Who invented popcorn
From http://yahooligans.yahoo.com/content/ask_earl/page Dear Earl, Who invented popcorn? In researching the answer to your corny question, I was lucky to find the Encyclopedia Popcornica, a reference that no home should be without. As it turns out, folks have been popping corn for thousands of years. In fact, archeologists discovered some very stale popcorn in New Mexico that was about 4,000 years old! Even with extra butter that would still be pretty chewy. Popcorn was very important to the Aztecs, who not only ate it but used it as decoration in their religious ceremonies. And during World War II, when sugar was rationed in the U.S., popcorn became a popular substitute for candy. Earl Also, early versions of popcorn were falvored with dried herbs and spices.
Popcorn or popping corn is a type of corn which explodes from the kernel and puffs up when heated. Special varieties are grown to give improved popping yield. Some wild types will pop, but the cultivated strain is Zea mays averta, which is a special kind of flint corn. The process of making popcorn was first discovered by Native Americans thousands of years ago. Popcorn was first discovered by the native Americans, who believed that the popping noise was that of an angry god who escaped the kernel. Popcorn was very popular in the 1890s, until World War I. As corn crops became more depleted during this war, nuts were used instead of corn. During the Depression, popcorn was a luxury at 5-10 cents a bag. When some of the other businesses failed, the popcorn business thrived. An example is “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 of years, his popcorn business made enough money
Since no Europeans had seen corn before Columbus discovered the New World, it’s not surprising that the first popcorn was made in America. The first white men to enjoy popcorn, in fact, were the settlers who attended the first Thanksgiving dinner, in December, 1621. The Indians showed them how to make it. Popcorn comes from kern
