Popcorn FAQ's
history and fun facts
Popcorn: The little grain with a big history.
Everybody loves popcorn—the granddaddy of all snack foods. Discovered in the Americas thousands of years ago, popcorn has captivated people for centuries with its mythical, magical charm. Yet through the ages, popcorn has remained relatively unchanged. Popcorn is a seed, which just happens to do some nifty things when heated.
Popcorn’s popularity comes from the fact that it tastes great, but also because popcorn is connected to good times and the people we love. We eat popcorn while snuggling up together watching movies, sitting together playing games, cheering for favorite ball teams, walking hand-in-hand at a local fair, during seaside vacations, and while trekking thru the big city.
At the heart of this endearing little kernel is a healthful whole-grain. Popcorn adds fiber to the diet, is naturally low in fat and calories, gluten-free, and non-GMO, which makes it a great fit for today’s health conscious consumer. Add in popcorn’s irresistible smell and taste, its seemingly magical seed-to-snack transformation, versatility, and the fact that it strikes a chord with the budget-minded, and it’s easy to understand why popcorn has remained so popular over time.
What Makes Popcorn Pop?
Half the fun of popcorn is watching it turn from a hard, little yellow seed into a white fluffy treat. Few foods take such a dramatic turn as popcorn does while it’s cooking. Standing in the kitchen waiting for your popcorn to finish, an awesome spectacle is unfurling before you.
For centuries people have been fascinated by popcorn. Early Native Americans believed a spirit lived inside each kernel of popcorn. When heated, the spirit grew angry, burst out of its home, and fled into the air as a disgruntled puff of steam. A less charming but more scientific explanation exists for why popcorn pops.
Popcorn is a whole grain. It is made up of three components: the germ, endosperm, and pericarp (also known as hull). Of the 4 most common types of corn—sweet, dent, flint, and popcorn—only popcorn pops. Popcorn differs from other types of corn in that its hull has just the right thickness to allow it to (eventually) burst open.
Each kernel of popcorn contains a small drop of water stored inside a circle of soft starch. Popcorn needs between 13.5-14% moisture to pop. The soft starch is surrounded by the kernel's hard outer surface.
As the kernel heats up, the water begins to expand. Around 212 degrees the water turns into steam and changes the starch inside each kernel into a superheated gelatinous substance. The kernel continues to heat to about 347 degrees. The pressure inside the grain will reach 135 pounds per square inch before finally bursting the hull open.
As it explodes, steam inside the kernel is released. The soft starch inside the popcorn becomes inflated and spills out, cooling immediately and forming into the odd shape we know and love. A single kernel can swell to 40-50 times its original size! The first bit of starch that emerges forms a “leg” of sorts, which catapults the kernel like a gymnast as the remaining starch spills out. This is why popcorn jumps as it cooks.
A Rich and Storied History
Discovered in the Americas thousands of years ago, popcorn has captivated people for centuries with its mythical, magical charm. At the heart of this endearing little kernel is a healthful whole-grain, naturally low in fat and calories, gluten-free, and non-GMO, which makes it a great fit for today’s health conscious consumer. It’s easy to understand why popcorn has remained so popular over time.
Early Popcorn History
Popcorn Dates Back Thousands of Year
Biblical accounts of "corn" stored in the pyramids of Egypt are misunderstood. The "corn" from the bible was probably barley. The mistake comes from a changed use of the word "corn," which used to signify the most-used grain of a specific place. In England, "corn" was wheat, and in Scotland and Ireland the word referred to oats. Since maize was the common American "corn," it took that name -- and keeps it today.
It is believed that the first use of wild and early cultivated corn was popping. The oldest ears of popcorn ever found were discovered in the Bat Cave of west central New Mexico in 1948 and 1950. Ranging from smaller than a penny to about 2 inches, the oldest Bat Cave ears are about 4,000 years old.
