Small batch artisanal d.i.y HFCS
May 31, 2013 7:59 AM   Subscribe

"Mm! Tastes like corn candy." MFA project by Maya Weinstein

Order the kit today! Visit diyhfcs
posted by Divest_Abstraction (15 comments total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Choice quote from the article: "It's all about doing it yourself, taking the ideas of open sourcing technology and applying them to food. By taking back these foods that aren't ours, deconstructing them and reconstructing them, maybe we can disrupt the industry a little bit."
posted by Divest_Abstraction at 8:04 AM on May 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


I can't wait for her DIY Monosodium Glutamate! No, seriously, she says she's gonna make it and that stuff makes everything taste better.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:13 AM on May 31, 2013


The recipe goes back and forth between sulfuric and salicylic acid, at one time calling it saclicylic(??) acid.

I don't have the utmost of confidence in this recipe.
posted by blue t-shirt at 8:13 AM on May 31, 2013


I really want to ferment that and see what I get!
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 8:13 AM on May 31, 2013


I really want to ferment that and see what I get!

Weak nasty bourbon?

It'd be just as easy to dissolve and ferment candy corn wouldn't it?
posted by BrotherCaine at 8:16 AM on May 31, 2013


So I've fermented yellow dent corn in several forms using malt enzymes to break it down and even added alpha-galactosidase (aka crushed Beano tablets) to boost the break down. I just wonder how close I've come to making this stuff already and what sort of a mash I could get out of this method, especially if I skip the filtration through diatomaceous earth.

Weak nasty bourbon?

Not quite, I'd have a corn "beer" that could (theoretically, were that legal in the United States) be distilled into a moonshine and then re-distilled and aged into a bourbon-like substance.

It'd be just as easy to dissolve and ferment candy corn wouldn't it?

Ew. Then I'd be giving money to the evil big candy-corn, no way man.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 8:25 AM on May 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


The comments on the article are completely hillarious for their missing-the-point-ness:


You people are turning the poisons developed in the 20th century, the age of food lies, into something hip?!?! How evil is that? PRETTY FRIGGIN EVIL!!!

posted by Joe Chip at 9:01 AM on May 31, 2013 [2 favorites]


That's great.
posted by R. Mutt at 9:02 AM on May 31, 2013


I find this idea really, really interesting and the choice quote Divest_Abstraction linked to is wonderful. There's a lot to snark about in this article, but I'd rather be sincere and say that I whole-heartedly support her desire to take back the foods that aren't ours.
posted by FirstMateKate at 9:05 AM on May 31, 2013


The King Corn filmmakers produced their own artisanal homemade HFCS (in case you need a video tutorial.)
posted by vespabelle at 9:54 AM on May 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


So I finally had a chance to go through her video and I guess I've been making similar stuff for a while. Who knew? (This guy apparently)

The difference between hers and mine is the enzymes. I used malted grains for my source (and occasionally Beano), she used a bottle (where hers were sourced who knows, doesn't seem so "artisinal" ironically). Also her final product is the syrup, while my syrup was being converted into alcohols and CO2 by yeast as soon as the complex sugars and starches were converted to more simple ones that they could eat.

If you are homebrewing you are doing this too with barley and wheat and whatever other adjunct grains you're using so I suppose if you didn't add yeast and instead just extracted the sugars you'd end up with medium-fructose-barley-sugar, no?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 10:55 AM on May 31, 2013


I really want to know how to make DIY barley sugar, so I can make proper barley sugar animal lollipops.

I predict a brewer's supply trip fairly soon.
posted by Dreidl at 12:38 PM on May 31, 2013


You could skip the DIY and buy it in bulk here

Holy crap... US $580 - 700 / Metric Ton!?
posted by PipRuss at 3:20 PM on May 31, 2013 [1 favorite]


...deconstructing them and reconstructing them, maybe we can disrupt the industry a little bit.

I thought the whole project was an amusing idea that was carried through rather well, but reading this part just made me roll my eyes. Maybe because the term 'disrupt' is so overused in the tech press.

Jeff Bezos has disrupted a few industries. Someone doing an art-school project though: not very much.
posted by Umami Dearest at 2:27 AM on June 1, 2013


Someone doing an art-school project though: not very much.

Quite a few open source software projects have disrupted industries. Hardware too, actually. Of course in both those cases (and food as well) industry disrupted DIY first.
posted by DU at 10:09 AM on June 8, 2013


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