How is puffed rice made ? The type you get in rice cakes or in breakfast cereal like Puffa Puffa Rice ?
I’ve tried-
Sticking raw rice in the oven
Heating in a pan with oil, like popcorn
Raw rice in a popcorn machine
Deep frying raw rice
None of those worked. I’m guessing maybe it is wet rice super heated in hot air quickly to evaporate the moisture and expand the grain - but I can’t try this.
So puffed rice, how to make ?
You shoot it from a gun. 
That old marketing slogan was more-or-less accurate. As the Wikipedia article notes, “heating rice kernels under high pressure in the presence of steam”.
As the article notes, it’s a common dish in many areas (where I imagine that many of them don’t actually use guns), but it does suggest that what you’ve been lacking is the high level of pressure (and possibly steam, as well).
If you just google “How to Make Puffed Rice” you get a perfectly good answer.
Since the OP is looking for recipes, let’s move this to Cafe Society.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Reported to recommend move to Cafe Society.
Ninja’d by a mod - first time for everything.
There used to be few things more closely guarded than cereal manufacturing techniques. The explosive decompression “shot from guns” method was one of the first to be widely publicized, I believe.
It’s possible you could emulate it by pressure-cooking the rice and then releasing the pressure, but I think you’d have to get the rice/water combination exact (especially at the moment of release) and use quite a bit of initial pressure. I don’t think most pressure cookers can release the pressure fast enough, either.
So I need sand or a shotgun.
Yeah move to cafe, didn’t see the cafe.
Don’t all the best recipes?
For the pacifist, no firearms involved in the manufacture of rice krispies.
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question393.htm
(No mention about the necessity of sand though…)
I remember coming across “Gunner” listed in an official government list of occupations many years ago, and being amused to discover that it meant the person who operated the applicable cereal processing machinery rather than anything to do with firearms or artillery.
No harm in learning how, but the real question is why?
I mean, has the price of puffed rice skyrocketed recently?
Am I going to have to learn how to make Rice Krispies next?
I want to know why someone stuffed rice into a gun and shot it. I mean the first person to do it. I doubt they thought they were going get puffed rice. Probably something along the lines of “the perfect crime”.
Evil Genius thinking: I shoot someone with rice. Birds eat the rice. No evidence. I get away with MURDER!!!
Later that day…
“Blam!”
“Ow! Crunch crunch crunch. Hey this is delicious.”
EG “Curses! Foiled again!”
Or you need Shot From Guns, but she does come around these parts much anymore. Now I have to wonder if that’s where she got her username from?
Too late to say ‘sand’. I saw this done when I was in Vietnam, they stir a great big wok loaded with rice and sand and it magically and deliciously pops - precursor to making a type of Vietnamese candy. Never tried it at home though.
I think it would be dangerous if they could.
It might be possible to get a similar effect by cooking the rice, then placing it in a vacuum chamber - going from ambient pressure to vacuum is somewhat analogous to going from high pressure to ambient.
Sure, you can buy Rice Krispies or something similar - but making your own puffed rice at home is not too difficult, and is much healthier! This techinque works with any starch. Fully cook your rice, and then dry it out (it usually needs about 24 hours to dry completely). Then take an oil with a high smoke point (such as canola oil) and heat it in a wok. Pour your rice into a strainer, and then submerge in the oil for a few seconds.
Healthier? This is deep fried cereal. And Kraft thought they’d found every possible way to make cereal less healthy.
I was going to say cook rice in a pressure cooker, then open it just before it’s cooked.
For that matter, how do you make “cracked wheat”. Do you “crack it?” HOW?
Inquiring minds and all that.
