Hmm
Delicious!
So far! It's not going to be in a minute. Hey guys. I'm Nate welcome back to the workshop
We've got another fun experiment today using molten salt.
Today we're going to see what happens if we combine the molten salt with popcorn
We're gonna see if we can get some kernels of popcorn to pop and then just for the heck of it
We're gonna see what happens if we pour molten salt all over some popcorn. That's already been popped. Let's give this a shot
We'll probably try a few different varieties with the kernels including dropping one kernel into the salt, dropping several kernels into the salt and then
Taking kernels putting them in a pan and pouring the salt all over them. We'll just see what happens
Let's pour some salt into our crucible fire up the furnace and get started
All right molten hot salt and that is impressive how liquid molten salt is that's just
Super runny, and of course. It's hot netha it's gonna light my stick on fire
All right when you start with just one kernel see what happens here goes
And it lit on fire
Popcorn is usually cooked in hot oil which is of course very hot but more like
400 degrees hot maybe a little more than that, but this is probably almost 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That's a lot
But let's try pouring in a few more kernels and see what happens
Whoo our salt is solidifying on top
We've got our kernel, which is sort of resting on there throwing individual kernels down into it
It slightly breaks the surface of the salt a little bit
I'm just curious if any of these can pop if we can get one kernel of corn to pop I'll be pretty happy
Also be happy at this point if I can actually just aim well
There's probably still a lot of molten salt underneath the crust that is formed on top
I'm still so
We've got like half popping corn. The kernels are breaking open. They're just not popping like normal popcorn does
Going a little bit more on top as it cools down and they cook a little bit slower a little bit lower temperatures we have
slightly better chance of getting an actual pop kernel
Hey, there's a sort of pop one yes, haha, we're getting popcorn
It's kind of working yeah
A little bit, it was probably the worst way to pop corn. I've ever seen I had more
Now it smells like burnt popcorn instead of just bringing salt. Ha ha yeah
Explode
Smallest explosions known to man
This too excited to get about kernels of corn popping
Actually, it's edible it got thrown clear of our crucible and our salt, but
You know it still tastes burn
Let's see if we can scoop out our bundles of burned corn here I
Think at this point we have a very hot crucible
filled almost solidly with
Salt so let's throw this back in the furnace
Get it back to a nice liquid state and then see what happens if instead of dropping the kernels into the salt
We pour salt over the kernels
That had some remaining corn kernels in it they largely got just incinerated in our furnace
Alright here goes super orange glowy burning hot salt being poured onto popcorn kernels in three two one
That is an even grosser smoke than some other things
We've burned with salt we had a similar result when we poured molten salt onto gummy bears and gummi worms
This smells worse burning sugar yeah, not a terrible smell burning popcorn
pretty terrible smell
Bad fan
While the salt is still hot but not as hot
We have movement and it moved to kind of a whole block so some of it might be tunnels underneath the salt
Yes
I'm still thinking some of these kernels might keep popping
But I think it can already definitively say this is a terrible way to make popcorn
We leave nice colors
To burn salt and gray black with like the nice golden brown mix with the yellow and tell the Fox away
I don't know. I just kind of like it still
quite hot possible more kernels will still decide they want to pop but
Not a lot of popping going on we actually had more
popping when we would just put the kernels down on top of the molten salt inside the crucible and I wonder if that's just because
All of the air inside of the crucible was very hot as well
So they're nice and evenly surrounded with Heat whereas now. They're just getting cooked from one side alone
or it's just timing take a look at the bottom of this thing I
Also fused together if one
Blackened salt mess couple of kernels that manage to pop underneath it
I think we saw our whole piece of salt sort of jump a little bit as the kernels on the bottom
did pop
There we go we're pretty neat as this all cools down it does quickly start forming its crystalline structure, so we've got some good
Shiny light reflective spots even though, this is turned pretty much black, which as I understand it
It's actually pulling some of the carbon out of the graphite crucible
It's part of what's turning black, and then of course it gets further stained
By all the burning popcorn
We have tried mixing our molten salt with our uncooked popcorn, and it didn't work very well
But just to finish off and make sure we've really exhausted every possibility
We're gonna try pouring our molten salt over this cooked popcorn
Which I predict is just gonna burn it and make it maybe catch fire and smell really bad, but we don't know until we try
Three-two-one
Mmm burn popcorn
I think what's burning now. Is that there was oil on the popcorn, so there's now little puddles of burning oil here
Salt on one side pop corn husks on the other
Definitely not going to taste that
Mixing molten salt with popcorn normally salt on popcorn is a good thing it tastes great and really adds to the whole experience
But it turns out that temperature of the salt is extremely important cold salt
Excellent hot salt not so excellent at least once you're up to a temperature of almost
2,000 degrees Fahrenheit
It burns the kernels it burns the popcorn and overall you just get a smoky
Stinky mess that of course is not even close to being edible we did get a couple of kernels to pop in both methods with
The raw kernels and the molten salt dropping some kernels into the cup of salt
We got a few that would pop
but when the kernels landed on top of the
Solidified layer of salt that was still extremely hot it was able to create a little bit of an oven and crucible
I think and some of those kernels did pop and even had enough energy to pop up and out of the container when we poured
The molten salt all over the kernels while they are in our metal pan
We got a couple of them popping a couple even popped underneath the cooled layer of salt
Which made it sort of bounce around a little bit?
Pouring molten salt onto our already popped kernels had pretty much exactly the effect that predicted. It was going to it all just caught fire
That's what's gonna happen when you pour 2,000 degrees liquid salt onto popped popcorn
If you have any cool ideas of things that you want to see covered in molten salt
Let us know down in the comments. We might try it out, and if we use your idea. We will be sending you 25 bucks
Hey guys
Thanks for watching if you're not a subscriber yet hit the bomb to get in the club if you missed our last video or you?
Want to watch it again click up here at the top
Click down there if you want to see what the internet thinks you should watch next
That's it for now. Have fun. Be safe. See you tomorrow