| The U.S. Popcorn Board | |
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Running out of things to say to your blind date? Then pop up with some of these tidbits:
- In an average bag of
popcorn, the number of yellow kernels will outnumber the white ones by 9 to
1.
- It is believed that
popcorn was the very first form of corn to be cultivated.
- The oldest ears of popcorn ever found were discovered in the Bat Cave of
west central New Mexico in 1948 and 1950. Ranging from smaller than a penny
to about 2 inches, the oldest Bat Cave ears are about 5,600 years old.
- In southwestern Utah, a 1,000-year-old popped kernel of popcorn was found
in a dry cave inhabited by predecessors of the Pueblo Indians. (There may be
older ones than that under a cushion of my sofa.)
- Americans today consume 17.3 billion quarts of popped popcorn each year.
The average American eats about 68 quarts.
- The ancient way to pop corn was to heat sand in a fire and stir kernels of
popcorn in when the sand was fully heated.
- In 1945, Percy Spencer discovered that when popcorn was placed under microwave energy, it popped. This led to experiments with other foods, and the birth of the microwave oven.
Why Popcorn Pops
Each kernel contains a small drop of water inside a circle of soft starch
surrounded by the hard outer surface. As the kernel heats, the drop of water
expands and pressure starts to build up. When the hard surface eventually
gives way, the popcorn explodes. During the explosion, the soft starch inside
the kernel inflates and bursts, turning the entire kernel inside out.
Varieties of popcorn are grown to pop into two distinctive shapes: "snowflake," the large popcorn sold in theaters and ball parks; and mushroom, the smaller variety used in popcorn candies and snacks.
(Source: The Popcorn Board Web site)
