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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."
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.
"actual popcorn salt"
I had to Google it, but apparently an extra-fine grained salt is used on popcorn, potato chips, and french fries.
Just in case anyone else wondered.
DRM 'manages access' in the same way that a prison 'manages freedom'
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.
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.
I don't understand why people use microwaves rather than a cheap air popper.
Why buy an extra thing if what you have already does the job. Why waste the countertop space? I have to admit those air poppers are cheaper than your typical microwave oven on the new front, but a microwave oven is much more useful. An air popper is pretty much limited to popcorn, or perhaps coffee. It spends more time in storage unless you really really love popcorn.
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.
Actually you can use raw popcorn in the microwave as well. You can either use your own paper bag, buy a specality microwaveable popcorn container, or hell get creative and find your own solution. Popcorn pops very well on it's own without oil in the microwave. A conical shape works very well and tends to leave unpopped kernels in the bottom. If you've cleaned your microwave recently you might even enjoy just putting the popcorn in a bowl and watch it fly around. Now that's something the entire family would gather around and enjoy.
But for the most part, the average joe doesn't eat popcorn enough to justify the expense, even a cheap sub $20 solution.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
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.