Pop Pop Poppin'

I decorated my office this fall with these ears of ornamental strawberry corn (there were more decorations but those aren't relevant to this story). When I bought them there was a sign that said the corn was also good for popping. Last night was a good night for popcorn so I gave it a try.

The kernels easily rubbed off. Three ears produced about half a cup of corn. I tossed the kernels around in a bowl to, if you'll forgive the analogy, separate the wheat from the chaff. I put a couple of tablespoons of canola oil in a saucepan and turned the stove to a medium heat. When the pan was hot I poured in half the corn -enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

Nothing happened for a couple of minutes. Then a pop. Then a whole lot of pops. The popping stopped after a minute or two. Almost all the kernels had popped! I poured the popped corn into a bowl and tossed it with a little bit of salt.

Very tasty!

You can't really tell from the last picture but the kernels weren't as big as with commercial popcorn. That is, the kernels didn't pop as large as Orville Redenbacker. You might think that would be bad, but the shells on these weren't as hard as regular popcorn so they mainly added a little crunchiness to the mix.

Comments

[tien]

so how would the taste differ from, say, normal popcorn?

[joe]

I was expecting it to not taste as good, but it tasted pretty much the same as regular popcorn.