Popcorn in the New World
Popcorn was integral to early 16th century Aztec Indian ceremonies. Bernardino de Sahagun writes: "And also a number of young women danced, having so vowed, a popcorn dance. As thick as tassels of maize were their popcorn garlands. And these they placed upon (the girls') heads." In 1519, Cortes got his first sight of popcorn when he invaded Mexico and came into contact with the Aztecs. Popcorn was an important food for the Aztec Indians, who also used popcorn as decoration for ceremonial headdresses, necklaces and ornaments on statues of their gods, including Tlaloc, the god of rain and fertility.
An early Spanish account of a ceremony honoring the Aztec gods who watched over fishermen reads: "They scattered before him parched corn, called momochitl, a kind of corn which bursts when parched and discloses its contents and makes itself look like a very white flower; they said these were hailstones given to the god of water."
Writing of Peruvian Indians in 1650, the Spaniard Cobo says, "They toast a certain kind of corn until it bursts. They call it pisancalla, and they use it as a confection."
In South America, kernels of popcorn found in burial grounds in the coastal deserts of North Chile were so well preserved they would still pop even though they were 1,000 years old.
Recent History
The use of the moldboard plow became commonplace in the mid-1800s and led to the widespread planting of maize in the United States.
Breakfast Food
Although popcorn is typically thought of as a snack food today, popcorn was once a popular breakfast food. Ahead of its time and very likely a role model for breakfast cereals to come, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, popcorn was eaten just as we eat cereal today.
Long before the advent of the corn flake, Ella Kellogg enjoyed her popcorn ground with milk or cream. Although she discouraged in-between meal snacking, she urged others to eat popcorn at meals as popcorn was “an excellent food.” Ella understood, as her husband did, that popcorn was a whole- grain. John Harvey Kellogg praised popcorn as being “easily digestible and to the highest degree wholesome, presenting the grain in its entirety, and hence superior to many denatured breakfast foods which are found in the market.”
Holidays & Celebrations
Popcorn fascinated and particularly delighted the young, thus popcorn became increasingly popular around holiday time—Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter and especially Christmas. Because of its low cost, popcorn was ideal for Christmastime decorations, food, and gift giving.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, popcorn balls were one of the most popular confections and often given as gifts. Their popularity spawned an industry of popcorn ball making gadgets. Victorian families often decorated fireplace mantels, doorways and Christmas trees with ornate ornaments made from popcorn balls. And by the turn of the century, most cookbooks featured at least one recipe.
The Great Depression
Popcorn was very popular from the 1890s until the Great Depression. Street vendors used to follow crowds around, pushing steam or gas-powered poppers through fairs, parks and expositions.
During the Depression, popcorn at 5 or 10 cents a bag was one of the few luxuries down-and-out families could afford. While other businesses failed, the popcorn business thrived. An Oklahoma banker who went broke when his bank failed bought a popcorn machine and started a business in a small store near a theater. After a couple years, his popcorn business made enough money to buy back three of the farms he'd lost.
Popcorn and the Movies
Unlike other confections, popcorn sales increased throughout the Depression. A major reason for this increase was the introduction of popcorn into movie theatres and its low cost for both patron and owner. One theater owner actually lowered the price of his theatre tickets and added a popcorn machine. He soon saw huge profits.
The "talking picture" solidified the presence of movie theaters in the U.S. in the late 1920’s. Many theatre owners refused to sell popcorn in their theaters because they felt it was too messy. Industrious vendors set up popcorn poppers or rented storefront space next to theatres and sold popcorn to patrons on their way into the theatre. Eventually, theatre owners began installing popcorn poppers inside their theatres; those who refused to sell popcorn quickly went out of business.
World War II
During World War II, sugar was sent overseas for U.S. troops, which meant there wasn't much sugar left in the United States to make candy. Thanks to this unusual situation, Americans ate three times as much popcorn as usual.
Slump and Bump
Popcorn went into a slump during the early 1950s, when television became popular. Attendance at movie theaters dropped and with it, popcorn consumption. When the public began eating popcorn at home, the new relationship between television and popcorn led to a resurgence in popularity.
