can be washed.
Enjoy
That's odd, I read that exact explanation on wikipedia (why I was looking up popcorn, I do not recall) about 2 weeks ago. Go CNN and their speedy reporters!
all I can say is that's some expensive popcorn
There are no atheists when recovering from tape backup.
Anything having to do with kernel reliability is always on-topic at Slashdot. /ducks
include $sig;
1;
Thanks scientists! Now that your break's over, you can get back to working on dark matter, wormholes, and cold fusion.
Tristan Yates
I learned this in middle school. I am currently 30 years old. WTF???
Moisture inside the seed is heated up until the steam 'explodes' the kernel. Popcorn has to have a min. amount of moisture inside the seed for it to pop. Also, if the seed is cracked then pressure can not build.
slow news day?
I imagine it would just be a simple task for most slashdotters to patch their kernels...
Karma: Excellent Birds (mostly as a result of listening to Laurie Anderson)
I sure would like them scientists to solve the mystery of "unpopped cherries".
The 2005 awards have been handed out, but this is a candidate for ;)
the 2006 Ig Nobel Award
I know there's a Linux joke in this article somewhere...
oil popped is the absolute best way to go.
buy a stir crazy and you are set for life.
also, use good olive oil and sea salt.
... hi bingo
Good guys, and now how we can reuse them? I'm so bored on hitting the head of that idiot guy with old maids.
http://www.michel.eti.br
If the plant ye wish to flee
Go to sector seven-G.
Substitute corn-related terms as appropriate.
But in all seriousness, this research is being done at my school, Purdue.... which really frightens me that research grants are actually being used to do this kind of work.
The new CS building doesn't get any funding from the university, but Jischke will damn sure find out why all his popcorn kernels won't pop... *sigh*
- A
Someone in the high-end popcorn business had to be pushing this story.
News for nerds. Stuff that 6 people care about.
Unpopped kernels? I didn't know email even was a loadable module! And besides, I prefer IMAP
TDz.
And for a minute there, I thought we were going to have a kernel panic.
Now how about some research on why my feet stick to the floor of the theater?
Wait, on second thought, I'd rather *not* know.
Turk: Let's play Steak. J.D.: What? Turk: Steak. The 1st person to finish their steak is the winner of Steak. -Scrubs
This news is like three days old. Good thing I read /.
Or there are other "new" fashioned ways:
If you have a toaster oven (they are cheaper than microwaves at least!) you can spread out those unpopped kernels on a metal tray and let them have a second go at popping. Almost all of them do pop, even if less enthusiastically. But even the one percent or so that don't, by the time they are an almost plack shade of brown on the outside, they are brittle enough to be merely crunchy.
If you want to do this "recycling" in a microwave on a bakelite or ceramic plate, then don't forget to also put a cup of water in the microwave as a heat sink to prevent the oven from self-destructing if the kernels don't absorb enough of the energy.
This is a voice from experience. I don't think we needed scientists to tell us that much.
I am going to market a new product: POPCORN KERNEL SEALANT! Basically you just save up your unpopped kernels, and then wash them in this sealant to reapir their "leaky shells." Then just repop as normal! Act now, and receive a free food dehydrator!
or else!
The Professional Organization Of Popcornpoppers has announced a $10,000 reword for the article in the 1954 "Poppers Life" where Orville Redenbacher declares that every tine a kernel pops it doubles in size.
The 'butter flavoring' in microwave popcorn has been linked to health problems. Might be a good idea to stick with the air popper or use the old-fashioned oil-in-a-pan-on-the-stove method.
You just got off your shift at the Women's Shelter and are on your way to the Children's Hospital to read stories, but happened to find ten seconds free to chastise these researchers.
Right?
Now they just need to figure out how to make popcorn taste like something other than cardboard, preferably corn. I am of course talking about pre butter and salt taste.
what sig?
leaky kernel, eh? So are they going to have a kernel patch for that? (linux pun).
anyways, u can always try and coat it with something to seal it.....
just think...Slime(r) for popcorn.
the kernel without any memory leaks... hmm
... will come pre-coated with some sort of chemical sealant that guarantees 100% kernel poppage, but causes birth defects that would make the Thalidomide babies look like Cabbage Patch Kids.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.
