Who is the inventor of popcorn

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List of Partners vendors. Homemade Popcorn Recipes. Featured Video. Read More. 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 and Ranging from smaller than a penny to about 2 inches, the oldest Bat Cave ears are about 4, years old. 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. 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 , 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, years old. The use of the moldboard plow became commonplace in the mids and led to the widespread planting of maize in the United States. 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. 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 Christmas 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. Popcorn was very popular from the s 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.

Weekly movie-going soared to 90 million people in , ushering in the Golden Age of cinema, thanks in part to the fact that illiterate Americans could finally enjoy movies, too. Unfortunately, the shift to sound caused growing pains for the industry.

Small community or rural theaters shuttered, unable to afford the new technology. Pressure mounted as the Great Depression set in. Desperate to stay afloat, movie theaters finally caved and began renting portions of their lobbies to popcorn and snack vendors. Depression-era stories of wealth amassed through popcorn sales began to flourish; they seem at least partially rooted in fact. Theaters eventually began to offer their own refreshments, marrying concessions and movie tickets once and for all.

They were even willing to take losses on tickets to boost attendance, encouraging guests to spend their money on the more profitable concessions. That legacy continues today: Theaters sell popcorn at a markup between and 1, percent, since distributors claim a substantial cut of ticket sales. As popcorn became a fixture in movie theater lobbies, its aroma became inextricably tied to the movies. With popcorn sales ensured by Hollywood, the big business of popcorn moved on to targeting a home audience—particularly after Americans began watching television during the s.

The first microwave popcorn was released in ; it contained perishable butter and required refrigeration. Another version, by Pillsbury, came frozen. Unfortunately for Nabisco and General Mills, one agricultural scientist had already become an unlikely popcorn king among men: Orville Redenbacher, a skinny, bespectacled man from Indiana with an immaculate suit, bow tie, and swoop of silver hair.

Redenbacher was a Purdue-educated farmer who became famous for tinkering with hybrid varieties of corn. In , Redenbacher and his research partner, Charlie Bowman, successfully created a kernel that would expand twice as much as the yellow corn Americans were familiar with. A slightly awkward guest, he touched his thick, plastic-framed glasses bashfully as the studio audience clapped. Though pre-popped popcorn failed to impress movie-goers in the s, today, pre-popped snacks are on the rise.

During the s, people began to eye microwaved popcorn with suspicion. More recently, the same condition has been linked to e-cigarettes. In , AdAge reported that consumers were also growing tired of waiting for popcorn to pop. The trend suggested that consumers wanted popcorn that was ready to eat, not a snack they had to tend to.

Plus, as any college student knows, microwave popcorn has a tendency to burn, setting off fire alarms when unattended. Just this month, a brand was recalled when some of its bags began to ignite in the microwave. Regardless of the reasons, ready-to-eat popcorn seems here to stay. In , one marketing agency reported that Americans were ready to be more adventurous with their popcorn.