This Book has been Printed:—

(1) Because now is the time to enter into the manufacture of pop-corn.

(2) Because every district will soon have its pop-corn factory.

(3) Because your customers will realize that only goods of local manufacture and high quality, under your trade-mark, are dependably fresh and wholesome.

(4) Because people are buying more pop-corn than ever before.

(5) Because the demand for pop-corn ground and whole, in squares, bars, fritters, etc., in New England is as substantial as the demand for crackers.

(6) Because pop-corn has great possibilities.

(7) Because pop-corn may be put before the public in many ways.

(8) Because if one style is not salable in a certain locality there are enough that will be, as there are plenty of styles to choose from.

(9) To show that you should trade-mark your goods.

(10) To show that the “price toboggan” had better coast empty.

(11) To give you guidance, so that no matter what may be your problem you may eventually achieve success.

(12) Because pop-corn makers are scarce as compared to the demand for them, and it is hoped that this will assist in the training of capable men.

(13) Because pop-corn made on quality builds business.

(14) Because we want to increase the consumption of pop-corn.

This is the kind of a book that you get properly balanced in your mind if you READ IT THREE TIMES, one after the other. Even after the third time you will find something that you passed over without noticing at the other readings.

CHAPTER I
THE WORLD-WIDE FOOD-CONFECTION

AFTER every man, woman and child gets to know its pleasant taste and its food value, the world consumption of pop-corn is going to be something tremendous.

The ear

Consider that pop-corn contains the whole of the grain, and that the grain is thoroughly cooked. It is a healthful, nourishing food. It is pure. It is a poor man’s confection and food combined. It is too palatable for the rich man to ignore. It is considered by “Uncle Sam” to be such a valuable article that through the United States Agricultural Department, he has published two pamphlets for free distribution, Farmers’ Bulletins No. 553, “Pop-corn for the Home,” and No. 554, “Pop-corn for the Market.” By permission of the department we avail ourselves of some of the information there given.

Unpopped Kernels and Popped Kernels of White Rice Pop-Corn

(With Permission of the U. S. Department of Agriculture.)

Out of the more than twenty varieties of pop-corn you are advised to use White Rice, as that makes the largest popped kernel compared to the size of the raw kernel, and it is the most common commercial pop-corn.

As it is the expanding of the moisture in pop-corn by turning into steam that explodes and cooks the grain, it is necessary to have the right quantity of moisture, about twelve per cent., and to have that moisture evenly distributed throughout the kernel, and the kernel otherwise in fit condition for popping.

Some of the things that spoil the popping quality of corn are:

Seed from which the crop is raised not being acclimated to the locality in which it is planted.

Other kinds of corn growing near the pop-corn.

Picking before the pop-corn has fully ripened, or picking after the coming of frost.

Not sufficient ventilation while curing.

Too much drying out; shelled corn dries out faster than corn on the cob.

Shelling the corn too long before popping.

Defects in the kernel itself.

Damage from moths which produce weevils.

Insufficient heat, giving poor popping results.

You see that it is really a delicate proposition to deliver pop-corn to you that will give you the best results. Therefore, it is not safe for you to buy pop-corn of any but reliable dealers.

Seventy pounds of ears, air-dried, constitute a bushel.

Fifty-six pounds of shelled pop-corn make a bushel.

One hundred pounds of ears should give eighty pounds of shelled pop-corn.

There are the same number of food units in:—

One brick of Pop-corn.
One-fifth of a pound of Roast Beef.
Four servings of Oatmeal.
Four Eggs.
One-third pound Roast Lamb.
One pint Milk.

To be more accurate, here is the percentage of proteid, fat, carbohydrates and the number of calories in one pound of each of the foods noted.