As mentioned, plain kernel corn lasts quite a while on the shelf, if properly stored. With an air popper, I usually get about 3-4 bad-popped kernels, but even they usually have opened up a little. I use the cheapest brand kernels I can buy.
The best part is the cost. The microwave popcorn with 6 3.5oz bags in it costs the same as a 4lb bag of plain kernels. Also, I can spend my money on better-tasting butters specially designed for popcorn.
So with an air popper, I get fewer bad kernels, just over three times the amount of corn, and I can control the salt and butter amounts.
I don't understand why people use microwaves rather than a cheap air popper.
frob
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
I think this is about as good as popcorn gets:
1. Pick ears of corn from cornfield.
2. Create small fire pit nearby.
3. Roll the ears of corn around in the fire.
4. Unwrap corn and enjoy.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Some cheap brands is not cracked shell they are to dry.
Place in water for 15 mins dry blow off with a hair drier on cold and then into a microwave or pan(hair drier is not need for pot but a good idea in microwave).
I have seen it go from around 50 percent to around 90 percent just from this. Ok a little more money and more would pop but hey price beats the percent loss.
Note more often than not I pan pop any how.
Like that sandwich invented by Famine in Good Omens: it has no nutritional content, but it tastes great, so people keep eating and eating it. Oh, and it makes you feel like you're full. But your body isn't getting any nutrients, so you lose weight.
However, there's one problem... People tend to keep eating it and dying :/
Famine liked it quite a lot but, but maybe there's some way of using a similar concept to our advantage.
Now let's see if they can solve the mystery of who put that mud in the freezer.
But we need *solutions*, damnit. The suffering must end.
The quality of kernels is of minor concern
Tell that to Linus!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
want the perfect pop?
2 minutes and 50 seconds on 80% power. Works everytime.
I air pop my corn (not because I am a hippy, just because it's f'n easier) and the only kernels that don't pop are those that achieve escape velocity.
Freshness isn't a factor either. I buy my corn in huge bags that last me AT LEAST 6 months, and they mix in a bucket with corn from the previous bags. There is the potential that kernels from 5 years ago exist unpopped in my pop-corn collection.
I have, literally, less than 10 kernels of corn that doesn't get popped each try.
As far as MICROWAVE popcorn, I have taken the unpopped kernels from a microwave batch, put them in my air popper with fresh corn, and popped them all. This is messy, because the oil from the microwave corn gets everywhere, but I wanted to try it out because I am easily amused. There is the potential to dry out the kernel, but that doesn't seam to be much of a problem.
I suggest these people reconsider their findings. They can confirm my results by going to Target and buying an air popper, and then going to their store and buying a bag of popping corn. I am sure they will be pleasantly surprised.
Coreyfro
I call shenanigans on the part of the premium popping corn companies! Orville Redenbacker is the only one that comes to mind.
/. or somewhere else that mentioned that anything not political that ends up in the news is more likely a press release.
Not sure if it was in
As for popping all kernels, a nice pot with a thick bottom, butter and cheap or expensive kernels will pretty much always yield 100% popped kernels if it's stirred right.
I have read this a few times, never seen any substantiated confirmation that popcorn is a good packing material. OK, if your father told you so, maybe they did try it at least once. But, from some controlled experiments I have read about, popcorn is actually a shitty packing material, compared to styrofoam.
The reason? Mice and cockroaches. Popcorn is edible, styrofoam isn't. If you don't add some environmentally dangerous pesticides, you'll have a severe pest-control problem if you pack things with popcorn.
...let's get the scientists working on that asteroid collision in 24 years...tick, tick, tick...time is of the essence folks.
That's research money well spent. Woo, now we know.
I love the unpopped kernals! One of my favorite things is to dig into the last of a bowl of popcorn and eat the kernals.
Especially the charred ones!
