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Pop corn is usually popped to be eaten at once, or it may be made into pop-corn balls, crackajack, or other forms of pop-corn confection. A common way of preparing it is by popping and sprinkling FIG. 7. Stalks of White Rice pop corn. it with salt or adding salt and melted butter. Sometimes the popped corn is eaten with milk and sugar like a breakfast food. The parched unpopped kernels when ground like coffee make a very good breakfast food for eating with cream and sugar or for boiling with water and serving like oatmeal. Some pop-corn venders make a palatable preparation by popping the corn in melted butter and lard with salt added. 1 For information regarding the food value of pop corn, see Farmers' Bulletin 298, entitled "Food Value of Corn and Corn Products."
This It is customary on some farms at butchering time in the fall to wind up the day's work by cooking a kettle full of pop corn. is done by popping the corn in the greasy residue left in the kettle after the lard has been rendered. Salt is added to suit the taste and may be cooked in with the grease. 2 3 4 FIG. 8. Four different types of hand poppers.
In many farmhouses the delicious pop-corn cake is considered a necessary adjunct to the Christmas festivities and is regarded as a superior article of food.
Dealers who put up shelled pop corn in 10-cent packages for the retail trade usually have a number of good recipes printed on the outside of the packages. Cookbooks also give splendid recipes for making pop-corn confections. The following have given good results:
CHOCOLATE POP CORN. 2 teacupfuls of white sugar. cup of corn sirup. 2 ounces of chocolate. 1 cup of water.
Put these ingredients into a kettle and cook them until the sirup hardens, when put in cold water. Pour over 4 quarts of crisp, freshly popped corn and stir well to insure the uniform coating of the kernels. SUGARED POP CORN.
Make a sirup by boiling together 2 teacupfuls of granulated sugar and 1 teacup of water. Boil until the sirup strings from the spoon or hardens when dropped into cold water. Pour over 6 quarts of freshly popped corn and stir well. 1 pint of sirup. 1 pint of sugar.
FIG. 9. Homemade molasses and sirup pop-corn balls.
POP-CORN BALLS. 2 tablespoonfuls of butter. 1 teaspoonful of vinegar.
Cook till the sirup hardens when dropped into cold water. Remove to back of stove and add one-half teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a tablespoonful of hot water and then pour the hot sirup over 4 quarts of freshly popped corn, stirring till each kernel is well coated, when it can be molded into balls or into any desired form.
The pop-corn balls shown in figure 9 were made by this last recipe. The darker balls were made by using New Orleans molasses and the lighter colored ones by the use of maple sirup. Any good sirup or molasses can be used.
