What is Popcorn?

Question

What is it made of, where does it come from?

Answer 1

It's corn.

It's made from a different variety than the sweet corn you're used to seeing on the cob, it's the same kind corn tortillas and corn chips are made from.

When it's heated, the water inside expands, and it pops out of the shell.

Most of it's grown in the American Midwest, I believe.

Answer 2

Popcorn Classification
Kingdom Plantae plant
Phylum Anthophyta produces flowers
Class Monocotyledonae each seed produces a single leaf
Order Commelinales the leaves are fibrous
Family Poaceae has blade-shaped leaves, like grass
Genus Zea mays produces fleshy, one-seeded fruits
Species mays "corn"

A popcorn kernel is actually a seed. Like other seeds, inside it has a tiny plant embryo (a life form in its earliest phase). The embryo is surrounded by soft, starchy material that would give the embryo energy for growing into a plant. A hard, glossy shell protects the outside of the seed.

The soft, starchy material holds some water. When the kernel is heated to a high heat (400 degrees F), the water inside the kernel turns into steam. The pressure from the steam causes the kernel to explode. The soft starch inside bursts out at about 40 times its original size, turning the kernel inside out. This creates the fluffy white area of a popped kernel.

The ideal popcorn kernel contains about 14 percent moisture. If the popcorn is much drier, it will not pop. Popcorn kernels should be kept in a tightly sealed jar so that they will not dry out.

Answer 3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popcorn

Popcorn or popping corn is a type of maize which explodes from the kernel and puffs up when it is heated in oil or by dry heat. Special varieties of corn are grown to give improved popping yield. Some wild types will pop, but the cultivated strain is Zea mays subsp. mays, which is a special kind of flint corn. In 1948, popcorn ears dating back 5,600-years were discovered in bat caves in New Mexico.[1] Popcorn was first formally developed by Native Americans thousands of years ago.[1]

Answer 4

Popcorn grows on a stalk like regular corn and then dried completely so it will pop up light and fluffy.

Answer 5

Corn turned inside out.

Answer 6

It's actually a hybrid of regular corn - the shells are skinner and explode under pressure. Normal corn won't do that.

Answer 7

uh lets see corn. there are certain species of corn that are dried that are eventually popped to make popcorn.

Answer 8

it is made from dried corn cernals that explode when heating making that popping sound. It was used in acient aztec ceremonies and was discovered and tasted by spanish Conquistadors.

Answer 9

A godawful movie from '91.
It was made of stale cliches and ET's surrogate mom (Dee Wallace).

Answer 10

the seed of corn (what you eat) with grease around it. the grease heats up and makes your popcorn blow up to what we know know as popcorn.
(great with salt)!