Tag Archives: Popcorn facts

Sep 4 2014

Sugar Shun – No bags, no butter no oil!

Rosemary Lee Seeking Equilibrium is my hero:  She is doing the “shuck the sugar” for a month with me – and gasp! – she threw away Oreo cookies that were next to her bed:
She sent me this:
“This works!!  I had some with some cumin and salt for a southwest popcorn.
For the popcorn lovers!!!  Microwave popcorn, no bags, no butter, no oil!!!!  It’s genius really. Simple, simple genius.
Glass bowl + ceramic plate + popcorn kernels = perfectly popped popcorn in the microwave.  No bag. No butter or oil. Nothing to throw away afterward. And even no un-popped kernels.
  • Take 1/4 cup of dry popcorn kernels and place in the bottom of a microwave-safe glass bowl (pyrex is a great choice).
  • Place a microwave-safe plate on top of the bowl. Plate should be wide enough to go beyond the rim of the bowl.
  • Microwave for 2 minutes 45 seconds. Watch in glory as your popcorn pops perfectly into little puffs of heaven.”
photo

 Corny Facts

  • Americans consume some 16 billion quarts of this whole grain, good-for-you treat. That’s 51 quarts per man, woman, and child.
  • Compared to most snack foods, popcorn is low in calories. Air-popped popcorn has only 31 calories per cup. Oil-popped is only 55 per cup.
  • Popcorn differs from other types of maize/corn in that is has a thicker pericarp/hull. The hull allows pressure from the heated water to build and eventually bursts open. The inside starch becomes gelatinous while being heated; when the hull bursts, the gelatinized starch spills out and cools, giving it its familiar popcorn shape.
  • Most popcorn comes in two basic shapes when it’s popped: snowflake and mushroom. Snowflake is used in movie theaters and ballparks because it looks and pops bigger. Mushroom is used for candy confections because it doesn’t crumble.
  • “Popability” is popcorn lingo that refers to the percentage of kernels that pop.
  • How high popcorn kernels can pop? Up to 3 feet in the air.
  • The world’s largest popcorn ball was created by volunteers in Sac City, Iowa in February, 2009.  It weighed 5,000 lbs., stood over 8 ft. tall, and measured 28.8 ft. in circumference.
  • If you made a trail of popcorn from New York City to Los Angeles, you would need more than 352,028,160 popped kernels!

P.S. Rosemary, there are only a few people (besides Laurie F.)  who would describe popped corn as “little puffs of heaven” and you are one of them!