Microwave Popcorn
Percy Spencer, Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation, figured out how to mass-produce magnetrons which were being used to generate microwaves for use in World War II. Looking for post-war applications of Raytheon technology, Spencer spurred the development of the microwave oven in 1946. Popcorn was key to many of Spencer's experiments. Microwave popcorn was available for the marketplace in the early 1980s.
Today
Americans today consume 14 billion quarts of popped popcorn each year. The average American eats about 43 quarts.
History of Popcorn Poppers
18th Century Poppers
Exploring Paraguay during the 18th century, Felix de Azara told of a kind of popcorn with kernels on the tassel which, when "it is boiled in fat or oil, the grains burst without becoming detached, and there results a superb bouquet fit to adorn a lady's hair at night without anyone knowing what it was. I have often eaten these burst grains and found them very good."
19th Century Poppers
During the early nineteenth century Americans tried several methods of popping popcorn. Some threw kernels in hot ashes, stirred, and sifted out the popped corn. Others tried cooking popcorn in kettles filled with fat, lard or butter. A more popular method was cooking popcorn over an open fire in a wire box with a long wooden handle.
Charles Cretors, founder of C. Cretors and Company in Chicago, introduced the world's first mobile popcorn machine at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Scientific American reported: "This machine...was designed with the idea of moving it about to any location where the operator would be likely to do a good business. The apparatus, which is light and strong, and weighing but 400 or 500 pounds, can be drawn readily by a boy or by a small pony to any picnic ground, fair, political rally, etc. and to many other places where a good business could be done for a day or two."
20th Century Poppers
Percy Spencer, Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation, figured out how to mass-produce magnetrons which were being used to generate microwaves for use in World War II. Looking for post-war applications of Raytheon technology, Spencer spurred the development of the microwave oven in 1946. Popcorn was key to many of Spencer's experiments. In fact, most microwave ovens today have a “Popcorn” button.
In the early 1980's, microwave popcorn was born into the popcorn family and home popcorn consumption increased by tens of thousands of pounds in the years following.
Corny Facts
Americans consume some 14 billion quarts of this whole grain, good-for-you treat. That’s 43 quarts per man, woman, and child.
Popcorn is a type of maize (or corn), a member of the grass family, and is scientifically known as Zea mays everta.
Popcorn differs from other types of maize/corn in that it has a thicker pericarp/hull. The hull allows pressure from the heated water to build and eventually bursts open. The inside starch becomes gelatinous while being heated; when the hull bursts, the gelatinized starch spills out and cools, giving it its familiar popcorn shape.
Compared to most snack foods, popcorn is low in calories. Air-popped popcorn has only 30 calories per cup. Oil-popped is only 35 per cup.
Popcorn is a whole grain. It is made up of three components: the germ, endosperm, and pericarp (also known as the hull).
Cultivating Popcorn
Most U.S. popcorn is grown in the Midwest, primarily in Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri.
Many people believe the acres of corn they see in the Midwest during growing season could be picked and eaten for dinner, or dried and popped. In fact, those acres are typically field corn, which is used largely for livestock feed, and differs from both sweet corn and popcorn.
The peak period for popcorn sales for home consumption is in the fall.
Popping Popcorn
Popping popcorn is one of the number one uses for microwave ovens. Most microwave ovens have a "popcorn" control button.
"Popability" is popcorn lingo that refers to the percentage of kernels that pop.
Popcorn needs between 13.5-14% moisture to pop.
There is no such thing as “hull-less” popcorn. All popcorn needs a hull in order to pop. Some varieties of popcorn have been bred so the hull shatters upon popping, making it appear to be hull-less.
Most popcorn comes in two basic shapes when it's popped: snowflake and mushroom. Snowflake is used in movie theaters and ballparks because it looks and pops bigger. Mushroom is used for candy confections because it doesn't crumble.
The world’s largest popcorn ball, according to Guinness World Records 2015, was created in 2013 at the Indiana State Fair. With the help of Pop Weaver, Snax in Pax, and Indiana's Family of Farmers, the popcorn ball weighed in at 6,510-pounds, 8 feet in diameter.
