History Of Corn Puffs

Puffy, yummy and extremely popular snack, maybe every children know well this snack, with a lot of varieties of shape like curly, ball-shaped, straight and many more.

These crispy snacks sometimes referred to as corn curls or cheese puffs are made from cornmeal, The cheese extrusion itself is generally made from two primary ingredients: cornmeal and water. All other ingredients are sprayed or applied to the corn curl after it leaves the extruder and is dried. The coatings vary greatly according to flavor and the manufacturer.
Soybean and/or cottonseed and/or coconut oil may be sprayed on the extrusions. Then, powders such as cheddar cheese powders, acid whey powder, artificial cheese flavor, salt, and other spices are often applied over the oil. and when we drop in our mouth its puffy and airy and we can resist licking our finger after it.

corn puffs

Corn Puff have been a popular American snack food since the 1950s, and invented in the United States of America in the 1930s;  The invention of the cheese curl was quite serendipitous. During the 1930s, the Flakall Company that produced corn-based feed for livestock sought a way to produce feed that did not contain sharp hulls and grain dust and eventually produced a machine that broke the grain into small pieces by flaking it. The Flakall Company became successful manufacturers of flaked feed. One day as Edward Wilson was working as a flake operator at the Flakall Company (Flakall Corporation of Beloit, Wisconsin (a producer of flaked, partially-cooked animal feed), he noticed that workers poured moistened corn kernels into the machine to reduce clogging.  He found that when the flaking machine ran continuously it made parts of it quite hot. The moistened cornmeal came out of the machine in puffy ribbons, hardened as it hit the air, and fell to the ground. Wilson took the ribbons home, added oil and flavor and made the first cheese curls.

The company ran another flaker just for the production of Korn Kurls. By 1950, the Adams Corporation was mass-producing the Korn Kurl. There were dozens of small snack companies that followed the Adams Corporation and produced cheese curls, with many devising their special shape using innovative dies for their extruded snacks. Today, perhaps the most popular cheese snacks are produced by Frito-Lay although they did not offer any such snacks until 1980. This company offers the product in a variety of shapes and flavorings (including one that is flavored with cayenne pepper). Despite their minimal nutritional value (they are high in calories and fat and offer little fiber or protein), they are quite popular. It is estimated that 82% of Americans with families have eaten cheese curls at some point.

Another account claims they were invented by the Elmer Candy Corporation of New Orleans, Louisiana some time during or prior to 1936 at which time the sales manager for Elmer’s, Morel M. Elmer, Sr., decided to hold a contest in New Orleans to give this successful product a name. The winning name "CheeWees" is still being used today by the manufacturing company, Elmer's Fine Foods.


enjoy your corn puffs :D

T


source : http://www.madehow.com/Volume-5/Cheese-Curl.html , http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_puffs

History Of Potato Chips

Crisp, crunchy, salty, yummy, thickly and lovely, i think potato chips is an "Genius Invention" cause i lllloooooove this food soo much, anyway this chips is invented in Saratoga Springs, NY on August 24, 1853, and it's invented accidental,  it begin with customer that send back his potatoes back and complaining that they were too thick and soggy (the patron sometimes identified as Cornelius Vanderbilt) resort hotel chef, George Crum decided to slice the potatoes even thinner. Contrary to Crum's expectation, the patron (sometimes identified as Cornelius Vanderbilt) loved the new chips and they soon became a regular item on the lodge's menu under the name "Saratoga Chips".

However, a recipe for fried potato "shavings" had been printed in the US in 1832, in a book explicitly derived from an even earlier English collection. “Claims that the product originated in Saratoga NY in 1853 may be looked at with appropriate skepticism.” 

In the 20th century, potato chips spread beyond chef-cooked restaurant fare and began to be mass produced for home consumption. At first, potato chips were packaged in barrels or tins, which left chips at the bottom stale and crumbled. Laura Scudder,[1] an entrepreneur in Monterey Park, California started having her workers take home sheets of wax paper to iron into the form of bags, which were filled with chips at her factory the next day. This pioneering method reduced crumbling and kept the chips fresh and crisp longer. This innovation, along with the invention of cellophane, allowed potato chips to become a mass market product and made Laura Scudder a household name. Today, chips are packaged in plastic bags, with nitrogen gas blown in prior to sealing to lengthen shelf life, and provide protection against crushin.

 

Thanks for Mr.Crum, who has cooked this superior chips, :D

source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato_chip

POPCORN

Pop... Pop Pop Pop (umm.. sounds delicious) Who doesn't know popcorn the famous snack ever, fluffy, cruncy, what do you like? buttery, caramel, or marshmallow u can decide the taste that make you happy, but do you know popcorn is an ancient snacks, and cave people already eat popcorn before Christopher Colombus reached Americas, do you can imagine flintsone eat a popcorn, not a popstone hehe.... 

The Story Of "Pop"Corn

The oldest popcorn ever found was discovered in the "Bat Cave" of central New Mexico. It is thought to be about 5,600 years old. In tombs in Peru, archaeologists found ancient kernels of popcorn that are so well preserved that they can still pop.

Sometimes, conditions can preserve ancient popcorn so perfectly that it still looks fluffy and white when the dust is blown off of it. In a cave in southern Utah, researchers found surprisingly fresh-looking 1,000-year-old popcorn.

Popcorn was probably an important part of life in the ancient Americas. On a 1,700-year-old painted funeral urn found in Mexico, a corn god is shown wearing a headdress of popcorn. Decorated popcorn poppers from around the same time have been found in Peru.

Cortez, another European global explorer, wrote in his diaries Aztecs decorated ceremonial garb with popped corn. He noted it symbolized goodwill and peace and how the Aztecs made necklaces and other ornaments for the god's statues with the grain, especially that of the god Tialoc, the god of rain, fertility and maize (corn).

An amazingly clear documentation of popcorn comes from an early account of a Spaniard. He records observations of a ceremony honoring the Aztec god watching over fishermen. "They scattered before him parched corn, called momchitl, a kind of corn that bursts when parched and discloses its contents and makes itself look like a very white flower; they said these were hailstones given to the god of water."

French explorers, about 1612 in the Great Lakes region, made mention in their documents the use of popcorn by the Iroquois. This popcorn was popped in pottery with heated sand. The Frenchmen took part in an Iroquois dinner that included popcorn soup and popcorn beer. 

                                              credits Photo : http://adiastock.deviantart.com

Why This Corn Can "Pop"

A popcorn kernel is actually a seed. Like other seeds, inside it has a tiny plant embryo (a life form in its earliest phase). The embryo is surrounded by soft, starchy material that would give the embryo energy for growing into a plant. A hard, glossy shell protects the outside of the seed.

The soft, starchy material holds some water. When the kernel is heated to a high heat (400 degrees F), the water inside the kernel turns into steam. The pressure from the steam causes the kernel to explode. The soft starch inside bursts out at about 40 times its original size, turning the kernel inside out. This creates the fluffy white area of a popped kernel.

The ideal popcorn kernel contains about 14 percent moisture. If the popcorn is much drier, it will not pop. Popcorn kernels should be kept in a tightly sealed jar so that they will not dry out.

the articles is from two sources : http://www.factmonster.com/spot/popcorn1.html  and http://www.essortment.com/all/whatisthehist_rsdt.htm