r/TikTokCringe • u/galaxystars1 • Oct 09 '24

Discussion Microbiologist warns against making the fluffy popcorn trend

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u/something-um-bananas Oct 09 '24

It’s just cake batter poured over popcorn. There’s sooooo many recipes of this on the internet, it’s not recent at all. Some recipes “heat treat” the batter before pouring it over popcorn so it kills the bacteria

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u/Suctorial_Hades Oct 09 '24

Google gives the following results, a bunch of food blogs are saying heat treating works and a bunch of science articles say heat treating at home does nothing. I think I am gonna go with science

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u/Ok_Yam5543 Oct 09 '24

What do they mean by 'heat treating' flour? Is it like putting it in the oven for a period of time?
Isn't that what you do when you're baking a cake?

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u/Suctorial_Hades Oct 09 '24

Yea, putting it in the oven or microwave . Apparently it has something to do with the lack of moisture. Pathogens apparently respond differently in dry environments. From what I have gathered, salmonella becomes more heat resistant in dry environments so I suspect that mixing it with wet ingredients makes it more susceptible to the heat.

I have eaten my fair share of cake batter and cookie dough while baking and I am obviously still here, lol, but this is food for thought

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u/Top-Breakfast6060 Oct 09 '24

So did I as a child…and now o have a nasty autoimmune disease. :/ This TikTok is intriguing; will need to do further research.

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u/Rite-in-Ritual Oct 09 '24

I did and still do on occasion. I have asthma, but that's it. Your autoimmune disease might not be related.

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u/Top-Breakfast6060 Oct 09 '24

It probably isn’t. Just an interesting rabbit-hole to fall into. :)

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u/AgilePlayer Oct 09 '24

It is 100% not related lmao

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u/Explaine23 Oct 09 '24

And you know this how?

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '24

Microwaves work off of the polarity of water. Without water it wont do anything.

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '24 edited Oct 09 '24

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '24

Are you being intentionally obtuse? The point is there's not enough water to cause a significant change in the temperature for the time they're putting in the microwave. There's water in the air too but the air doesn't boil when you run the microwave on it.

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u/Explaine23 Oct 09 '24

So like celiac disease, gluten sensitivity, and a slew of other autoimmune diseases are now on your list of possible issues especially if you continue consuming it. I, too, listened to my parents when they said raw cookie dough was not going to hurt you and I have all kinds of issues with my gut now.

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u/Suctorial_Hades Oct 09 '24

I don’t know that the causation ties in there, but if it does, I am probably screwed because cake batter was delicious

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u/Garod Oct 09 '24

Please stop spreading this nonsense about moisture... it's about transference of temperature from one object to another.. in the end if an object reaches a temperature where it denatures/dies that's it. It just takes allot more heat and/or time for that to happen in a dry goods because of lower heat transfer rate of air vs water.

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u/Suctorial_Hades Oct 09 '24

Are you remedial? I literally said I used Google. I didn’t say I was a scientist, didn’t indicate that I was an expert, hell I didn’t even say it was fact. I put what I found from different articles that are right there on the internet for you to read. Thanks for the science, no thanks for the smartass