Everybody loves popcorn—the granddaddy of all snack foods. Discovered in the Americas thousands of years ago, popcorn has captivated people for centuries with its mythical, magical charm. Yet through the ages, popcorn has remained relatively unchanged. Popcorn is a seed, which just happens to do some nifty things when heated.
Popcorn’s popularity comes from the fact that it tastes great, but also because popcorn is connected to good times and the people we love. We eat popcorn while snuggling up together watching movies, sitting together playing games, cheering for favorite ball teams, walking hand-in-hand at a local fair, during seaside vacations, and while trekking thru the big city.
At the heart of this endearing little kernel is a healthful whole-grain. Popcorn adds fiber to the diet, is naturally low in fat and calories, gluten-free, and non-GMO, which makes it a great fit for today’s health conscious consumer. Add in popcorn’s irresistible smell and taste, its seemingly magical seed-to-snack transformation, versatility, and the fact that it strikes a chord with the budget-minded, and it’s easy to understand why popcorn has remained so popular over time.
What Makes Popcorn Pop?
Half the fun of popcorn is watching it turn from a hard, little yellow seed into a white fluffy treat. Few foods take such a dramatic turn as popcorn does while it’s cooking. Standing in the kitchen waiting for your popcorn to finish, an awesome spectacle is unfurling before you.
For centuries people have been fascinated by popcorn. Early Native Americans believed a spirit lived inside each kernel of popcorn. When heated, the spirit grew angry, burst out of its home, and fled into the air as a disgruntled puff of steam. A less charming but more scientific explanation exists for why popcorn pops.
Popcorn is a whole grain. It is made up of three components: the germ, endosperm, and pericarp (also known as hull). Of the 4 most common types of corn—sweet, dent, flint, and popcorn—only popcorn pops. Popcorn differs from other types of corn in that its hull has just the right thickness to allow it to (eventually) burst open.
Each kernel of popcorn contains a small drop of water stored inside a circle of soft starch. Popcorn needs between 13.5-14% moisture to pop. The soft starch is surrounded by the kernel's hard outer surface.
As the kernel heats up, the water begins to expand. Around 212 degrees the water turns into steam and changes the starch inside each kernel into a superheated gelatinous substance. The kernel continues to heat to about 347 degrees. The pressure inside the grain will reach 135 pounds per square inch before finally bursting the hull open.
As it explodes, steam inside the kernel is released. The soft starch inside the popcorn becomes inflated and spills out, cooling immediately and forming into the odd shape we know and love. A single kernel can swell to 40-50 times its original size! The first bit of starch that emerges forms a “leg” of sorts, which catapults the kernel like a gymnast as the remaining starch spills out. This is why popcorn jumps as it cooks.
A Rich and Storied History
Discovered in the Americas thousands of years ago, popcorn has captivated people for centuries with its mythical, magical charm. At the heart of this endearing little kernel is a healthful whole-grain, naturally low in fat and calories, gluten-free, and non-GMO, which makes it a great fit for today’s health conscious consumer. It’s easy to understand why popcorn has remained so popular over time.
Early Popcorn History
Popcorn Dates Back Thousands of Year
Biblical accounts of "corn" stored in the pyramids of Egypt are misunderstood. The "corn" from the bible was probably barley. The mistake comes from a changed use of the word "corn," which used to signify the most-used grain of a specific place. In England, "corn" was wheat, and in Scotland and Ireland the word referred to oats. Since maize was the common American "corn," it took that name -- and keeps it today.
It is believed that the first use of wild and early cultivated corn was popping. The oldest ears of popcorn ever found were discovered in the Bat Cave of west central New Mexico in 1948 and 1950. Ranging from smaller than a penny to about 2 inches, the oldest Bat Cave ears are about 4,000 years old.
Popcorn in the New World
Popcorn was integral to early 16th century Aztec Indian ceremonies. Bernardino de Sahagun writes: "And also a number of young women danced, having so vowed, a popcorn dance. As thick as tassels of maize were their popcorn garlands. And these they placed upon (the girls') heads." In 1519, Cortes got his first sight of popcorn when he invaded Mexico and came into contact with the Aztecs. Popcorn was an important food for the Aztec Indians, who also used popcorn as decoration for ceremonial headdresses, necklaces and ornaments on statues of their gods, including Tlaloc, the god of rain and fertility.
