Hello everyone,

I am curious if any research has been done on hydrating or drying popcorn. A
critical factor in popcorn is the amount of water inside the kernel, and it
has been my experience that a poor bag of popcorn can sometimes be
dramatically improved by the addition of some water.

Currently I am getting around 15 unpopped kernels per rounded half cup of
corn and have good flavor and volume. Before I started adding water the
count of unpopped was 5 times this high and the corn had bad flavor, was
filled with little hard shards, and had markedly less volume.

To effect this improvement I add 3 carefully measured drops of water to the
half cup of corn around 7 to 8 hours prior to popping. It seems to be
important to coordinate the amount and timing of the hydrating and to give
the container a good shaking to disperse the liquid.

This leads to a couple of questions:

Is there a difference in results with corn that has too much water and that
with too little? It would be nice to know at the start which approach one
should take.

Is there a proven method to dry overly wet corn?

Do drier kernels tend to absorb more water or wetter ones lose more? If not,
a highly variable collection of kernels will remain variable after hydration
or drying, and the net gains will be minimal.

Thanks for your input.

Gary




----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups
---= East/West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy via Encryption =---