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Post by 12540dumont on Apr 14, 2013 16:45:56 GMT -5
That's really terrific Joseph! Here's the Paradise, going gangbusters. 3 new leaves in 3 days. Attachments:
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 15, 2013 13:27:11 GMT -5
Well that's plain amazing! So... let me see if I understand (because I want to reproduce these results)
1. Take a measured weight of popcorn (100 grams? for ease of calculation?) 2. Grind seed fine or coarse? I would use a mortar & pestle...? 3. Weigh again to ensure full amount is retrieved from the mortar. 4 Place in appropriate container (pie tin or such?) and place into preheated oven. 5. Dehydrate over a period of 3 hours removing and weigh every 30 minutes? 45 minutes? hour? 6. Add water weight to remaining corn, equal to amount of water lost during the dehydration period. Example: I have 1 kilo of corn. The corn lost 10 grams over the 3 hour period. I will add 100 grams of water to the kilo of corn.
Is that right?
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Post by raymondo on Apr 15, 2013 15:35:55 GMT -5
Well that's plain amazing! So... let me see if I understand (because I want to reproduce these results) 1. Take a measured weight of popcorn (100 grams? for ease of calculation?) 2. Grind seed fine or coarse? I would use a mortar & pestle...? 3. Weigh again to ensure full amount is retrieved from the mortar. 4 Place in appropriate container (pie tin or such?) and place into preheated oven. 5. Dehydrate over a period of 3 hours removing and weigh every 30 minutes? 45 minutes? hour? 6. Add water weight to remaining corn, equal to amount of water lost during the dehydration period. Example: I have 1 kilo of corn. The corn lost 10 grams over the 3 hour period. I will add 100 grams of water to the kilo of corn. Is that right? Not quite right. If you had 100 g of corn to start and it dried down to 90 g you will have lost 10 g of water, or 10%. So the 90 g represents 90% of the original. If the ideal water content is 14% what you really want is that 90 g to represent 86% of the original, meaning it will have lost 14% water. To make your original corn up to 14% water content you will need to add 90 x 4 / 86 = 4.65 g of water per 100 g of corn. That's 46.5 g of water per kilogram of corn. You can take it that 1 g = 1 mL for water. In words, if you are always starting with 100 g of corn to test, then the amount of water you need to add, per 100 g of corn, will be the final dry weight times the difference between the final dry weight and 86 all divided by 86. I hope I haven't confused things.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 15, 2013 16:07:25 GMT -5
It's more accurate to grind the corn prior to weighing it out: It flies all over everywhere during grinding. I spill. etc... I have a jewelry scale, so I use smaller amounts, around 20 grams of corn meal. My pans are stainless steel condiment dishes. I have used aluminum foil, or cat food cans also. Technically grinding might not even be necessary, it would just take longer to dry out. I generally put it in the oven and forget about it... 3-4 hours is enough. Most of the water leaves in the first hour. Eventually I say, enough and go with that weight. I'm attaching the spreadsheet that I use. The first time I did this calculation it was a mess, but once I applied algebra to it (as in Ray's example) the calculation became simple. Attachments:
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Post by 12540dumont on Apr 15, 2013 16:37:02 GMT -5
OMG, something I can use algebra for. All those lost hours in college studying something I have never used! Haw and Gee.
All this time I have been lazy and just put 1/4 of popcorn in a measuring cup and added 1/4 C. of water. I let it sit for an hour, dump out what's left of the water and pop away.
Who knew that their was both science and mathematics involved.
You guys just amaze me. Now I have 2 popcorns to grow. A Penn Butter and Joseph's Coat of Many Colors Corn....Joseph's Technicolor Corn? Hmmm. How shall I list it?
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Post by steev on Apr 15, 2013 17:15:19 GMT -5
The only thing in which there isn't both science and mathematics is religion, a fair indication of its relation to reality. That ought to pop some corn.
