CHAPTER II

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE

YOU, when you first tasted a delicious brittle kernel of Pop-corn, coated thinly with candy, you did not think of the skill attained by practise, the skill that was necessary in order that your piece of pop-corn confection might have the right amount of candy on each kernel of pop-corn and the kernel be of its original full-sized fluffiness.

It is an operation that appeared to you as simple and easy of accomplishment when you first saw it performed in the hands of an expert. Then when you tried it? Well, you had “An experience.”

You found that somehow the corn did not act for you the same as for him.

It did just what you did not expect it to do. It formed into one big ball of condensed pop-corn. Or it became cold before you got it really mixed and you could not then mould it into confection; or instead of the kernels being of their natural large, fluffy nature, you probably found you had ground them to one-half their natural bulk. In other words, you found you had something to learn and you were up against a man’s job. No, you did not give up, but you “cleared for action,” or in other words you stripped off the coat from your mind as well as from your back and studied and tried, studied and tried, until you had the principles, then by practise you acquired speed.

Pop-corn confection is made from the starting of a batch to the completed confection while the original heat is in that batch. A batch of candy is solid compared to a batch of pop-corn, so that a batch of candy may be held to a working temperature by keeping the batch near a fire, while pop-corn cannot be so handled, it must be worked in small batches at a speed to reach the finished confection while the original heat lasts. The working of candy and the heat in it has a tendency to turn the candy back to sugar--that is, to grain it. Candy coated pop-corn, to get the brittle, perfect confection--that is not grained--must be finished confection, while the candy coating is still hot. You see, then, the great advantage to be realized in using the quickest method. Knott’s machines are recognized as the best for the speed that produces quality.

As one item in the process of manufacture, consider the mixing of the corn and candy.

Hot air rises and cold air descends; you know that, but did you ever consider that it has a lot to do with your results in making pop-corn?

You know that popped corn is light and fluffy and air passes through the collection of kernels easily. Think of how hot a kernel must be to pop and yet you know that it is hardly any time at all before the kernel is cold. The air surrounding the kernel is heated by the hot kernel: that air rises and is replaced by cooler air which in turn extracts the heat from the kernel and so the process continues with speed until the kernel is the same temperature as the air.

You have often used the pouring of a liquid to more rapidly cool it. You have lifted spoonful after spoonful of coffee letting it run off the spoon to cool it. Did it ever occur to you that the pouring of the hot, boiling syrup onto the pop-corn in a mixing tank is a cooling process? Because of hot air ascending and cool air descending, that candy that you would thus pour onto the pop-corn will cool at a most rapid rate while you are getting the candy kettle out of the way and your paddle down into the batch to mix the corn and candy. The doing away with this pouring of the candy is necessary to the production of the best goods. You can eliminate it by cooking the candy in a deep kettle and pouring the pop-corn into that kettle on top of the candy and mixing the batch in that kettle.

To coat a kernel of pop-corn with candy is not only for the purpose of tickling the sense of taste, but by the use of that thin covering of candy you keep the dampness out of the kernel. To be most effective, the coating must completely enclose each kernel and yet for the confection to be of the most delicate and brittle texture you must have but the least film of a coating of candy covering each kernel and every kernel the same as every other. To get the best results, you must use the one best method of manufacture.

If without any time passing, that is, instantaneously, you could distribute the candy at the instant it reached the point to which you boil it, the candy then being at its most liquid state, if you could distribute the candy thus instantly over the kernels, you would have the ideal thin coating of candy over each kernel of pop-corn. You would have the most delicious piece of confection you ever set your teeth into.

When mixing by hand, one-half of the time is used in the down stroke of the paddle, which, of course, is necessary before you can make the up stroke, or lift the paddle to mix the corn. Yet, of course, that uses valuable time during which the batch is cooling. A machine so constructed as to have a rotating paddle always under the corn to lift the corn up the sides of the kettle and guiding it to fall down the center of the kettle, such a machine uses no time in return strokes and mixes the batch almost instantaneously.

At this point in our consideration of the subject, let us see what we have learned.

It is best to mix the candy and pop-corn in the way that will be the =quickest=, =the quickest way= being to boil the candy in a deep kettle and mix the batch in that same kettle by the use of a pop-corn mixing machine.

Now suppose you use this method for mixing the batch, what size batch will produce the greatest profit?

You know with pop-corn confection, =the lighter it is, the better it is=. Of course the lighter it is the less material to the piece and the greater the profit. The size of batch you make has an important effect on the lightness of the confection.

Candy coating of the pop-corn must be soft when the cakes are pressed in order to have the cake well held together when cooled. You are cooking above 280 degrees, so your candy must be at a high temperature when the cakes are pressed to attain the result. At that temperature, the candy changes quickly from a plastic to a brittle condition. A batch is too large when the last of it to be moulded is too cool to produce good light confection.

The batch may be kept from cooling so fast by keeping it enclosed in a heated tank, but watch the results and don’t expect this to help much. You must have the tank open to take out the corn to fill the moulds and while it is open there is bound to be a rush of hot air out of the tank and a rush of cold air into it on the principle discussed in the first part of this article. This movement of air takes the heat out of the batch at a fast rate so that it counteracts the effect of the heating of the tank.

One good way is to use the hot kettle you mix your batch in to hold the batch while you scoop the corn out onto the moulds. The quickest way if you are using a set of moulds is for you to arrange the moulds on the bench, make a batch just the right size, dump the batch on top of the moulds and fill them. Then put them through the press. This has the advantage of getting the corn into the moulds at once while the candy coating is soft.

When the candy coating of the kernels is too cool when put in the moulds and pressed, the whole kernels will be broken and you will get so much corn into each mould that the cake will be solid, hard to bite into and heavy.

You see it pays better to run small batches. Your cakes will be light and fluffy and therefore better liked by the consumer. Your materials will make more goods. A day’s work on this plan will show the greatest profit.

Consider the utensils used by this method.

Only two kettles, so you have one on the fire while you are mixing in the other. You have no jacket tank to clean, to grease, with the cost of the grease, to heat by gas, with the cost of the gas. The use of the pop-corn mixing machine in this method assures the same sized cakes being made of less material. The same material produces at least 20 per cent. more finished confection because of the quick and complete mixing.