Every Dry Corn will Pop Tested & Confirmed!

[VeggieSavage (Professor Porcupine)]

Why isn’t all Flint Corn just Popcorn? Don’t they both Pop the same?
From What I’ve heard

• Popcorn (Zea mays var. everta) Puffs out when Popped
• Flint Corn (Zea mays var. indurata) Cracks open with all the puff being inside instead of puffing out.
• Corn nuts/Cancha Corn (Zea mays var. I DON’T KNOW perhaps var. arachis fits?) Cracks open but doesn’t spill out, exactly like Flint Corn.
• Cuzco/Mote/Choclo/Big Peruvian White Corn (Zea mays var. amylacea) Pops exactly like Cornnuts but It’s Classifed as a Flour Corn!? How can this flour corn be good for popping & Grain? Does this mean all Grain Corn can be popped thus absolutely pointless in separating?

Is it safe to treat all Cornnut Varites as Flint Corn? Because Apparently Cuzco Corn (Aka Peruvian Big White Corn or Mote & Choclo is a Grain corn & is eaten with beans after nixtamalization. (Also how would you Nixtamalize Popcorn in a Popcorn machine?)

I’ve popped a Cornnut Variety called Chulpe Corn & it had Wrinkles on it’s kernel exactly how Fully Dried Sweet Corn Kernels do. When it puffs up it tastes sweeter than all the other cornnut varieties I’ve Tried. & less Starchy Crunch.
Just take a look (Left = Unpopped, Right = Popped). Note the Wrinkle on top of each kernel

Now Compare Chulpe Corn with Sweet Corn Kernels from GTS. How is Chulpe corn not a Sweet Corn Variety? & does that mean I can Pop Sweet Corn Kernels just like Chulpe Corn?

Even Teosinte (Zea mays subsp. parviglumis) “The Wild Corn” pops like Popcorn & It’s not domesticated!

Perhaps the rule is, if corn is dry enough it will pop with enough heat? I mean for Crying outload even Sorgum & Amaranth Seeds are Poppable! I’ve even Heard Mustard Seeds were Poppable but I doubt that rurmor.

[VeggieSavage (Professor Porcupine)]

I’ve just tried Popping Maiz Morado (Purple Corn on the Cob) & it POPS!!!

Here’s how Peruvian Big White Choclo/Cuzco/Mote Corn pops.

Just look at that nice Soft Powdery Starch after it pops. Left = unpopped, Right = Popped.

I’m convinced every type of dry corn will pop if heated in popcorn machine.

[JinTX (J. Youngman)]

This is super interesting.

I wonder how hard it would be to select for a sweet corn that pops more like traditional pop corn.

Or maybe there is an improved cooking/heating method to get other corns or grains to pop differently.

[VeggieSavage (Professor Porcupine)]

hmm… From my experience there’s too kinds of pops.

1. Popcorn = Puffs out. It seems seeds have to be small in order to puff out.
2. Cornnut = Puffs in. Seeds can be very large because it doesn’t have to puff out.

It seems that all other varieties of Corn pop like a Cornnut but Only Popcorn pops like Popcorn.
This makes landracing fun because if every corn variety will pop than it’s irrelevant which corn I let cross. Thus freeing up so much mental tracking.

@JinTX

I wonder how hard it would be to select for a sweet corn that pops more like traditional pop corn.

Chulpe Corn is the closest to this. The Kernels Tops are wrinkly like sweet corn but the Kernel Bottoms are Starchy like Cancha Corn making it very interesting. According to @Joseph_Lofthouse Landrace Gardening Book, Dry Sweet Corn Kernels puff up but don’t pop. That means every other variety of corn (Zea mays) will puff up when fully dry.

[VeggieSavage (Professor Porcupine)]

Here’s how Popcorn pops Compared to Corn nuts. Unpopped left, Popped Right.

Also It feels like all corn Boils down to these 4 groups (In terms of usecase).