What Makes Popcorn Pop

We all enjoy popcorn in its finished popped up state, but what makes popcorn pop? We constantly try to find the brands and methods, that leave the fewest unpopped kernels. Most of us only give thought to kernels of unpopped corn at one time, when we reach the bottom of our bowl and find the last few unpopped kernels. What we normally don’t think about, is the process between the two stages. How do we get a snack ready popcorn from each kernel.

Native American tribes were believed to have been the first to make popcorn pop. They had their own spiritual belief about the popcorn popping process. They believed that spirits resided inside of each kernel. When the spirit’s home (the kernel), began to be heated (cooked, usually by heating a bowl of sand that the kernels were buried in), the spirit would be so angry that their entire house would shake (the agitated vibration of cooking kernels). Then, when the spirit finally got angry enough, it would burst forth from it’s home with a screaming hiss (the air releasing upon the actual pop).

It’s a great story. Considering the Native American belief in spirits, it fits the process very well. In the thousands of years since the Native Americans began popping corn, we’ve learned there is a little more science to the process. While we refer to it as popcorn, not all corn will pop. The kernels that we use to make popcorn pop are one of a select few types of corn that will actually cook into our favorite snack. Now that we have the right type of corn to make popcorn, next comes the heat. The heat’s affect on the small starch lined sack that resides in each kernel is what really makes popcorn pop. This sack is filled with a tiny drop of water. Water, that as the temperature rises, becomes steam. Once this steam reaches a temperature of 450 it expands with incredible pressure. That pressure causes the starch pocket, as well as the entire shell of the kernel around it to burst open.