Popcorn and corn on the cob

[kahunabean]

What is the relationship between popcorn and corn-on-the-cob pls ?

[David H]

Basically, it's a difference in language. In England, corn on the cob is officially called maize. In America it's called corn. Corn in UK is a totally separate cereal, and called something else I forget in the USA. Popcorn, being of American origin, is made from maize (their 'corn') of a particular variety which explodes when heated. English corn is something quite different.

[woofgang]

In USA, what we call corn, they call wheat...actually we do too...corn seems to be used more generically here for any field of yellow waving grain bearing stuff

[Gef]

I think corn was the old British term for wheat, hence corn laws, Corn Exchanges etc. Nowadays we use the term corn to mean maize. Cornflakes and cornflour (cornstarch in the USA) are made from maize which, in its 'raw' form we call corn on the cob or sweetcorn. Have I got this right?

[archbishop]

Corn-on-thecob is Maize.Popcorn is Maize.With Corn-on-the-cob you are getting the whole cob(ear).With popcorn it is the fruits? that are dried(sort of) but it is the same cereal.

[Rabelais]

Oh dear, I think people are whizzing hither and thither on this particular question. I think the questioner was asking the difference between corn on the cob and popcorn. To which the answer is they are both varieties of maize. Corn on the cob or 'sweet corn' is usually Zea saccharata, called so as it has higher sugar content and is best eaten fresh. To make popcorn a different variety of corn is employed of the so called flint variety like the original corn raised by the native Americans called Zea mays everta. Flint corn, has a soft starchy center surrounded by a very hard exterior shell. When popcorn is heated the natural moisture inside the kernal turns to steam that builds up enough pressure for the kernal to explode. When the kernal explodes the white starchy puffy popped corn is formed. All types of corn will pop to some degree, but they won't necessarily have enough starch to turn inside out, or an outside layer that will create enough pressure to explode