An early Spanish account of a ceremony honoring the Aztec gods who watched over fishermen reads: "They scattered before him parched corn, called momochitl, a kind of corn which bursts when parched and discloses its contents and makes itself look like a very white flower; they said these were hailstones given to the god of water."
Writing of Peruvian Indians in 1650, the Spaniard Cobo says, "They toast a certain kind of corn until it bursts. They call it pisancalla, and they use it as a confection."
In South America, kernels of popcorn found in burial grounds in the coastal deserts of North Chile were so well preserved they would still pop even though they were 1,000 years old.
Recent History
The use of the moldboard plow became commonplace in the mid-1800s and led to the widespread planting of maize in the United States.
Breakfast Food
Although popcorn is typically thought of as a snack food today, popcorn was once a popular breakfast food. Ahead of its time and very likely a role model for breakfast cereals to come, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, popcorn was eaten just as we eat cereal today.
Long before the advent of the corn flake, Ella Kellogg enjoyed her popcorn ground with milk or cream. Although she discouraged in-between meal snacking, she urged others to eat popcorn at meals as popcorn was “an excellent food.” Ella understood, as her husband did, that popcorn was a whole- grain. John Harvey Kellogg praised popcorn as being “easily digestible and to the highest degree wholesome, presenting the grain in its entirety, and hence superior to many denatured breakfast foods which are found in the market.”
Holidays & Celebrations
Popcorn fascinated and particularly delighted the young, thus popcorn became increasingly popular around holiday time—Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter and especially Christmas. Because of its low cost, popcorn was ideal for Christmastime decorations, food, and gift giving.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, popcorn balls were one of the most popular confections and often given as gifts. Their popularity spawned an industry of popcorn ball making gadgets. Victorian families often decorated fireplace mantels, doorways and Christmas trees with ornate ornaments made from popcorn balls. And by the turn of the century, most cookbooks featured at least one recipe.
The Great Depression
Popcorn was very popular from the 1890s until the Great Depression. Street vendors used to follow crowds around, pushing steam or gas-powered poppers through fairs, parks and expositions.
During the Depression, popcorn at 5 or 10 cents a bag was one of the few luxuries down-and-out families could afford. While other businesses failed, the popcorn business thrived. An Oklahoma banker who went broke when his bank failed bought a popcorn machine and started a business in a small store near a theater. After a couple years, his popcorn business made enough money to buy back three of the farms he'd lost.
Popcorn and the Movies
Unlike other confections, popcorn sales increased throughout the Depression. A major reason for this increase was the introduction of popcorn into movie theatres and its low cost for both patron and owner. One theater owner actually lowered the price of his theatre tickets and added a popcorn machine. He soon saw huge profits.
The "talking picture" solidified the presence of movie theaters in the U.S. in the late 1920’s. Many theatre owners refused to sell popcorn in their theaters because they felt it was too messy. Industrious vendors set up popcorn poppers or rented storefront space next to theatres and sold popcorn to patrons on their way into the theatre. Eventually, theatre owners began installing popcorn poppers inside their theatres; those who refused to sell popcorn quickly went out of business.
World War II
During World War II, sugar was sent overseas for U.S. troops, which meant there wasn't much sugar left in the United States to make candy. Thanks to this unusual situation, Americans ate three times as much popcorn as usual.
Slump and Bump
Popcorn went into a slump during the early 1950s, when television became popular. Attendance at movie theaters dropped and with it, popcorn consumption. When the public began eating popcorn at home, the new relationship between television and popcorn led to a resurgence in popularity.
Microwave Popcorn
Percy Spencer, Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation, figured out how to mass-produce magnetrons which were being used to generate microwaves for use in World War II. Looking for post-war applications of Raytheon technology, Spencer spurred the development of the microwave oven in 1946. Popcorn was key to many of Spencer's experiments. Microwave popcorn was available for the marketplace in the early 1980s.
