I was in the cereal isle of the grocery store today(desperately clutching my wallet...that stuff is high!) and I saw some plain puffed wheat. Ingredients listed....wheat. That's it! Not even any oil. So I got to wondering if this was something that I could do at home (I've only got 300# of wheat and 100# of brown rice!). I've tried to puff wheat in a bit of oil in a pan and what I ended up with was burnt wheat that not even the chickens would touch. Would one of those air poppers for popcorn work on wheat or rice? If it will I'll buy one. My family loves cereal! Thanks.

-- Amanda in Mo (aseley@townsqr.com), January 31, 2001

Answers

I asked this a while back. The answer was NO. Not with standard equipment

-- Stan (sopal@net-port.com), January 31, 2001.

Amanda, I visited a plant that made puffed wheat a few years ago. The process involves heat and pressure. A lot of pressure as I recall. They would heat the product under great pressure, then suddenly release the pressure (like taking the lid off a pressure cooker while still fully pressurized). I sorta recall it being very loud, but it has been a lone time ago. Good luck and don't try the pressure canner trick!!LOL

-- Lynn Goltz (lynngoltz@aol.com), January 31, 2001.

Didnt they advertise it was shot out of a cannon years ago.LOL

-- Charles steen (xbeeman412@aol.com), January 31, 2001.

Guess so The Kellogs web site says that the first puffed rice was observed by by a chemist that put rice in a cannon. Also Italian ENAC site says that there is a preheat of 300-400 deg-c Then the addition of steam (from a seperate pressure vessal probably) 240-250 deg C at 15Kg/cm-sq (thats what 160 psig). A far cry from an ordinary toaster or microwave for preparing breakfast.

-- fred giorgi (fgiorg_home@yahoo.com), April 22, 2001.

Look at this site - it gives some very low tech answers. Puffed rice is known in Asia for a while, I think Kellogg's website quote about it being invented in 1902 is certainly off!

www.worldbank.org/html/cgiar/newsletter/june97/9muri.html

-- Anuj Bhagwati (anujsue@hotmail.com), June 17, 2001.

So thats why they used to have a pic of the cannon on the cereal boxes when i was a kid. they still might but i rarely eat cereal anymore. Unless its banana Crunch!

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), June 17, 2001.