"Popcorn" describes corn that pops. It is exactly a descriptive term.

My mind auto-filled with "descriptive term for corn that has been popped".

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Naively I thought the kernels were processed a certain way 😛

>Corn was domesticated about 10,000 years ago, in what is now Mexico.[3] Archaeologists discovered that people have known about popcorn for thousands of years. Fossil evidence from Peru suggests that corn was popped as early as 4,700 BC.

Wow. I didn't know this! Love thinking of Native Americans enjoying popcorn for thousands of years before the rest of the world.

yah that was another surpsing thing that popcorn is actually one the oldest variety.

Exactly

You can tell...because...of how it is.

Yeah. Being an old variety is very interesting. I wonder if the trapped water of popcorn conferred some sort of evolutionary advantage during the domestication process?

Well, yeah.

And... the corn... it pops!

And there are more than 5 varieties of corn. The people in South America developed 200 types of corn and 150 types of sweet potato

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There's a lot to unpack here. Do you live somewhere where corn is new? Have you ever dried corn?

you can take literally any grain and pop it

they usually call them puffed grains rather than popped grains - popcorn is special because it holds pressure pretty well so most of the kernels will pop even without the regular process you wold need for puffed wheat or puffed rice

although there are also varieties of rice that pop

'i thought popcorn was more about the harvest and processing method than the species' does not strike me as particularly a great deal to unpack

>Have you ever dried corn?

this question is more confusing to me than somebody not knowing popcorn varieties were somehow special

my insinctive response to seeing it is 'who the hell dries corn' to the point where somebody not having dried corn would be surprising

You ignored my first question. secondly, do you think all cheeses can be sliced and all beef can be steaks?

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>You ignored my first question

well yeah - you werent really asking me

and the question isnt really confusing so i didnt have any comment on it

since most everywehre in the world has had popcorn for the past century or so i just assumed it was sarcastic - but either way it doesnt really raise any questions in the same way 'have you ever dried corn' does

>secondly, do you think all cheeses can be sliced and all beef can be steaks?

do you think that non-popcorn varieties of corn cannot be popped? how do you think they make puffed wheat?

I... wheat and corn are not the same thing.

Now I know why that canned corn I put in my air popper didn't pop.

the fact that you understand that tells me that youre cleverer than you give the impression for - but that wasnt implied by my comment nor is it particularly important

did you have any thoughts on any of the other stuff i said? any answers to the questions? any interest in elaborating on your confusing thought process?

Differenct grains have been understood to do different things for centuries. This is a TIL for people that live under rocks/have no fundamental understanding of food. Im stoked people are learning but leveling an elementary fact like it's insightful is kinda goofy.

Shouldn't have used creamed corn, baby corn works better...

>Differenct grains have been understood to do different things for centuries

the TIL isnt 'differenct grains do different things' its that popped corn is made from a cultivar named after the processing method

cornflour cornstarch cornmeal and creamed corn are usually made from specific cultivars too but none of those cultivars are named after their use and none of those processing methods are exclusive to the cultivar

its not like they call poppable rice cultivars 'poprice'

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The fact that a fundamental piece of cooking knowledge is a TIL for someone is either a failing in their biology education or a failing on their guiding forces, whether that be parents or someone else. Different food is different. There's no trick there.

Which means the first time someone saw corn popping, they probably shid their pants

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fundamental cooking knowledge?

failing biology?

why would a person not involved in the farming or factory production of corn need to know that popcorn kernals are the result of a distinct cultivar rather than a consequence of corns natural growth and methods of harvest?

where did you think people picked up that knowledge?

Anyone who's spent any time at all around food, in this case corn, should be able to clearly differentiate what the heck they're looking at. It's a bit like someone looking at a red onion and assuming its the same as a white or yellow onion. It's not hard to be vaguely cognizant of how things are different.

There are five broad categories that corn varieties are classified into.

Mind blown

if it were that intuitive it would be true of pickles for cucumbers and of button mushrooms for portabello

unlike corn - both of those things are the result of th processing methods

certain cucumber cultivars are more likely to be used for pickles but theyre also smaller because theyre picked earlier - and portabello mushrooms are the SAME cultivar as button mushrooms - theyre just picked later

so to a person with a bit more knowledge than you have in general cooking and biology but a little bit less knowledge for corn specifically - maybe it isnt so obvious that popcorn kernels are a different cultivar from sweet corn kernels - maybe they just assumed - for example - that they were picked young and stripped differently from the cob

after all - its pretty obvious from comparing corn on the cob to frozen or canned corn that they cut the base of the kernel when processing it normally - which would prevent it from being popped even if it was the right cultivar

The way it erupts and expands was part of harvest ceremonies/festivals as a metaphor for corn fields being productive.

Pickles =/= cucumbers.

yeah and button mushrooms arent portabello mushrooms either - but theyre the same species

but if you go to any supermarket in north america and find a jar marked 'pickles' it will probably contain cucumbers in brine

Only in the US. Travel to literally any other country in the world that has a history of pickling and they'll look at you like you're daft if you assert they're just cucumbers. I literally have a jar of "picles" in my fridge that is mostly cauliflower with some carrots thrown in.

i didnt write picles i wrote pickles

I get that English might be the only language you know; I'd like to imagine that the word is pretty recognizable.

mhmm and i understand you dont speak it well - but in english the word pickles generally refers to pickled cucumbers, and other pickled products are usually referred to as pickled [x] such as pickled carrots or pickled eggs

my comment is referring to the fact that those cultivars appear fundamentally different to a person like you - but part of the difference is that they were picked earlier on in their life cycle

a person who used your logic on popcorn - portabello mushrooms - pickled cucumbers - and bean sprouts - could be wrong on all counts except for the popcorn which is a distinct cultivar

but all the other ones are the same cultivars just picked at a different stage in their life cycle

No, that's the funny thing. In English, pickles only refers to pickled cucumbers in the US. If you ordered pickles in the UK you'll be sorely disappointed by what you're served.

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No. They're called gherkins. You don't know what you're talking about.

kinda getting off topic

pickles/cucumbers - button mushroom/portabello - mung beans /bean sprouts - dried/baked beans

there are all kinds of differences in food that can result from the cultivation and preparation rather than the cultivar

most people in north america would be familiar with the example i gave and wouldnt have a reason to believe that corn would be any different

in fact - the difference between sweet corn and popcorn is relatively mild compared to most of those other examples

probably the stupidest TIL ive ever read

There is only six varieties of corn?

No. Variety here is meaning more like '6 general phenotypes' and I'm not interested enough to read what they're referring to. Corn differs in seed coat makeup and endosperm makeup- endosperm being the store carbs that the seed will digest and is for growth

It's really all 1 'variety' and separating them is kind of arbitrary-

Glass gem corn, the really pretty stuff, is a flour corn that will also pop - arbitrary

The page for popcorn says flint corn is a distinct type, but the page for flint corn considers popcorn a variety of flint corn.

I remember moving to Iowa and learning there are ALOT of species of corn

And, it smells like papcarn.

I bet you could get the other varieties of corn to pop if you used a Popcorn Cannon

Mind popped?

I directly found this fact to be true when i tried to make colored popcorn from a multi colored ear of corn. Yep, not only did I create a meteorite inside the microwave, I set off every smoke detector inside the house. My wife wasn't happy with me that day.

Yeah with hundreds of different strains of corn, I’d venture to guess that the 6 “varieties” of corn mentioned are similar to how there is basically 2 types of Cannabis: Sativa and Indica. However there are hundreds or thousands of strains of weed, and many of them are hybrids which blur the line between the two “types”.