Who Discovered Popcorn? People have known about popcorn for over thousands of years. Archaeologists think American Indians made the discovery of popcorn. For over a thousand years, Indians have popped and eaten popcorn.
Some Indians popped corn by tossing kernels into the fire and waiting for them to pop out and then ate them. Others popped corn in pots filled with hot sand. Some Indians wore headdresses and necklaces made of puffed corn.
The Aztecs used popcorn in their religious ceremonies. Early American settlers learned about popcorn from the Indians.
Who first discovered popcorn? In 1948, Herbert Dick and Earle Smith in a bat cave in central New Mexico discovered small heads of the zea mays everta (a special kind of flint corn). Several individually popped kernels were also discovered. These kernels have since been carbon dated and are about 5,600 years old!
Although it has ancient history on the North American continent, popcorn only gained widespread popularity in modern U.S. culture in the late 1800’s. Popcorn was very popular from the 1890’s until the Great Depression.
Street vendors used to follow crowds around, pushing steam or gas-powered poppers through fairs, parks and expositions. Today, people in the U.S. consume 16 billion quarts of popped popcorn each year. The average American eats about 51 quarts.
What Is Old Maid? Un-popped popcorn kernels (You know, the ones left in the bottom of the bowl…) refer to as old maids. This is usually only 2% of your total kernels used, if you’re using quality stuff.
Content for this question contributed by Rosalia Domagas, resident of Mangaldan, Pangasinan, Philippines
