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= Puffed rice cakes [Sandbox] =

The puffed rice cake is a flat hard food made with puffed rice. Typically, it is eaten as a snack or used as a base for other ingredients.

While it is low in nutrients, it is generally considered to be a low-calorie food, and is often consumed among dieters as a substitute for higher-calorie breads or other food items.

Some rice cakes are flavored. Common flavorings include chicken, sweet chili, cheese, butter, chocolate, caramel, salt and vinegar, or apple cinnamon.

Most rice cakes are round, though square varieties are available.

Wor Bar
Traditionally, Wor Bar (Guoba in Mandarin, translates to "pot's burnt") refers to the slightly browned rice that is stuck to the bottom of clay pots, which, after caramelization, results in the rice being formed into a single piece and giving it a slightly burned flavor. It may be brewed into tea, or served as part of a main meal by pouring savory meat sauces over the heated puffed rice cake.

Quaker Rice Cake
Quaker's rice cakes are round disks of puffed rice. They are the same weight as Styrofoam with a light sprinkle of flavor crystals, salt, or cinnamon, dusting the top and coating the crevices between each grain of puffy rice. These rice cakes can become stale just like bread. To maintain the freshness of the cakes, the manufacturer inner wrap packs of eight rice cakes which are then placed in a resealable plastic outer bag.

History
In December 1901, botanist Alexander Pierce Anderson created puffed rice while experimenting with starch crystals in his laboratory. The botanist believed that a speck of free water would be found in the nucleus of a starch crystal. To prove this, he tried an experiment. He heated starch granules that were sealed in a glass tube until they showed signs of browning. Anderson theorized the water inside each grain would turn to steam. He suspected that a reaction within the starch would occur if he broke the tube and set the steam free. The scientist smashed the glass and the resulting explosion produced a stick of pure puffed starch. Professor Anderson then traveled to Minneapolis for a meeting set up by John Lind and W.C. Edgar, the prominent editor of Northwestern Miller magazine, to find investors to turn his puffing process into a usable product. Later, Anderson's initial Minneapolis investors sold their shares of the puffing process to Quaker Oats Company around 1905.

Around 1985, Quaker Oats bought the rice cake manufacturer, Arden Organics in Asheville, N. C. and began its entry into the rice cake market.

In May 1993, Quaker Oats Co. made a deal to acquire Chico-Sans, a rice cake manufacturer, from H.J. Heinz Co. for an undisclosed price. The deal includes Chico-San’s brand names, inventory, and Gridley, California plant, which employs about 100 people at the time. Chico-San was founded in 1962 in Chico, California, and was acquired by Pittsburgh-based Heinz in 1984 until it was acquired by Quakers in 1993. By 1993, Chico-Sans was the second- largest-selling rice cake brand with an 18 percent market share, followed by Pet Inc.’s Hain brand with 11 percent. With the acquisition of Chico-Sans, Quaker now has a 63 percent share of the U.S. rice and popcorn cake market.

During the late 1980s and 1990s, the low-carb diet start to trend with American consumers. Rice cakes are perceived as healthful because they are made without salt and fat, and are low in calories so the sales of rice cake industry had increased in this period. According to industry figures for the 12 weeks preceding Feb. 27, 1987, sales of rice cakes had tripled as compared with the same period the previous year.

The low-carb trends started to decline in the mid-2000s, and the popularity of rice cakes declined as well. Even with the declining popularity, Quaker reports that it still produces 500 million rice cakes annually as of 2020.

Manufacturing Process
The main ingredient is long-grain or medium-grain brown rice. Other minor ingredients such as sesame seed, millet, and salt may be added. Brown rice is milled from paddy rice by removing the hulls and retaining the bran and polish layers, mainly the aleurone layer, which have higher levels of nutrients and dietary fiber than conventional white rice.

The procedures for making rice cake start with adding water is added to the long-grain or medium-grain raw brown rice to adjust its moisture content to 14–18%. The added water and brown rice are mixed and tempered in a liquid–solids blender and tumbled for a selected time (1–3 h) at room temperature. The moistened rice is then introduced to a rice cake machine that has been preheated to 200°C or higher.

Quaker rice cake machines use a process where a portion of grains is set onto a mini baking pan. Then a hot cylinder presses down onto the pan, the heat and pressure within the grains increases until the grains burst. The mold in this type of rice cake machine consists of three parts, a ring-shaped side piece and upper and lower platens, which can be moved up or down to adjust the gap between them. The rice is then pressed between the movable upper and lower platens. At the end of a prescribed heating time, the upper platen is lifted and stopped at the upper edge of the ring. The heat-softened rice kernels are puffed because of the sudden release of water vapor as a result of moisture flash vaporization and are fused to form the rice cake.

The cakes are then discharged from the molds and flavoring is applied to the cake after it is formed. The cakes then are cooled in the air before packaging.