You're missing how obvious this is. Other than that I have no idea. Funny, isn't it, how little grasp people have of basic experimental design?
And I thought the Linus /Bitkeeper, Moore's Lost Magazine (he probably left in the bathroom (WC for you EU types), and Google stuff was tedious. Hey Ed's, didn't anyone submit any knitting stories today?
I have an aging West Bend Poppery and it makes fantastic popcorn. However, mine does not have a BBQ thermometer case mod like the one in the linked image.
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
(he probably left in the bathroom (WC for you EU types))
... that there is way too much money being spent on research of seemingly pointless and random subjects...
Nick Donaldson mailto:psyclops@psyclops.com Bit Wrangler Extraordinaire! http://www.psyclops.com/
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Jimmy, crack corn, and I don't care.
Jimmy, crack corn, and I don't care,
Jimmy, crack corn, and I don't care,
My mastas gone away.
Rod-a, he ride him and he jumped a ditch,
He ride-a, he rode him, and the pony did pitch.
The pony, he felt a little bit shy,
'Cause he's bitten by that blue-tailed fly. (Chorus)
When I went down in Louisiana,
I stayed a little while in Texarkana.
Every once in a while, I felt a little bit shy
'Cause I was bitten by that blue-tailed fly. (Chorus)
I was on my to Shreveport, Louisiana,
Then I stopped out in Caspiana.
And I felt a little bit shy,
'Cause I was bitten by that blue-tailed fly. (Chorus)
When I was drivin' along in my car
I was stoppin' most anywhere.
Once in while I look up in the sky
'Cause I was bitten by that blue-tailed fly. (Chorus)
Once in a while I do a little bit o'dance,
And some of the people come around and says, "Will you allow me a little chance?
But every once in a while I feel a little bit shy
'Cause I was bitten by that blue-tailed fly.
(Chorus) (2x)
Those are my favorites, crunchy but not too hard.
An hot air popper I paid $3 for at a flea market leaves at most a couple kernels unpopped from enough corn I put in to make about five liters of popcorn. These never burn popcorn either, since once a kernel pops, it is blown away from the hottest bottom of the machine by the airflow. However leaky kernels are, usually the heat at the bottom will generate pressure faster than can be relieved -- the machine can reach very high temperatures, as I know since I use it to roast coffee beans as well.
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
Making perfect oil popped popcorn is an exact science, optimizing the ratio of oil, popcorn, and timing. While it is true that leaky hulls are the culprit in most old maids, a lot can be done to compensate by popping well. Here we go:
The process: Oil is added to the pan, and heated over an electric element or open flame until the oil is hot enough to pop a few kernels added when the oil was cool. The rest of the load of popcorn, typically 1/3 cup, or about 80 grams of popcorn are added to a roughly equal amount of oil. Too much oil makes the popcorn greasy, too little inhibits rapid and even heat transfer from the oil and the pan.
The pan itself is a freqently overlooked, but very important element in the mix. A flimsy thin pan tends to develop hot and cold spots, but just as important, it is an inadequate heat reservior. Once the load of popcorn is added to the oil, the temperature of the oil itself will drop, as heat is taken up in the kernels from the oil and the pan. Oil at 350 degrees will drop to about 200 when a roughly equal amount of popcorn is added. As a result, the heat necessary to heat the kernels sufficiently to rapidly develop steam inside must come from the fire itself. A heavy aluminum or cast iron pan will prevent such a sharp temperature drop, and all that heat in the skillet will find its way into the kernels quickly.
Why is this important? Think of a car tire with a slow leak. If you try to pump it up with a hand pump or one of those battery operated compressors, you may never get the tire up to pressure. If you fill it from a large tank of high pressure air with a large bore hose, you can probably blow it out. The same thing happens with popcorn. A skillet with a large thermal mass will rapidly transfer the heat needed to rapidly develop steam in the leaky kernels before it can leak out. This is why the old Jiffy Pop popcorn usually had lots of old maids.