Today
Americans today consume 14 billion quarts of popped popcorn each year. The average American eats about 43 quarts.
History of Popcorn Poppers
18th Century Poppers
Exploring Paraguay during the 18th century, Felix de Azara told of a kind of popcorn with kernels on the tassel which, when "it is boiled in fat or oil, the grains burst without becoming detached, and there results a superb bouquet fit to adorn a lady's hair at night without anyone knowing what it was. I have often eaten these burst grains and found them very good."
19th Century Poppers
During the early nineteenth century Americans tried several methods of popping popcorn. Some threw kernels in hot ashes, stirred, and sifted out the popped corn. Others tried cooking popcorn in kettles filled with fat, lard or butter. A more popular method was cooking popcorn over an open fire in a wire box with a long wooden handle.
Charles Cretors, founder of C. Cretors and Company in Chicago, introduced the world's first mobile popcorn machine at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Scientific American reported: "This machine...was designed with the idea of moving it about to any location where the operator would be likely to do a good business. The apparatus, which is light and strong, and weighing but 400 or 500 pounds, can be drawn readily by a boy or by a small pony to any picnic ground, fair, political rally, etc. and to many other places where a good business could be done for a day or two."
20th Century Poppers
Percy Spencer, Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation, figured out how to mass-produce magnetrons which were being used to generate microwaves for use in World War II. Looking for post-war applications of Raytheon technology, Spencer spurred the development of the microwave oven in 1946. Popcorn was key to many of Spencer's experiments. In fact, most microwave ovens today have a “Popcorn” button.
In the early 1980's, microwave popcorn was born into the popcorn family and home popcorn consumption increased by tens of thousands of pounds in the years following.
Corny Facts
Americans consume some 14 billion quarts of this whole grain, good-for-you treat. That’s 43 quarts per man, woman, and child.
Popcorn is a type of maize (or corn), a member of the grass family, and is scientifically known as Zea mays everta.
Popcorn differs from other types of maize/corn in that it has a thicker pericarp/hull. The hull allows pressure from the heated water to build and eventually bursts open. The inside starch becomes gelatinous while being heated; when the hull bursts, the gelatinized starch spills out and cools, giving it its familiar popcorn shape.
Compared to most snack foods, popcorn is low in calories. Air-popped popcorn has only 30 calories per cup. Oil-popped is only 35 per cup.
Popcorn is a whole grain. It is made up of three components: the germ, endosperm, and pericarp (also known as the hull).
Cultivating Popcorn
Most U.S. popcorn is grown in the Midwest, primarily in Indiana, Nebraska, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky and Missouri.
Many people believe the acres of corn they see in the Midwest during growing season could be picked and eaten for dinner, or dried and popped. In fact, those acres are typically field corn, which is used largely for livestock feed, and differs from both sweet corn and popcorn.
The peak period for popcorn sales for home consumption is in the fall.
Popping Popcorn
Popping popcorn is one of the number one uses for microwave ovens. Most microwave ovens have a "popcorn" control button.
"Popability" is popcorn lingo that refers to the percentage of kernels that pop.
Popcorn needs between 13.5-14% moisture to pop.
There is no such thing as “hull-less” popcorn. All popcorn needs a hull in order to pop. Some varieties of popcorn have been bred so the hull shatters upon popping, making it appear to be hull-less.
Most popcorn comes in two basic shapes when it's popped: snowflake and mushroom. Snowflake is used in movie theaters and ballparks because it looks and pops bigger. Mushroom is used for candy confections because it doesn't crumble.
The world’s largest popcorn ball, according to Guinness World Records 2015, was created in 2013 at the Indiana State Fair. With the help of Pop Weaver, Snax in Pax, and Indiana's Family of Farmers, the popcorn ball weighed in at 6,510-pounds, 8 feet in diameter.
Baked Popcorn LLC ®. All Rights Reserved Site designed by Baked Popcorn
Baked Popcorn LLC ®. All Rights Reserved Site designed by Baked Popcorn