Puffed grain facts for kids

Puffed grains are a type of food made from grains that have been expanded, or "puffed up," during cooking. People have been making them for thousands of years, using simple methods like popping popcorn. Today, puffed grains are often made using high heat, pressure, or a special process called extrusion.

You can eat puffed grains in many ways. Sometimes, they are eaten plain, or with a little sugar or salt for flavor. Many breakfast cereals, like corn flakes and Corn Pops, are made by mixing ingredients into a dough. This dough is then shaped and toasted or extruded, which makes the grains rise and become light. Puffed grains can be healthy if they are plain, but adding other ingredients might make them less healthy.

Puffed grains are very popular as breakfast cereals and in foods like rice cakes. While it's easy to see that cereals come from whole grains, rice cakes are even more expanded and have a smoother texture.

History of Puffed Grains

The oldest puffed grain ever found was discovered in New Mexico in 1948 and 1950. These were ears of popcorn that were up to 4,000 years old! The pieces of puffed grain were very small, from the size of a penny up to two inches. They were likely made in a similar way to how we pop popcorn today.

People in ancient times also puffed rice using a method called hot salt frying. In this method, rice that has been partly cooked (like steamed and then dried) is puffed by very hot salt.

Modern Puffed Grain Invention

The modern way of making puffed grains was invented by Dr. Alexander P. Anderson in 1901. He was doing an experiment in Minnesota, studying how heat and pressure affected corn starch. He put corn starch in six sealed glass tubes and heated them in an oven. When he took them out and broke them open, they exploded! The corn starch had turned into a puffed, white mass.

Dr. Anderson's invention was first shown to the public at the World's Fair in St. Louis in 1904. The puffed grain was shot out of eight special "guns." A poster at the fair called it "The Eighth Wonder of the World."

How Puffed Grains Are Made

Puffed rice can be made simply by using the hot salt frying method. Salt is heated in a pan until it's hot enough to pop rice very quickly. Rice that has been partly cooked or dried is added to the hot salt and stirred. The puffing starts almost right away and finishes in less than a minute. The puffed rice is then scooped out using a sieve.

A puffed grain machine in China. People sometimes call it a "popcorn hammer."

Another way to make puffed grains is with high pressure. Whole grains are placed under very high pressure with steam inside a sealed container. When the seal is suddenly broken, the steam trapped inside quickly expands. This makes the inside of the grain, called the endosperm, swell up. The grain becomes much larger than its original size.

You can sometimes find puffed rice or other grains sold as street food in places like China, Korea (where it's called "ppeong twigi"), and Japan (called "pon gashi"). Sellers use a special cart with a rotating steel pressure chamber heated over a flame. The loud booming sound when the pressure is released acts as an advertisement!

To make large amounts of puffed grain, special machines are used. These machines continuously inject pre-cooked cereal into a high-pressure steam chamber. The cereal then leaves the chamber through a special tube and goes into an expansion chamber, where it puffs up. These machines, often called steam puffing machines, were developed in the late 1900s.

Foods That Can Be Puffed

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  Puffed wheat

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  Popcorn (left) and popped sorghum (right)

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  Filipino cornick made from glutinous corn that is puffed by soaking in water for three days, unlike popcorn.

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  Awaokoshi, puffed millet sweets from Japan

Examples of Puffed Grain Foods

Mexican alegría bars made from puffed amaranth seeds

Filipino ampaw bars made from puffed rice

Many snacks and food products are made from puffed grains, including:

• Amaranth
  • Alegría – a sweet bar from Mexico
• Corn (Popcorn)
  • Bamba – a peanut-flavored snack from Israel
  • Buffies – a snack from Palestine
  • Cheese puffs – a cheesy snack from the U.S.A.
  • Cornick – a crunchy snack from the Philippines
  • Corn Pops – a breakfast cereal
  • Pasankalla – a snack from Bolivia
  • Popcorn – a classic puffed snack
• Millet
  • Awaokoshi – a puffed millet sweet from Japan
• Rice
  • Ampaw – a sweet bar from the Philippines
  • Bhelpuri – a savory snack from the Indian subcontinent
  • Muri – a type of puffed rice from the Indian subcontinent
  • Puffed rice (like Rice Krispies)
  • Toffee Crisp – a chocolate bar with puffed rice
• Wheat
  • Golden Crisp and Honey Smacks – breakfast cereals from the USA
  • Sugar Puffs – a breakfast cereal from the UK
• Other Puffed Foods
  • Yeot-gangjeong – a sweet snack from Korea
  • Rainbow Drops – puffed maize and rice sweets from the UK
  • Maná – puffed pasta, corn, or wheat kernels from Peru
  • Moong dal – puffed mung beans

it:Riso soffiato zh:米香