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Americans Eat 17 Billion Quarts Of Popcorn Every Year. This Would Fill The Empire State Building 18 Times.

On January 19th, National Popcorn Day pops onto the scene with a crunch we all love to enjoy! The annual celebration recognizes a treat that satisfies munchies, day or night.

  • The word “corn” in Old English meant “grain” or, more specifically, the most prominent grain grown in a region. As maize was the most common grain in early America, the word “corn” was aptly applied.
  • As early as the 16th century, the Aztec used popcorn in headdresses worn during ceremonies honoring Tlaloc, their god of maize and fertility. Early Spanish explorers were fascinated by the corn that burst into what looked like a white flower.
  • Popcorn started becoming popular in the United States in 1885. It wasn’t until Charles Cretors, a candy-store owner, developed a machine for popping corn with steam that the tasty treat became more abundantly poppable. By 1900 he had horse-drawn popcorn wagons going through the streets of Chicago.
  • At about the same time, Louise Ruckheim added peanuts and molasses to popcorn to bring Cracker Jack to the world.
  • Then in 1908, the national anthem of baseball was born. Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer wrote Take Me out to the Ballgame. From that point onward, popcorn, specifically, Cracker Jack, became forever married to the game.
  • While popcorn was an economical choice for snack food, the expense of installing a machine and adequately venting the building didn’t seem worth the effort. If it weren’t for Glen W. Dickson, we would be purchasing our popcorn from a vendor on the street before taking in the show. Dickson put in the effort and expense of placing machines inside his theaters. After realizing how quickly he recouped his costs, other theater owners followed suit.
  • The microwave oven spurred the next big advancement for popcorn. With the invention of the microwave, a whole new market opened for the snack food. Magnetrons, a technology produced by Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation for the military during World War II, were later used to develop microwave ovens. Percy Spencer was the man who made it happen. He used popcorn in his initial experiments during the microwave’s development.
  • Americans eat around 17 billion quarts of popcorn every year. This amount would fill the Empire State Building 18 times.
  • An Average American eats almost 70 quarts of popcorn every year
  • Popcorn is the world’s most popular snack food.
  • Popcorn is also the most profitable snack food, with over 1 thousand percent mark up.
  • Evidence of popcorn from 3600 BCE was found in New Mexico and even earlier evidence dating to perhaps as early as 4700 BCE was found in Peru.
  • Some popcorn has been found in the early 1900s to be a purple color.
  • At least six localities (all in the Midwestern United States) claim to be the “Popcorn Capital of the World”: Ridgway, Illinois; Valparaiso, Indiana; Van Buren, Indiana; Schaller, Iowa; Marion, Ohio; and North Loup, Nebraska.
  • Popcorn is the official snack of Illinois. Since 1958, there has been an annual “Popcorn Day.”
  • Popcorn kernels can pop up to 3 feet in the air.
  • There are about 1,600 popcorn kernels in 1 cup.
  • Unpopped popcorn kernels are called “spinsters” or “old maids.” Quality popcorn should produce 98% popped kernels with under 2% being spinsters.
  • The world’s oldest known popper, a shallow vessel with a handle and hole on top was designed around A.D. 300. The first popcorn machine made its debut 1,500 years later at the 1893 World’s Fair (Columbian Exposition) in Chicago.
  • Orville Redenbacher is the #1 best-selling popcorn in the world. Its inventor, Orville, began to grow popping corn in 1919, when he was just 12 years old.
  • The scientific name for popcorn is Zea Mays Everta. It is a type of maize, a member of the Maydeae tribe in the large, natural order of grasses called the Gramina.
  • More than 200 million boxes of Cracker Jack caramel-coated popcorn are consumed every year in the U.S. alone.
  • Compared to most snack foods, popcorn is low in calories. Air-popped popcorn has only 31 calories per cup. Oil-popped is only 55 per cup
  • 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.
  • Popping popcorn is one of the number one uses for microwave ovens. Most microwave ovens have a “popcorn” control button.
  • Nebraska produces the most popcorn out of all the states.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Foodimentary

Fact Retriever 

Mobile-Cuisine