# Corn nuts. Corn? nuts? Just plain nuts? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 18, 1999, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858 "1999-11-18T15:48:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Inky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d78d45/32.png) [@Inky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inky)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 1999, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/1 "1999-11-18T15:48:00Z")
I can’t be the only person who’s wondered about this. Corn nuts. Far too salty for the adult Inky, but as a young pre-Inky I used to scarf them up. The back of the package (when they wern’t hawking T-Shirts or whatever) would show merry mid-western farmers harvesting gigantic ears of corn (presumably before going basselope hunting). Are corn nuts really from a giant breed of mutant corn? Are they standard kernals of corn puffed up big somehow? Did anyone really like the barbecue kind? Inky ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 1999, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/2 "1999-11-18T16:19:00Z")
Boyah, ainchoo nevah heerd ah hominy? Sorry, I lapsed into hillbilly creole for a second there. It is corn of a sort without the hull or germ. It puffs up when soaked in water. That’s why my family always referred to menudo as cow guts and popcorn. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 1999, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/3 "1999-11-18T16:20:00Z")
I always thought that they were deep-fried. Maybe under pressure- for, if they were fried at regular pressure…you would get…popcorn? I loved them to bits, and yes, the Low-Sodium Corn Nuts never really caught on… Cartooniverse " If you want to kiss the sky you’d better learn how to kneel " ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 1999, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/4 "1999-11-18T16:23:00Z")
Pardon my presumption to refer to you as “boyah.” Uh, it’s a hillbilly thing. Sorry, not hillbilly. They prefer to be called “sons of the soil.” ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 1999, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/5 "1999-11-18T17:38:00Z")
When I was a kid, the makers of corn nuts had a promotion offering actual corn nut “corn” seeds that could be planted to grow your own. I can attest that these seeds were the same size as the corn nut product; their size is not the result of “puffing up” from water, cooking or whatever. We planted them and were astonished when the resulting cornstalks grew to over 10 feet tall, however I don’t recall them actually producing any corn; that’s probably why there aren’t many ten-year-old farmers. * * * TT “Believe those who seek the truth. Doubt those who find it.” --Andre Gide ---
**Author:** ![Nickrz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nickrz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nickrz)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 1999, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/6 "1999-11-18T17:47:00Z")
Like eating teeth. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 1999, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/7 "1999-11-18T20:13:00Z")
Like eating teeth that smell like sweaty, dirty feet. Blech! ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 1999, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/8 "1999-11-18T23:59:00Z")
## Hey! I like 'em! But then again, I like marshmallow peanuts. “Vandelay!! Say Vandelay!!” ---
**Author:** ![Homer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df788c/32.png) [@Homer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homer)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 1999, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/9 "1999-11-19T05:45:00Z")
OOH I love corn nuts, and circus peanuts, too! Yummy! Salty! And, I buy Paydays and a Dr Pepper, break a few peanuts off, and drop them in the drink. YUM! I’m wierd. –Tim * * * We are the children of the Eighties. We are not the first “lost generation” nor today’s lost generation; in fact, we think we know just where we stand - or are discovering it as we speak. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 1999, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/10 "1999-11-19T05:50:00Z")
There used to be a story that the people who first brought you CornNuts read about the particular plant that produces them in Ripley’s Believe It or Not. Toasted corn (regular or irregular size) has been around for a long time. It was one of the things Civil War soldiers had to depend on in the field. ---
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 1999, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/11 "1999-11-19T14:28:00Z")
BBQ are the BEST corn nuts, the only type to get, and the strongest SMELLING too! When I used to work retail me and my crew of other young guys used to reveil in eating bbq cornnuts by the bagfull and then go help customers. Start to talk to them and they jump back about 10 feet from the smell. Amused us to no end! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 1999, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/12 "1999-11-20T20:01:00Z")
B\_Line12 Thats for sure! You could smell them on someone’s breath a block away! Not to mention the noise made when chewing them. I did love them when I was a kid though… ---
**Author:** ![mr\_john](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@mr\_john](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_john)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 1999, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corn-nuts-corn-nuts-just-plain-nuts/4858/13 "1999-11-21T00:13:00Z")
Homer, you are weird. you put salted peanuts in a coke not a dr pepper. Yall can have them corn nuts. I gonna have me a big ol ARE OH SEE cola an a moon pie. ( I don’t know where that O in the middle of RC cola comes from but i have heard it all my life) * * * “Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx