On 29-Dec-2004, "Readstown Library" > wrote:

> 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

Way back in the ressesses of my dim memory, there resides a tidbit
of folklore which I have never verified. It said to store a slice of apple
in a quart of popcorn for properly poppable kernels. I can see that
working over the short term, but it seems like the apple would mould
before very long.

--
Brick(DL5BF, WA7ERO, HS4ADI)