puffed grain

In 1948 and 1950, ears of popcorn, up to 4,000 years old, were discovered by Harvard anthropology graduate student Herbert W. Dick{{cite web|url=https://sova.si.edu/record/naa.photolot.r86-67|title=Copies of Herbert W. Dick photographs of exavations at Bat Cave, 1948-1950|publisher=Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives}}{{cite web|last=Smith|first=Erin|url=https://www.chieftain.com/story/news/2000/02/07/friends-celebrate-completion-professor-dick/8997308007/|title=Friends celebrate completion of professor Dick's project|date=2000-02-07|publisher=The Pueblo Chieftain}}{{cite book |last1=Dick |first1=Herbert W. |title=Bat Cave |date=1961 |publisher=School of American Research |isbn=978-0-8263-0287-8 |language=en}}{{page needed|date=April 2025}} and Harvard botany graduate student Earle Smith,{{cite book|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/maize/archaeological-evidence/A4191869D9DF2FEC198DE792100A2D4F|chapter= The Archaeological Evidence |title=Maize: Origin, Domestication, and its Role in the Development of Culture|last=Bonavia|first=Duccio|date=2013|publisher= Cambridge University Press|pages=118-220}}{{cite web|url=https://kingkorn.net/pages/the-history-of-popcorn|title=The History of Popcorn|publisher=KingKorn Gourmet Popcorn}} in a complex of rock shelters,{{cite web|url=https://www.popcorn.org/All-About-Popcorn/History-of-Popcorn|title=History of popcorn|website=popcorn.org}} dubbed the "Bat Cave",{{cite web|url=https://voiceofthesouthwest.org/shootouts-cattle-drives-and-model-ts-a-history-of-the-villages-of-catron-county/|title=Shootouts, Cattle Drives and Model T’s: a History of the Villages of Catron County|last=Hammons|first=Suzanne|date=2014-07-28|publisher=Voice of the Southwest}}{{cite web|url=https://nancy-warner.com/2012/02/23/kettle-corn-popcorn-from-the-bat-cave/|title= Kettle Corn & Popcorn from the Bat Cave|last=Warner|first=Nancy|date=2012-02-23|website=nancy-warner.com}} in Catron County,{{cite book |last1=Dick |first1=Herbert W. |title=The Archaeology of Bat Cave, Catron County, New Mexico |date=1957 |publisher=Harvard University |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vnjInQEACAAJ |language=en}}{{page needed|date=April 2025}} west-central New Mexico, the oldest puffed grain known.{{cite web|url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/630494-earliest-popcorn|title=Earliest popcorn|publisher= Guinness World Records }} These pieces of puffed grain were smaller than a penny to two inches in size and can be made in a similar way to popping popcorn.

Rice has been puffed since ancient times using a technique called hot salt frying in which parboiled rice (e.g. steamed and then dried) is puffed by preheated salt.{{cite book |title=Food-Grains in India |last=Church |first=A. H. |publisher=Chapman and Hall |year=1886 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924000270680/page/n86 73]-75 |url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924000270680}}

In 1901, the modern process of making puffed grains was invented by Dr. Alexander P. Anderson in Red Wing, Minnesota. He was doing an experiment dealing with the effect of heat and pressure on corn starch granules where he put them in six glass tubes, sealed them, and put them in an oven until they changed color. When Dr. Anderson took them out and cracked them open an explosion happened; he had made the corn starch turn into a puffed, white mass.{{cite web|url=https://www.mninventor.org/copy-of-1982-dr-alfred-o-c-nier|title=Dr. Alexander P. Anderson - 1982 Inductee|publisher=Minnesota Inventors Hall of Fame|access-date=2013-04-08}}

File:J84878_Taiyuan_20140717-175938.61_popper.jpg

In the 1930s, Anderson’s invention was adapted as the Chinese Popcorn cannon.{{cite web |url=https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1134352/old-school-chinese-popcorn-machine-baffles-mythbusters-leaves-netizens |title=Old-school Chinese popcorn machine baffles MythBusters but leaves netizens amused |website=South China Morning Post |date=23 January 2013 |first=Ernest |last=Kao }} Anderson's invention was designed for industrial food manufacturing, and unsuitable for street vendors. The device is a teardrop-shaped pressure cooking pot.{{cite news |last=Fisher |first=Max |date=24 January 2013 |title=Big news in China: 'Mythbusters' blew up a Chinese popcorn maker |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/01/24/big-news-in-china-mythbusters-blew-up-a-chinese-popcorn-maker/ |newspaper=The Washington Post}} The history of grain-puffing in Asia remaines unverifiable.{{cite web|url=https://www.sohu.com/a/313700892_126037 |script-title=zh:老照片解读爆米花历史：不仅是零食，曾是抗战军粮 |trans-title=Old photos explain the history of popcorn: Not just a snack, it was once military rations during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression|language=zh|website=Sohu News |date=14 May 2019 }} and photographed by Scottish missionary couple Ian and Rachel Morrison in 1938, years before Yoshimura completed her invention. It's unknown how portable popcorn cannons were introduced to China in the 1930s and the prevalence of such devices. Another photo in China showed the machine under inspection by an American officer in a military supply factory in Chongqing. As similar machines were introduced to South Korea by the United States in the 1950s, Xiaomeng Liu theorized that the portable popcorn cannon was likely invented in the United States and subsequently introduced to East Asian countries. However, there is no definitive proof available.{{cite web|url=https://mmea.hku.hk/the-popcorn-maker-an-american-technologys-journey-to-east-asia/ |title=The Popcorn Maker — An American Technology's Journey to East Asia |website=Hong Kong University |date=15 December 2020 |first=Xiaomeng |last=Liu }} According to University of Hong Kong researcher Xiaomeng Liu and Chinese media,{{cite web |url=https://www.huxiu.com/article/317409.html |script-title=zh:老式爆米花机一个世纪的流浪|trans-title=The old-fashioned popcorn machine's century of wandering |website=Huxiu |date=10 September 2019 |language=zh}} The original invention was likely spread to other European countries around World War I to improve the longevity of the food under difficult conditions.

