How to make smoked popcorn?

[timothy]

I have a buddy who paid out of his nose for some gourmet hickory smoked pop corn kernels.
Is this something that we can do on a WSM? And if so how?
I did a Google search and found no help...

Tim

 

[Mac]

Do you know for sure that it was "Smoked" and not just artificially flavored? I guess you could smoke it like
Nuts or Salt, but I would think it might have a "stale" tecture to it. I'm sure sombody here will help you out though.

 

[timothy]

Just to be clear. I meant " hickory smoked kernels" not the pre made already flavored popcorn.
I'm just taking a guess, but I'm thinking they smoke COTC over hickory, then let it dry out.

Tim

 

[Dave from Denver]

just make regular popcorn and use some hickory salt on them.

Did you see the kernels your friend had? Were they smoky-looking, as in, brown like the smoke had stuck to them, or were they just smoky tasting?

I'd say it's pretty likely that the company selling these just infuses the kernels with smoke flavor by using a liquid-smoke type product to soak them before selling.

 

[timothy]

According to my bud there was no L-S or any other type of artificial ingredients.
Just smoked over Hickory. He's a popcorn geek, and he buys a lot of kernels online or at specialty shops.

I'm just going to experiment a little, but thanks for the input.

Tim

 

[Scooter B]

Sounds a bit hoakey to me... any smoke particulate would be on the outside of the kernel. Not sure how that would translate to the finished product.

I would think your best bet would be to make a good smoked salt and go about it that way. I guess you could set up a cold smoke with just some kernels in a foil pan and see if that works.

 

[John Solak]

The only way I could see to smoke some kernels would be to cold smoke them.

 

[D. L. Whitehead]

Originally posted by Scooter B:
Sounds a bit hoakey to me... any smoke particulate would be on the outside of the kernel. Not sure how that would translate to the finished product.

I would think your best bet would be to make a good smoked salt and go about it that way. I guess you could set up a cold smoke with just some kernels in a foil pan and see if that works.

It sounds a bit hokey to me too! If oil-popped, the smoke on the hull would likely be grabbed up by the oil and distributed somewhat to the popped kernels--might as well smoke your oil, if that is truly the case.

It might be worth a try to cold smoke some cob corn and see what the results are. The best popped popcorn is very moisture-content sensitive--only about a half-percent moisture content variability to get really good quality, high-volume popped corn. It might be very difficult to smoke unpopped popcorn without the distinct possibility of lowering the moisture content to an unacceptably low level.

A reasonably good article on popcorn, in general, can be found here.

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[Bob Correll]

Tim,
Did you ever try smoking popcorn?
I was searching on Google and your thread came up.
Found the following from Little Chief Smokers:

"Smoke flavor 1 cup popcorn or wild rice for 30 minutes.
Use mixture of 2/3 Apple and 1/3 Cherry “Chips ‘n Chunks.”
Place in mason jar and add 2 Tbsp. water, cranberry, pineapple, orange or other fruit juices (experiment to your taste) for each cup smoked corn or rice.
Seal for 1 week. This replaces the moisture removed by the smoker and is required
for good kernel popping,
Pop in normal manner. Salt and butter to taste.
You can’t buy this in stores. Dynamite!"

*pdf file found here, page 29

 

[timothy]

Not yet Bob but you're link certainly makes it sound doable.
The re-hydrating part is interesting and one I wouldn't have thought of. I have a bag of kernels from the farmers market that I'm gonna try this on.
Thanks!

Tim