The same thing will happen when you add popcorn to cold oil, and then heat it on the stove. As the oil heats, the precious steam inside many of the kernels will start to escape before it the oil gets hot enough to heat the kernels rapidly. Once the steam escapes, you will have charred old maids, no matter how high you turn the flame. You have much better results if you heat the oil in a heavy skillet to the brink of the oil smoking, then add the payload of kernels.
WOW...lets see, finding out why unpopped kernels don't pop seems to really be up there, in terms of finding answers/cures, with AIDS, Cancer, The Common Cold and VD!
"You know, I've been dying of cancer for six months...but man, I would REALLY like to know why those damn kernels don't pop! Please research that instead of a cure for cancer!"
"It's not rocket science, Smithers! It's only brain surgery!" --Mr. Burns
Palm kernel oil. Tasty, delicious smell and will give the weak of heart a cornary. Still available from concession supply houses, that is until banned by the Union of Concerned Scientists. http://www.ucsusa.org/
...on a tour of the Jiffy Pop popcorn factory.
I guess they must have lost all pop corn knowledge when the grain elevator exploded and it took all these many years to regain why some corn will not pop.
What a waste of research dollars.
The shower curtain mystery being solved was "one giant leap for mankind". But as we all know, solving riddles trumps a solved mystery everytime.
On a lighter note, when I went to read the USA Today article and a pop-up ad came up, I thought of popcorn popping. *POP*
Sig cancelled due to lack of interest
If this is what scientists do all day I am in the wrong line of work. ...Mmmmmm Popcorn
I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.
Mark Twain
thinks "premium" popcorn is morally revolting ? It is nothing but marketing garbage. You can buy a huge jar of plain popcorn for a buck, or be brainwashed and buy fancy stuff for much more. There is something sick and evil about a country which thinks spending energy on marketing popcorn is a reasonable way to make a living.
And all this time I was wondering wtf a HULL was...
Did taxpayers pay for this? ;-)
I must be missing something, why does this have a "movie" tag?
It's interesting that we have folks who will lament that a given program will fork, and thus split the resources of a given development team. However, we will actually take seriously that a group of scientists....SCIENTISTS...have actually studied unpopped kernels of popcorn! UNPOPPED KERNELS OF POPCORN!....POPCORN!?
And they were probably paid with tax-payer dollars!
This is just sad!
But I suppose humorous.
Ever seen a grenade? A torpedeo? A firecracker? A Liquid Oxygen bottle? The whole god damn deal is the rigid container. No rigid container, no boom-boom. This is obvious to anyone that's microwaved popcorn in any appreciable amount, and seriously wondered why not all the kernels pop.
That is to say, this should common sense to any average university engineering undergraduate.
Now, if they fucking isolate teh gene that gives popcorn it's rigid coating, THEN I'll be impressed. I'll be outright thankful. That is tangible, useful information. We need that Orville Redenbocker son of a bitch using that genetically modified corn in his bags of microwave popcorn.
But as it stands, this was a completely fucking worthless article. Wh00t for CNN's science division; they fucking earned their salaries on this one. Fuck!
"No, I don't want to work on curing cancer or AIDS. I'm going to go figure out why some popcorn kernels don't pop!" Oh, the joys of what modern science is like.
Death by snoo-snoo!
The West Bend Stir Crazy is the absolute best way to make homemade popcorn. It looks like George Jetson's car. You pour in some oil. Then you pour in the popcorn seeds. Put the lid on, then sit back and wait for some delicious popcorn. As the name implies, it stirs the kernels and oil the whole time. You can even put some butter on the lid (where some holes are placed for this purpose) and let it melt on top of the popcorn as it's made.
My question is. What makes the premium popcorn kernels cost more (and pop better) than the cheapo store brand? They just now discovered what makes some popcorn better than ever so what has been making the difference all these years before? How did Orville know how to get better kernels?
Does God treat us as servants or friends? Check my homepage.
I acutally like the unpopped kernels. Well, the half-popped variety. Nice and crunchy. Yum.
I asked my Grandfather 30 years ago why some of the popcorn didn't pop and he told me that the kernels were already cracked and couldn't explode. What a waste of research $$$.