In 1940s, Yoshimura Toshiko ({{lang|ja|吉村利子}}) heard German people were using old cannons to puff grain; thus, she designed a portable grain-puffing device called Pongashi ki ({{lang|ja|ポン菓子機}}) in 1944 to 1945.

{{unreferenced section|date=April 2025}}

File:Puffed grain machine - 02.ogv, Hainan, China.]]

Puffed rice can be produced using the simple but effective method of hot salt frying. Salt is heated in a pan until it is hot enough to pop rice added to it within seconds. Parboiled or dried pre-cooked rice is added to the heated contents of the pan and stirred. Puffing starts almost immediately and completes in less than a minute and the rice is scooped out by a sieve.

High pressure puffed grain is created by placing whole grains under high pressure with steam in a containment vessel. When the vessel's seal is suddenly broken, the entrained steam then flashes and bloats the endosperm of the kernel, increasing its volume to many times its original size.

Puffed rice or other grains are occasionally found as street food in China, Korea (called "ppeong twigi" 뻥튀기), and Japan (called "pon gashi" ポン菓子), where hawkers implement the puffing process using an integrated pushcart/puffer featuring a rotating steel pressure chamber heated over an open flame. The great booming sound produced by the release of pressure serves as advertising.

Manufacturing puffed grain by venting a pressure chamber is essentially a batch process. To achieve large-scale efficiencies, continuous-process equipment has been developed whereby the pre-cooked cereal is injected into a high pressure steam chamber. It then exits the steam chamber via a Venturi tube to an expansion chamber, where the puffed cereal is collected and conveyed to the next process step. These devices, generally called stream puffing machines, were perfected in the latter half of the 20th century in Switzerland and Italy, but are now available from manufacturers in China as well.

File:Popcorn and pop sorghum.jpg

File:Alegrias03.JPG alegría bars made from puffed amaranth seeds]]

File:Ampao from Carcar, Cebu.jpg ampaw bars made from puffed rice]]

File:09679jfFilipino cuisine foods desserts breads Landmarks Bulacanfvf 02.jpg cornick made from glutinous corn]]

File:Awaokoshi 01.jpg sweets from Japan]]

Snacks and food products made from puffed grain include:

• Amaranth
• Alegría – Mexico
• Corn (maize)
• Cornick - Philippines
• Corn nut - United States
• Pasankalla - Bolivia
• Popcorn
• Millet
• Awaokoshi - Japan
• Rice
• Ampaw - Philippines
• Bhelpuri - South Asia
• Muri - South Asia
• Puffed rice
• Other
• Yeot-gangjeong - Korea
• Maná - puffed pasta, corn, or wheat kernels from Peru
• Moong dal - puffed mung beans from South Asia

• Corn puff
• Bamba - Israel
• Buffies - Palestine
• Pofak - GCC countries
• Cheese puffs - U.S.A.
• Corn Pops
• Kix (cereal)
• Rainbow Drops UK - puffed maize and rice sweets
• Puffed rice cereal
• Rice krispies
• Toffee Crisp - sweet made by Nestlé
• Puffed wheat cereal
• Golden Crisp, Honey Smacks USA - breakfast cereal
• Honey Monster Puffs UK - breakfast cereal

• Flattened rice
• Rolled oats
• Bamba (snack)

{{Reflist}}

{{portal|Food}}

{{Commons category|Puffed grains}}

• [http://www.mnhs.org/library/findaids/00746.xml Research notebooks and papers] of the inventor of the process of puffing rice and starches, Alexander P. Anderson, are available for research at the [http://www.mnhs.org/ Minnesota Historical Society]

Category:Breakfast cereals

Category:Dried foods

Category:Food technology

Category:Articles containing video clips

Category:Rice crackers

it:Riso soffiato

zh:米香