Answer Woman: What separates popping corn from other versions of corn?
ASHEVILLE - A reader asks about the farm-to-kettle process of popcorn making. Got a question for Answer Man or Answer Woman? Email Interim Executive Editor Karen Chávez at KChavez@citizentimes.com and your question could appear in an upcoming column.
Question: From the time I was a young child over seven decades ago my favorite snack has been plain popcorn with nothing added. I love the feel of the popcorn in my hand and the texture, and crunch that comes with each edible morsel. I continue to use the same process that my mother did. Turn the stove on, put some olive oil in the bottom of a pot that has a lid, place three kernels in the oil, and when they pop, put enough kernels in that will fill the kettle when the popping is done. I love the process and I love the sound as these tiny kernels blossom into wonderful morsels. And making the experience even better, nutritionists have said that plain popcorn is a healthy snack when compared to so many other things that we may snack on. I'm pretty sure that I've popped corn at least once a week for over 70 years. That makes for 3,500 kettles of popcorn and a white mountain of significant size. Yet I never asked myself until recently, what is it that separates popping corn from other versions of corn? Could the Answer Woman find an expert that could explain the science of why popcorn pops?
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Answer: For this question, I went straight to Asheville’s guru of popcorn and founder of Poppy Handcrafted Popcorn, Ginger Frank.
Poppy Handcrafted Popcorn offers an extensive collection of classic and nontraditional sweet and savory flavors and seasonal and premium blends, like salted caramel, cinnamon bourbon pecan and spring confetti. And several are made with spices from Asheville’s Spicewalla, including Piri Piri and Chai Masala.
The company doesn’t make plain popcorn, but like our reader, Frank enjoys the simple snack.
“I love plain popcorn, too. I make it at home like all the time; on the stove the old fashion way because I think it’s so good,” Frank said.
There are many varieties of corn, but not all can be dried out and made into popping corn, she said. There are a lot of varieties of popping corn, as well.
“You’ll see all different colors and sizes. You’ll see yellow popcorn and white popcorn. What we use most and what people know most is a yellow popcorn, like at a movie theater or what Poppy uses.”
Poppy sources from a small farm and popcorn company called Reist, established in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, in 1925. Last year, Frank visited the farm and learned a lot more about the science of popcorn from the farmers.
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Here are some of the tidbits Frank shared about popping corn vs. the kind of corn one might serve with dinner:
What’s different
“There’s not a ton of difference but there’s a little bit of difference. Popcorn is just a different variety of the same feed, kind of like a green apple or a red apple. The hull on a popcorn seed is a lot harder than corn that we eat, like corn on a cob – that has a softer hull,” Frank said.
Harvesting
The big difference is the harder hulls and its harvest time, Frank said.
“Corn that we eat is harvested right when what you’d consider is peak season – it’s still soft and ripe and you can still technically eat it right out of the ground,” Frank said. “Corn that we use for popcorn stays on the stalk long after what we would harvest regular corn because it has to dry out a lot more. So by the time corn that we’ve harvested for popcorn, the field looks pretty dead, whereas when you harvest regular corn the field is at the end but it’s still green.”
Moisture
Moisture is a key factor for corn’s ability to pop.
“Because it’s dried out so much more and it has a stronger, thicker hull, there’s just a little bit of moisture left in the kernel when it’s harvested," Frank said.
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The magic ― or science ― continues after the farm harvests and processes it through their machines and it's distributed to popcorn makers.
"Once it gets to us and we put it either in the microwave or pan or however we’re going to cook it, there’s a tiny bit of moisture left in it and when it gets to a certain degree that moisture turns to steam and that’s what makes the corn pop," Frank said. "Whereas regular corn has a ton of moisture in it – it’s not going to pop because it doesn’t have that harder shell and it’s not dried out.”
More popcorn fun facts
Popcorn farms exist. “Farms that grow corn for popping corn don’t grow other kinds of corn because if they were to be on the same farm they would cross-pollinate and it would disrupt," Frank said. "It would become a different variety and the softer hulled corn would mix with the harder hulled corn and it wouldn’t pop in the way that people making popcorn would want it to pop.”
The trailblazer of popcorn lived in the U.S. Popcorn has been around for perhaps centuries, but its place in the mainstream is due to a Chicago entrepreneur. Charles Cretors, a candy store owner, is credited with making popcorn popular after building the first popcorn-popping machines in the 1890s, according to History.com.
General Mills patented the first microwave popcorn bag in 1981.
“His family still runs a business that makes popcorn machines, and that’s who we’re buying our popcorn machines from,” Frank said.
Learn more about popcorn at poppyhandcraftedpopcorn.com, reistpopcorn.com and cretors.com.
Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Email her at tkennell@citizentimes.com or follow her on Twitter/Instagram @PrincessOfPage. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Popcorn science explained by Poppy Popcorn founder
