Puffed grain

Puffed Rice kept for sale in Ulsoor Market, Bangalore

Puffed grain includes ancient puffed grains like popcorn as well as puffed rice. Modern puffed grains are often created using high temperature, pressure, and/or extrusion.

Ingredients for puffed rice can be as simple as rice and perhaps salt for taste. Other products like Rice Krispies, Corn Flakes, or Corn Pops mix many ingredients into a homogeneous batter. The batter is then formed into shapes then toasted and/or extruded. This causes them to rise, but not puff or pop.

Puffed grains are popular as breakfast cereals and in the form of "rice cakes". While it is easy to recognize that the cereals came from whole grains, the expansion factor for rice cakes is even greater, and the final product is somewhat more homogeneous.

Manufacture

High pressure puffed grain is created by placing whole grains under high pressure with steam. When the containment vessel's seal is suddenly broken, the entrained steam then flashes and bloats the endosperm of the kernel, increasing its volume to many times its original size.

Puffed rice or other grains are occasionally found as street food in China, Korea (called "ppeong twigi" 뻥튀기), and Japan (called "pong gashi" ポン菓子), where peddlers implement the puffing process using an integrated pushcart/puffer featuring a rotating steel pressure chamber heated over an open flame. The great booming sound produced by the release of pressure serves as advertising to attract customers.

Puffable foods

Puffed amaranth (left) and rice

Puffed wheat

Popcorn (left) and Popped Sorghum (right).

Grains

• amaranth
• maize/corn - see popcorn
• rice
• wheat
• sorghum - popped sorghum resembles popcorn, although much smaller
• millet
• barley
• kamut
• spelt
• buckwheat

Non-grains

• soybeans
• makhana (a kind of water fruit) - see Patna
• quinoa

Examples of puffed grain foods

Snacks and food products made from puffed grain include:

• Bhelpuri (rice)
• Bamba (corn)
• Cheese puffs (corn)
• Golden Crisp (wheat)
• Kix (breakfast cereal)
• Puffed rice
• Smacks (wheat)
• Toffee Crisp (rice)
• Pufarine (wheat) - Romania

See also

• Puffed rice
• Extrusion#Food

References

Research notebooks and papers of the inventor of the process of puffing rice and starches, Alexander P. Anderson, are available for research at the Minnesota Historical Society

Further reading

• Making muri (traditional puffed rice)
• Puffed rice