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




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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)

When I think my jar of popcorn is getting dry, I thoroughly wet a paper
towel, or half of one, and stick it down inside the popcorn.
Nancree

When I think my jar of popcorn is getting dry, I thoroughly wet a paper
towel, or half of one, and stick it down inside the popcorn.
Nancree

In article >, says...

> it
> has been my experience that a poor bag of popcorn can sometimes be
> dramatically improved by the addition of some water.

<snip>

> 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.

> 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.

When I was a kid, my family bought popping corn in huge plastic bags (2
lbs?), which we decanted into one of those Tupperware storage boxes
designed, I think, for breakfast cereals (it was roughly the size and
shape of a cereal box anyway). My father always insisted that we add a
bit of water, maybe 2 teaspoons, to the new batch of popping corn. The
container was kept sealed in the back of the fridge. We never had a
problem with the popping corn sprouting or going mouldy, and we usually
got very good results when it came time for the popping.