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Post by mnjrutherford on Apr 15, 2013 18:17:18 GMT -5
you... like... NORMALLY add water to popcorn? Seriously? Ray, I know you really like me... but... what you said... If it got any further over my head it would land on Mars... I haven't looked at the spreadsheet yet... I have to catch my breath over the idea of soaking popcorn first. Steev... no science or math in religion? We need to chat!!!!
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josh
gopher
Posts: 14
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Post by josh on Apr 15, 2013 22:00:35 GMT -5
Really fantastic contribution this corn and all the thorough work going into creating it thanks Joseph, seems not much has been done with popcorn compared to the other groups. Looking forward to see how it develops and it sounds as though the final creation will have one hell of a pOp ...
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Post by templeton on Apr 16, 2013 17:00:34 GMT -5
Ray, I know you really like me... but... what you said... If it got any further over my head it would land on Mars... I haven't looked at the spreadsheet yet... I have to catch my breath over the idea of soaking popcorn first. Might be easier in words... There are two questions you need to answer - What is the current water content of my corn?Weight some, (say a cup full or so, it doesn't really matter), then dry it really well in the oven, then weigh it again. The percentage of water is compared to the final dry weight, rather than the original weight. So, "original weight - dry weight" = amount of water in a cup of original corn "amount of water / dry weight X 100" = percentage of water in undried corn The next question is How much water do I need to add to my original undried corn to get 14% moisture content?Let's say you got 8 % moisture content in the first step. Put 108 grams of original corn in a container. (That much would have 100 grams of dehydrated or dry corn, and 8 grams of water already contained in the original corn) Our target is to get 14% water - 100 grams of dehydrated corn, with 14 grams of water in it. Now add enough water to make the whole lot weigh 114 grams - that would be 114 - 108 = 6 grams, or 6 mm of water. Let's say you got 12% moisture content in the first step. Put 112 grams of undried corn in the container (which would have 100 grams of dehydrated corn plus 12 grams of contained water), then and add 2 grams of water. 112 plus the 2 grams = 114 grams or 14% moisture content. (Whew, so glad we have the metric system - try doing that with ounces and pints and teaspoons from first principles - you'd have to dust off the abacus ...) T
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Post by raymondo on Apr 16, 2013 18:07:43 GMT -5
... Let's say you got 12% moisture content in the first step. Put 112 grams of undried corn in the container (which would have 100 grams of dehydrated corn plus 12 grams of contained water), then and add 2 grams of water. 112 plus the 2 grams = 114 grams or 14% moisture content. ... T Sorry T, going to be a pedant here. If your corn has 12% moisture and you have 112g of it, the dry weight is 98.56g, not 100g because 12% of 112 is 13.44, not 12. So, to get to 14% moisture you will need to add more like 2.6g of water. Not much difference on small amounts but take it up to kilogram scale and it starts to matter.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 16, 2013 19:25:18 GMT -5
Yup. The first time I did that calculation it made my head spin round and round... If I adjust the moisture then it changes the percentage...
Best to use algebra:
Final weight = (Dry Weight)/(1- Target Percent Moisture)
So to continue the current example...
Final weight for 14% moisture should be: 98.56/(1-.14) ==> 114.6 g
And since we started with 112 grams, then we need 2.6 grams of water.
I do all of my calculations in metric... Sure makes life easier!!!! Especially when I start converting to calories, and watts, etc.... I even built my most recent fence as a metric fence. First time in my life that I did carpentry in metric.
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Post by steev on Apr 16, 2013 19:46:37 GMT -5
I pound in my t-posts and plant my trees in paces; English and metric? Both too new-fangled. I fail to see the point, if it isn't Clovis.
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Post by Joseph Lofthouse on Apr 16, 2013 20:02:35 GMT -5
I do all of my row spacing in feet. Not Imperial feet, but Joseph's feet, or more accurately Joseph's shoes, or Amber's shoes, or whomever happens to be measuring that day.
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Post by steev on Apr 16, 2013 20:19:19 GMT -5
It's always easier to measure by whatever is at "hand".
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Post by davida on Apr 16, 2013 20:27:23 GMT -5
It's always easier to measure by whatever is at "hand". My hand span is exactly 9 inches so I do a lot of measuring by "hand".
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