On Thu, 18 Nov 2004 01:10:05 -0600, Archimedes Plutonium
wrote:

17 Nov 2004 18:39:46 -0800 Christopher Green wrote:


Interesting that you should mention fir. Fir bark is also edible and
has been served up as an alternative to starvation in famine
conditions in various societies.


Chris there is an experiment I am anxious to do for some time now but the materials are not that easily available to me. I eat alot of
the cereal Kaisha which is puffed cereal grains such as wheat, millet, rice, etc.

I was wondering since most every pineseed is edible whether they puff up when heated. I suppose they do. And whenever I order pine seed,
I just hate to use any on such a test.

Puffed grains are made by either of two processes: like popcorn (in
hot air or hot oil, or by microwave energy), or gun popping (in which
the grains are rapidly decompressed). Either process is exacting,
since success depends largely on the moisture content of the grains
being in a rather narrow range. Cereal and popcorn makers control the
moisture of their stock very carefully.

Puffed rice, made in very hot oil, is traditional in Japan. It doesn't
puff so dramatically as Rice Krispies.

There isn't any reason in principle why pine nuts wouldn't puff; you
could try some in hot oil the way you'd do popcorn, or in a pressure
cooker. With experimentation, it might work.

I wonder if spruce seeds when heated form a nice edible puffed cereal?

Edible, just not so easy to come by as pine nuts. I don't know about
other spruces, but Engelmann spruce is definitely edible: catkins,
immature cones, inner bark, and shoot tips can all be cooked up. It
has a long history in folk medicine as well. Seeds are as edible as
pine nuts are. See http://montana.plant-life.org/sample/spruce01.htm

And judging from the taste of pinenuts I would think puffed pineseed would be delicious.

Might be. Just a question of under what conditions you can get it to
puff.

--
Chris Green