National Popcorn Day is annually observed January 19th.
- 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, popcorn was used in headdresses worn during Aztec 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 the middle 1800s. 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.
- About the same time, Louise Ruckheim added peanuts and molasses to popcorn to bring Cracker Jack to the world. The national anthem of baseball was born in 1908 when 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.
- 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 next significant advancement for popcorn was the invention of the microwave. 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. Popcorn was one of his primary experiments during the microwave’s development.
- Americans average annual consumption of 68 quarts of popcorn each which means we eat more than 17 billion quarts of popcorn all by ourselves.
- This amount would fill the Empire State Building 18 times.
- A majority of the popcorn produced in the world is grown in the United States. Nebraska leads the corn belt in popcorn production.
- 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 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
- The oldest ears of popcorn ever found came from Mexico and are over 4000 years old.
- A single kernel pops with such force that it can be propelled up to 3 feet in the air.
- The unpopped kernels at the bottom of our bowl are called “old maids”.
- If you laid popcorn kernels end to end from coast to coast beginning in New York City and ending in Los Angeles, it would take more than 350 million popped kernels to span the distance.
- Popcorn is the official snack of Illinois. Since 1958, there has been an annual “Popcorn Day
- The world’s largest popcorn ball was 12 feet in diameter and weighed 5,000 pounds. It required 2,000 pounds of corn, 40,000 pounds of sugar, 280 gallons of corn syrup, and 400 gallons of water
- There are about 1,600 popcorn kernels in 1 cup
- In ancient times, people would make popcorn by heating sand in a fire and then stirring kernels of popcorn in the hot sand.
- 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 Graminae.
- More than 200 million boxes of Cracker Jack caramel-coated popcorn are consumed every year in the U.S. alone.
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