All men aren't pigs... we just smell that way.
Jesus, this is the stuff we are mesmerized over!? I can't...believe you get...grants for this...CRAP! I'm ashamed.
Get yourself a good thick-walled aluminium 5 liter pot and a natural gas stove. Put on the pot with a little extra oil, dump in the corn, spread evenly, turn on high. Leave uncovered until the first kernels pop and then cover with a heavy aluminium lid. Do not shake. You can open slightly to release steam. Dispense when popping stops. Season with soy sauce, Worchestershire and Louisiana Redhot.
I get a 5% unpopped, no burns, with the dreaded Sam's Choice brand.
That be stopping the leak!
i WISH i had a job like this...
studying something so pointless it cant matter
Oh shall the wonders of modern science never cease?
I wonder if using Firefox to run my microwave might be the reason.
I have taken unpopped kernels from a microwave bag, place them back into the used microwave bag, and re-microwaved them, and almost all of them popped! I think a study is flawed.
http://www.x2ii.info/
The fat in prefabricated popcorn bags often contains a lot of trans-fatty-acids. These acids are known to be unhealthy. Use my recipie for improved health and a better popcorn experience.
Popcorn Board spokeswoman Wendy Boersema Rappel.
i think is what the fark headline would read...
these people actually get money for this kind of thing?
where do we sign up?
Gekido's Lair
unpopped kernels ranged from 4 percent in premium brands to 47 percent in the cheaper ones.
I swear I read that as "unpopped kernels ranged from 4 percent in Pentium brands.... I was sitting here, trying to figure out why intel was making operating systems and what an unpopped kernel was....
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
but at least now I can sleep at night! Mysteries of the universe revealed!
Everything I need to know about copyrights I learned from Slashdot.
I'm not sure if this has more to do with moisture/freshness retention or maybe it helps the shell leaks somehow but: keeping your unpopped kernels in the freezer (in the bag or a sealed container) makes an amazing difference. With the cheap safeway brand kernels I usually use, I get definitely less than 10 unpopped kernels a batch, on top of that they are totally light and fresh.
When I'm watching movies at a friends house, I always bring my own kernels! Though, I'm a bit of a popcorn snob.
As a canadian side note, Superstore no-name kernels have a much higher unpopped ratio, are less fresh, and make for smaller popped pieces than the Safeway no-name kernels which make some of the best popcorn ever. Usually I don't bother making distinctions like that but it's very marked in this case!
popcorn mystery solved. cancer, aids still rampant.
I've known this for YEARS.
Also if you want your bagged microwave popcorn to pop better unfold the bag and spread the oil gobbed seeds away from each other to all corners of the bag evenly and then reduce the cooking time by about 10% and you'll have a great bag every time with almost no unpopped seeds.
If you really like light fluffy popcorn you could build a microwave with an air pump in it, if you reduce the air pressure to a near vacuum they pop considerably larger. Keep in mind your average microwave is not, and was never meant to be used as a low pressure vessel.
is that it has only one single use: popping popcorn. Not everyone can afford an appliance for every single type of food preparation, so microwave popcorn has the advantage of being accessible to just about anyone.
So with an air popper, I get fewer bad kernels, just over three times the amount of corn, and I can control the salt and butter amounts.
I don't understand why people use microwaves rather than a cheap air popper.
Agreed.
But some people prefer the swiss army knife approach, while others prefer to select the right tool for the job.
I've found that, after eating all the popped ones, you can flatten the bag again, roll up the opening a couple times (so it's like it's sealed again), and give it another 30-45 seconds in the microwave (mileage may vary, don't overpop! It will burn.), and roughly the same percentage will pop up, again. You can keep repeating this process and get almost 100% popped kernels this way.
---
Anyone knows at what pressure the kernels explode ? (for those which do)
I think Alton Brown of Good Eats (http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/show_ea) explained this two years ago. (at least) but of course his wasn't a publicly-funded consession of whitecoats eating popcorn all day pretending to do science.
Power to the Penguin!
"News for Nerds. Stuff that matters" - slashdot need I say more?
