Homemade Corn Nuts / corn cereal / parched corn

lightninboy · Nov 6, 2016

I was blessed with some spilled field corn. I was wanting to make homemade Corn Nuts but never got around to it. So I figured now is the time to try.

I experimented this way and that way and settled on making parched corn for breakfast cereal with a hot air popcorn popper.

I don't use dry corn and I don't use steeped corn: I use washed corn. I need to make sure the corn is clean anyway, especially if I shoveled up some dirt with it. A little moisture on the outside of the corn helps keep it from getting burnt looking. I want the corn to come out swelled and golden with minimal darkness on the kernels. I put less than the recommended amount of corn into the popper. I stop the popping and dump the popper as soon as the vigorous popping stops. Sometimes I don't even get any vigorous popping. I examine the finished kernels and every kernel should have a crack in it. A hot air popcorn popper can shut down from overheating, so I don't run it long at a time.

2LaneCruzer · Nov 7, 2016

lightninboy said:
I was blessed with some spilled field corn. I was wanting to make homemade Corn Nuts but never got around to it. So I figured now is the time to try.

I experimented this way and that way and settled on making parched corn for breakfast cereal with a hot air popcorn popper.

I don't use dry corn and I don't use steeped corn: I use washed corn. I need to make sure the corn is clean anyway, especially if I shoveled up some dirt with it. A little moisture on the outside of the corn helps keep it from getting burnt looking. I want the corn to come out swelled and golden with minimal darkness on the kernels. I put less than the recommended amount of corn into the popper. I stop the popping and dump the popper as soon as the vigorous popping stops. Sometimes I don't even get any vigorous popping. I examine the finished kernels and every kernel should have a crack in it. A hot air popcorn popper can shut down from overheating, so I don't run it long at a time.

Ever try popping grain sorghum? Looks like miniature pop corn, and tastes about the same. Haven't seen any popped since I was in high school back in the 50's, but grain sorghum doesn't come along every day. In those days, we called it Kafir Corn.

Paddy · Nov 7, 2016

When I was a young man, we had a tornado knock down a field of corn. We'd toss a handful of corn in a covered sauce pan with oil. Cook it like popcorn. It puffs somewhat and quite good. After all these years, we still call it "Tornado corn"

lightninboy · Nov 13, 2016

The yellow popped stuff I made is tough. It can be ground into corn meal, but it doesn't have much corn meal flavor. It could be cooked into a mush like corn meal mush or grits and eaten hot or be put into the refrigerator to set and be sliced and fried as fried corn meal mush. Don't overgrind it and don't overcook it if you like a gritty texture.

As for corn nuts, the recipe says corn should be steeped and fried with oil or roasted in the oven. I prefer to not use oil, so I suppose I'll try roasting in the oven.

lightninboy · Nov 17, 2016

I did the Brooklyn Farm Girl Roasted Corn Kernel Nuts recipe. Stir the corn on the cookie sheet at least once before it gets done.

"Toss corn with oil, sugar and salt."

Use a minimum of oil and sugar so you don't have a bunch of extra oil on the cookie sheet smoking and get a bunch of blackened sugar. You can use whatever spice you want.

They're probably not as good as store-bought Corn Nuts, but if you've got the corn and the time...

lightninboy · Dec 23, 2016

I think grinding corn meal is more trouble than it is worth. Gonna make Corn Nuts with the rest of it. Clean the kernels dry, then soak the kernels at least 12 hours and roast it on a cookie sheet in the oven.

txndncowboy · Dec 24, 2016

2LaneCruzer said:
Ever try popping grain sorghum? Looks like miniature pop corn, and tastes about the same. Haven't seen any popped since I was in high school back in the 50's, but grain sorghum doesn't come along every day. In those days, we called it Kafir Corn.

I remember my granddad growing Kafir Corn. But I also remember him talking about Milo. Is it all the same stuff? I think they grow grain sorghum here but not sure. It's grown in the dairy farming areas and I'm beef and lucky enough to have pasture that can be grazed in winter.

2LaneCruzer · Dec 24, 2016

txndncowboy said:
I remember my granddad growing Kafir Corn. But I also remember him talking about Milo. Is it all the same stuff? I think they grow grain sorghum here but not sure. It's grown in the dairy farming areas and I'm beef and lucky enough to have pasture that can be grazed in winter.

I think for a layman, it is probably all the same stuff, maybe different varieties. It it a cream colored grain, round and a little smaller than a BB. It kinda looks like corn growing in the field.

lightninboy · Feb 24, 2017

I think making homemade corn nuts is more trouble than it is worth. Even if they turned out decent, that would be a lot of corn nuts to eat. I shall clean the field corn dry. I shall soak the kernels a little while and air pop them or I shall soak the kernels a long while and oven pop them. I shall coarsely grind the popped kernels and use them as quick-cooking cornmeal or grits.