FOOD NEWS
What Are Corn Nuts, And Are They Really Nuts?
By Kelly Douglas
Walk down any "nut aisle" in a grocery store, and you're sure to see the enigmatic corn nuts — but what are they really?
“Corn nuts" is quite a confusing name. The snacks are made of corn, but they’re far from being nuts.
They used to be made with a Peruvian-American hybrid corn breed that made them giant, but they're now made with a "smaller" corn variety, maize.
To make corn nuts, maize kernels are soaked in water for two to three days to hydrate them; without this step, they'd be too dry to enjoy.
Some of the soaked kernels are then either placed in a fryer and fried in batches, or fried via a conveyor system, while others are roasted in conventional ovens.