The American continent is considered to be the homeland of popcorn. It was the indigenous people of America - the Indians - who first introduced noble people to this unusual type of corn. This significant event happened on Thanksgiving Day when they presented popcorn as a gift to the colonists of Massachusetts. The great traveler Christopher Columbus also liked popcorn, who brought the fashion for exploding corn to Europe. This was in the fifteenth century.
Exploding corn
The word "popcorn" comes from two English words "pop" (cotton) and "corn" - corn. Popcorn is a type of corn that explodes under certain conditions - heated over a fire or in a microwave oven. This process is not always possible, but only at certain ratios of starch and water in the corn grain. If you put a container with such corn on fire, then after a while the water contained in the corn begins to boil and gradually turn into steam. As a result, the pressure inside the grain rises, and after a while the hermetic shell of the grain, which serves as a kind of "shell", is filled with steam and explodes. At the same time, the grain seems to be turned outward.
American delicacy
Popcorn won love among Americans several millennia ago. Ancient Indian manuscripts tell that the tribes inhabiting New Mexico were very fond of eating popcorn. The Indians prepared it quite simply. They covered the corn with hot sand or ash and waited for it to explode. Later, the Americans began to "blow up" corn kernels in a special pottery with a small hole in the lid. They put the jug or bowl on the fire and closely followed the process. Popcorn was made in this way until the middle of the nineteenth century.
In 1885, the first exploding corn machine was invented in Chicago. Charles Cretor became the "author" of the miracle machine. Thanks to his invention and making it a reality, popcorn could now be made almost anywhere. The car, called the Popper, was equipped with wheels and moved freely through the streets of the city, so the popular popcorn could be purchased on busy streets, when visiting zoos, and near cinemas. Nowadays, popcorn is a national food in the United States, which even has its own holiday on the calendar. Popcorn Day is celebrated on January 19.
Instead of decoration
Popcorn is not just food. Among the Maya Indians, the seeds of exploded corn served as decorations. Beads, necklaces, bracelets were made of them. Women who wanted to look the most attractive among their kind also used popcorn. To do this, they took a small ear of corn and put it on the fire. When the explosion occurred, the corn was pulled out. Then the resulting "flower" was woven into the hair. Indians' love of popcorn can be judged by their cultural background. For example, archaeologists who have studied ancient burials in Mexico City have discovered a statuette of a goddess whose head was adorned with a wreath of open corn. The statuette is over 300 years old BC.
The use of popcorn has been quite varied. For example, some trading companies, in order to protect the light, breakable cargo from rodents and impacts while sailing, put it in packages of popcorn. However, in doing so, they got a completely opposite result: tasty corn, on the contrary, lured rats and mice. In addition, the production of popcorn was significantly more expensive than synthetic packaging. And it was difficult to call popcorn safe, since it was highly flammable even from the slightest spark.
Movie popcorn
Most people associate popcorn with going to the cinema. And it is no coincidence. In 1912, American cinemas began selling popcorn for the first time, which was so uncommonly popular with viewers that the revenue from popcorn far outnumbered the revenue from ticket sales for movie shows.
But not all movie theaters prioritized revenues. At the very least, the British network Picturehouse Cinema made concessions to customers who were distracted by the crunch of corn from the events taking place on the screen. For this, once a week, the evening session was held in silence. At this time, the sale of popcorn was not permitted. How much money the network lost in this case is not mentioned.
Today, everything happens differently: in cinemas they sell corn, from which the audience gets a feeling of thirst. A mug or two of beer, which can be bought right there, helps to quench it. As a result, the cinema receives additional income from the sale of drinks.
With the advent of television, many cinemas were on the verge of bankruptcy, and popcorn sales at that time also fell sharply.
Popcorn and health
There are a number of opinions on the health effects of popcorn. For example, Madonna assures that only popcorn helped her get in shape after giving birth. Popcorn is also consumed during diets. Popcorn is believed to contain fiber, which has a beneficial effect on digestion and significantly reduces the risk of stomach, rectal and cardiovascular diseases. That's about the pros of popcorn. However, it also has a number of negative aspects. For example, the diacetyl flavor added to popcorn butter can cause allergies and lung disease.
Popcorn is not recommended for children under the age of four because of the possibility of choking.
Popcorn is the "father" of the microwave
In 1945, inventor Percy Spencer discovered the effect of microwave radiation on the explosive ability of corn. Through a series of experiments with various foods, Spencer scientifically confirmed that microwaves can heat food. And in 1946 he acquired a patent for the manufacture of his invention. With microwave ovens hitting the shelves, some Americans started making popcorn at home. And the cost of such corn has become much less.
Popcorn by mobile
On the Internet, you can find a video in which several people demonstrate how you can make popcorn using a mobile phone. They put some corn kernels in the center, surrounded them with phones, and started calling each other. After a few minutes of the experiment, the corn kernels began to explode. However, with similar actions, but already in another video, it was not possible to repeat the experiment. So, the effect of a cell phone on the process of making popcorn at home has not yet been proven.
