No snap or crackle, just pop, pop, pop
May 6, 2010 (Thursday)
I’m sure you have heard the old popcorn story about a horse working in a field so hot that the corn started popping, and when he saw the ground covered with white puffs, he thought it was snow and froze to death.
I may be wrong, but I don’t think corn can pop in the fields while still on the stalk unless the corn field is on fire. Corn has to get very hot (356 degrees) before it pops.
One of the jobs I had while growing up in Houston was on weekends at the Village Theater (no longer exists) on University Boulevard. One of my duties was making popcorn. I always measured the same amount of popcorn kernels and all the other stuff that went into it, so that it always came out the same. But if I was a little hungry and wanted to eat some of it, I changed the recipe a little bit to make it more tasty.
Recently I’ve been eating popcorn late in the evening when I take my daily doses of medicine. The pills go down easily with a mouthful of popcorn along with a swallow of beverage, usually a sugar-free powdered mix.
I have a big popcorn popper that stirs the corn and oil and makes quite a bit of popcorn, but lately I’ve been using a microwave bowl that I bought for $9.95 that works great, and keeps the popcorn warm as I eat it.
The biggest seller in popcorn is the prepackaged microwave sack. Most people evidently prefer it. I think it’s OK, but I like mine better.
The original colonists from Europe never knew about popcorn until introduced to it by native Americans, many of whom thought a god was bursting forth from the kernel every time one popped.
Popcorn smells good because it contains 6-acetyl-2,3,4,5-tetrahydropyridine and 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, but I like it anyway.
Popcorn is usually my supper lately. I make it myself. Who said men can’t cook?