	Proteid	Fat	Carbo- hydrates	Calories
Peanuts,	25.8	38.6	24.4	2560
Sugar,	00	00	100	1857
Pop-corn,	11	11	78	1860
Cocoanut,	4	77	19	2800
Raisins,	3	9	88	1600
Oatmeal (boiled),	18	7	75	300
Roast Beef,	18	82	00	1800
Eggs,	32	68	00	760
Roast Lamb,	40	60	00	900
Milk,	19	52	29	300

Chart of Manufacturing Procedure

This chart of manufacturing process shows at what point each ingredient enters the batch.

It shows the arrangement of operations.

It shows what type of goods is the easiest to make and what takes the most machinery to complete. It condenses on one page the underlying principles of pop-corn confection manufacture.

Study it carefully. In this chart you will find the answer to your question of how to arrange your factory—at what point in the work a certain material is added to the confection.

It shows what materials are required to manufacture pop-corn confection and shows what set of machines are necessary to make a particular type of corn confection.

It shows what machines are the essential ones in the business.

SCHEDULE OF EQUIPMENT

	A	B	C	D	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R
Salted Pop-Corn	×	×
Buttered Pop-Corn	×	×			×	×					×
Crispettes, various colors and flavors	×	×	×	×	×	×	×					×
Dodgers, various colors and flavors	×	×	×	×	×	×	×	×				×
Biscuits, various colors and flavors	×	×	×	×	×	×		×	×				×	×
Penny Squares and Bars	×	×	×	×	×	×		×	×	×						×
Bricks	×	×	×	×	×	×		×	×	×						×	×
Sticks	×	×	×	×	×	×		×	×	×					×
Brittle	×	×	×	×	×	×			×

Key

A	Popper No. 2002-3 [Page 19]
B	Sifter No. 112 [Page 20]
C	Two Stock Tanks No. 2013-1 [Page 25]
D	Measure 2 qt. Graduated
E	Paddle No. 2006-1 [Page 41]
F	Stove No. 113-1 [Page 25]
G	Mixer No. 114-2 [Page 29]
H	Crispette Machine S F 3 [Page 38]
I	Grinder No. 109-1 [Page 22]
J	Press No. 110-1 [Page 33]
K	{Cutting Machine No. 111 [Page 35] {Cutting Machine No. 115 [Page 37]
L	Buttered Corn Tank No. 2019-1 [Page 41]
M	Wrapping Form [Page 31]
N	Biscuit Mould No. 2002-1 [Page 31]
O	5 Biscuit Pans No. 2007-2 [Page 31]
P	5 Stick Pans No. 2007-3 and Mould No. 2002-4 [Page 39]
Q	5 Pans No. 2007-1 [Page 31]
R	5 Transfer Racks No. 2022-1 [Page 35]

This schedule illustrates in a different way from the “Chart of Manufacturing Procedure” on [page 9] what you require as an equipment for the manufacture of any one of the regular types of Pop-Corn Confection.

Pop-Corn Bars, “Penny Squares and Bars” as the line is called, requires as you see by the ×’s, these machines—Popper, Sifter, Stock Tanks, Measure, Stove, Mixer, Grinder, Press, Cutting Machine, 5 Pans—thus you get a definite list of the tools for a complete plant, for the particular product.

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.

CHAPTER III
ARRANGEMENT OF OUTFIT

YOU will agree with me that unless you have your outfit arranged right you will be wasting steps, and that one worker will be in the way of another.

The best way is to have the room arranged so that the raw corn starts down one side of the room and the finished goods come back on the other, so that the process of manufacture passes around the room in a continuous progress toward the shipping point.

This sketch gives you an arrangement to consider. You should make your Popper and Mill Stand, Stock Tank Stand, Kettle Stirring Stand and Bench so that you can move them, and thus try various distances and arrangements to fit the particular line of goods that becomes your leader.

It is just as bad to have machines too close together as to have them too far apart, even when arranged in good working order. In the plan above, room is left for barrels to stand in front of the popper, at the side of and in front of the mill and room for two at the Kettle Stirring Stand, one for whole corn and one for ground corn.