Some people believe 1-1=3 and for the sake of being politically correct, we should respect their differences
is hydrogenated palm or coconut oil.
they do this because it's solid at body temperature and therefore less likely to transfer from hands to theatre chairs.
AFAIK the main problem with hydrogenated fats is that their half life, in the body, is MUCH greater than other fats.
IMO, and a bit of research will dig up agreement, lard that has not been hydrogenated(the kind you used to buy in a can or from the refrigerated section of the grocery) is much healthier than butter, which has a higher melting temp. Today almost all lard is hydrogenated and sold in unrefrigerated bricks. Sure, it's easier to make pie crust because you don't need ice water and a cold stone to work on. But, it's not nearly as healthy. Try some garlic flavored lard when you pop your next batch of corn and then sprinkle with sea salt.
Your best dietary fats have very low melting temps. Whale oil and fish oils, peanut oil, olive oil, etc. Margirine is bad because it's nothing more than hydrogenated corn oil. IIRC nickel is used as a catalyst in the process and I bet you can find some recipes on the net or in some of those 'formula for profit' books from the 60's.
How much did this research cost??? Wow. And I thought it had to do with my Jiffy Popcorn being a few decades old.
iirc, it goes something like heating the popcorn then removing it away from the heat and cooking them again.
Live your life each day as if it was your last.
Great,
I feel so much better now that I know science is trying to figure out why popcorn doesn't pop instead of a cure for Cancer, MS, HIV and such.
Maybe they should of asked a 5 year old for the answer about popcorn. You would have spent less time coming up with a solution.
Obama = Socialism.
Since when is this a riddle? I've been buying jarred popping corn that said this on the label as a point of advertisement for almost 15 years.
It's bad when the scientists are catching up to the marketers.
StoneCypher is Full of BS
Your experiences are far to grounded in the past few decades. Popcorn was frequently used for delicate electronics and other instruments ad there were few alternatives. There were some materials which resembled dried hanging-moss, but regarding mice and cockroaches, that's a pretty esoteric concern. A package wasn't likely to sit around long enough for pests to find it.
My father mentioned his colleagues trying some of the popcorn packing material, but indicated they weren't very enthusiastic about eating it, even in WW II days when everything was scarce and rationed.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Does anyone else dry-pop corn in a microwave?
Many of the pre-packaged microwave popcorns are pretty bad. In fact, I've found I'm allergic to some of the oils that are used.
The military microwaves that were used for cooking on submarines in the 40's were powerful, and would pop corn in a paper bag in seconds. But today's commercial ones are apparenly much lower power, take more time, and don't pop as high a percentage of kernels.
A few years ago, I bought an Orville Redenbacher microwave popper at K-Mart. It is a platic containter, with a replaceable cardboard disk in the bottom. The disk is one of those silver things used to absorb microwaves and produce direct heat, like the ones packaged in many frozen microwave meals. This works remarkably well. It's much easier to clean than any air-popper I've used, and the popcorn is very good. I usually add melted butter and salt. (The salt won't stick to it unless you put some sort of oil or other liquid on it.)
I've found that as long as you butter the popcorn, table salt works as well as popcorn salt, and in fact it's easier to distribute evenly. It sticks to the butter on the kernels. Popcorn salt (finely ground salt) may stick to the moisture of a freshly popped kernel without butter, but I wouldn't know....
If the Republicans and the Religious Right have their way, this is the only kind of research that scientists will be allowed to pursue. Forget about stem cells, AIDS research, evolution, alternative fuels, the environment; those will be all be off limits. The only science that will be allowed is the kind that helps giant corporations sell shite products to consumers.
Waitaminute, meesa has no floss of ICQ, YAY, I'm going to Hawaii, YAY!!! Special Ed is Angry Yay!!!
I have pictures o' your momma and sista naked
In Iowa, they actually ran commercials in the theater to let you know which *brand* of real butter they used . . . and then another theater opened with genuine yellow goo . . .
hawk
Crazy Stir makes the BEST popcorn! OMFG I'm talking like a kid. I'm 35.