We're melting, melting!

[asakiyume]

I still can't seem to bring myself to talk about all the ideas bubbling around in my head, so instead, here's something fun. Topatoco sent me some things I ordered in a box filled with packing peanuts--but not evil, styrofoam packing peanuts. No: these packing peanuts were made from corn starch.



The thing about them is, they can dissolve in water.


How can you learn a fact like that and not want to try it?

Watch on YouTube

Yeah, they smelled like popcorn as they were dissolving. Makes me **almost** want to try to eat them. Almost.

Comments

[cmcmck.livejournal.com]

What an excellent idea.

A company we use packs in shredded newsprint which is dead easy to recycle.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yep, that's another good packing material.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Wow!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Fun, right?

[galestorm.livejournal.com]

There _has_ to be someone online who did eat them, possibly on YouTube. I don't know anyone who would do this, so I don't have any links to share, but ... !

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm sure they're processed with all kinds of horrible stuff, so it's probably not a smart move, but they do *smell* good :-)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

One of my cats loves to eat them. I try to prevent him, because chemicals - but it isn't only asakiyumes to whom they smell good.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I think my cat might try eating the styrofoam sort, if he was in hunter mode :-P

But I am glad to share something with the intelligent and culinarily blessed cats of your household!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hah. I have just come from the kitchen, where I was clearing up the wreckage of the cup that Mac broke. Want a cat...?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Mac looks like he'd be a stern but just sovereign ^_^

[genarti]

I did! (Described below.) I'm actually kind of astonished at the self-restraint of everybody who's commented so far about being tempted and not trying them, but I figure the fact that I was a preteen when I first encountered them is probably relevant.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you probably had no concept of what they might *do* to make corn starch do that... although, frankly, what do they do to cheese puffs to make them be cheese puffs? And yet that never stopped me from eating cheese puffs.

The many mysteries of processing.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

According to Al Sicherman (http://www.amazon.com/Caramel-knowledge-Al-Sicherman/dp/0961424109/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418904714&sr=8-2&keywords=al+sicherman), the manufacture of cheese puffs is arcane indeed, and nothing that can be replicated at home.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

The difference between cheese puffs and these packing peanuts is that cheese puffs have no resilience at all--you squeeze one and it crumbles--whereas these have bounce. Cheese puffs would make terrible packing peanuts....

... I know you know this... I guess I'm just musing on the differences between these two highly processed forms, which shapewise, are so similar.

[lizziebelle.livejournal.com]

What a great idea! I hope more companies do this.

And this brought back a memory of my dad opening a box, sticking in his hands, tossing packing peanuts in the air and saying, "Worms!"

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Hahaha, you have a fun dad ^_^

[blairmacg.livejournal.com]

They can be tossed on the compost pile, too.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's what I'm going to do with the rest of them.

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's what I do.

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

I have also been occasionally tempted.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm glad I'm not alone in this.

[duccio.livejournal.com]

You can add these cornstarch packing peanuts to paper pulp made from your junk mail (using a thrift store blender) and make your own paper. Then instead of washing the peanuts down the drain, throwing them out, or the excellent idea of composting them, you can make your own paper and recycle the packing peanuts along with your junk mail. It's fun sloshing around outside in the pulp vats too. Actually, I read that the main usage for starch, is sizing in paper. The more starch in paper, the better. (Something to do when it is not freezing outside.)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

That's a good idea!

I'll save some out.

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

I wonder if they're edible. Disgusting but edible, I'd imagine.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

genarti confirms that they are, in fact edible.

[sovay]

No: these packing peanuts were made from corn starch.

I have seen snacks that were visually and now perhaps calorically indistinguishable from those packing materials.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Me too.

[gwynnega]

What a clever idea!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yeah! I like that Topatoco uses them. Topatoco is the company that distributes Kate Beaton's stuff.

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of those. How cool!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Aren't they fun?

[genarti]

When I was in middle school, I think, one of my science teachers brought in some of those. We held them under the faucet, one by one, holding onto one end, and watched them dissolve; it was like watching a magic trick, but more so. With a magic trick you know there's sleight of hand you're not catching, but this was purely surreal: a special effect, in real life. It was astounding to me.

Being in middle school, I gave in to the urge to try eating them! And so I can confirm that they're edible. They're neither terribly pleasant nor actively unpleasant. It's like eating cheetos without the flavoring. They dissolve to gumminess and a starchy, floury taste that feels like it's coating your tongue before that, too, dissolves away. (Weirdly addictive, too, when you're 12, but I suspect the magic trick effect had a good bit to do with that.)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

(((genarti!!!))

I love LJ because I have friends who have experience eating corn starch packing peanuts. And what you describe is what I imagined!!

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

I've tasted them, and agree.

My son's art teacher has kids use them as sculpture material.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I love that so many of my LJ friends are so adventurous, when it comes to food experimenting :-)

[serialbabbler.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who ate some of them. (His description is much the same as genarti's. :) )

You can also get art supplies called "Magic Nuudles" which are basically biodegradable packing peanuts that have been dyed in bright colors. You get the ends wet and stick them together to make sculptures.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

amaebi above was saying that her son has used the packing peanuts in art projects. I wonder if they stay stuck together once they dry out.

[serialbabbler.livejournal.com]

They do stay stuck together. The partially disolved starch makes a pretty good glue.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I wonder if there's a gap in the market for a deliberately edible packing bead. It would certainly make unpacking more fun...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'd say yes! Though I think you'd have a hard time getting approval. Even if you could get it to pass muster in terms of production, the problem would be that you'd have no way of ensuring that people used them in a way that avoided contamination. So, I buy a pack and use them to insulate bicycle parts that I'm sending to my bicycle-enthusiast friend. The bicycle parts have lubricant on them, which gets on the peanuts, which my friend munches on when she gets the package. Or what if my box isn't tightly sealed and sits in a puddle that had de-icing chemicals or antifreeze in it, and they seep in? (Hello, my name is Asakiyume and I take things waaaaay too seriously. Also, I have a morbid imagination.)

But I still think people would love the idea. Maybe if they were marketed with a whacking big proviso that people use common sense.....