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.