[Laughter]
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 salts
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
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
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
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
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
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
I think what’s burning now is that there
was oil on the popcorn so there’s now
salt on one side pop corn husks on the
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
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