50 Fun Facts About Corn

Outside North America, corn is usually known by what name?

Maize, the name used across most of the world, comes via the Spanish maíz from the Taíno mahiz; Linnaeus used it for the species name Zea mays in 1753.

Corn was first domesticated about 9,000 years ago in which present-day country?

Maize was domesticated about 9,000 years ago in the Balsas River valley of southern Mexico, where its wild ancestor, a short bushy grass that looks nothing like a cornstalk, grows.

What is the wild grass from which corn was domesticated?

Teosinte, a bushy wild grass of Mexico, is maize's ancestor; changes in a handful of genes, notably tb1 and tga1, account for most of the difference between its many thin branches and maize's single tall stalk.

Native Americans grew corn alongside beans and squash in a planting system known as what?

In the Three Sisters system cornstalks held up the climbing beans, the beans fixed nitrogen for the soil, and broad squash leaves shaded out weeds and kept the ground moist.

The male flowers at the top of a cornstalk are called what?

The tassel is the cluster of male flowers at the top of the stalk; its pollen drifts on the wind down to the silks, the female parts that emerge from the developing ear.

Each strand of corn silk connects to what?

Each silk strand is the style of one female flower; a pollen grain landing on it grows a tube down to fertilise a single kernel, so every kernel on the cob has its own silk.

Roughly how many kernels can a large cob of corn hold?

A large cob can hold up to 1,200 kernels, though a typical ear carries about 800 in 16 rows; the row count is always even because the kernels form in paired spikelets.

Which pigments give yellow corn its colour?

Carotenoids such as zeaxanthin, lutein and beta-carotene colour yellow corn; red and blue varieties get their colour from anthocyanins and phlobaphenes instead.

In which decade did the world corn harvest first pass one billion tonnes?

World corn output first topped one billion tonnes in 2013, in the 2010s, and reached about 1.16 billion in 2020, more than wheat and rice (about 760 million tonnes each), with most going to feed and industry.

Which country grew the most corn in 2020, with about 31 percent of world output?

The USA grew about 360 million tonnes of corn in 2020, roughly 31 percent of the world total; China was second with about 22 percent and Brazil a distant third.

Which type of corn makes up almost all the grain corn grown commercially in the US?

Dent corn, named for the dimple that forms in each kernel as its soft starchy core dries, accounts for nearly all US commercial grain corn; sweet corn is a mutant that fails to turn sugar into starch.

At which kernel stage is sweet corn picked, before its sugars turn to starch?

Sweet corn is picked at the milk stage, when a punctured kernel oozes milky juice; field corn is left until the kernels are dry and dented, while sweet corn must be eaten, canned or frozen fast.

Corn syrup is made by breaking down which component of the corn kernel?

Corn syrup is made by hydrolysing cornstarch into glucose with acids or enzymes; high-fructose corn syrup goes a step further, converting part of that glucose into fructose.

Old American farm wisdom said a good crop was on track if the corn was 'knee-high' by when?

The saying was 'knee-high by the Fourth of July'; modern hybrids, planted earlier and growing faster, are often shoulder-high or taller by Independence Day.

Soaking corn in alkali water, a process the Maya used, is called what?

Nixtamalization, from the Nahuatl words for ashes and dough, means soaking and cooking corn in limewater or wood-ash lye; it loosens the hull, improves flavour and unlocks bound nutrients.

Which deficiency disease broke out wherever unprocessed corn became a staple food?

Pellagra, the niacin-deficiency disease marked by dermatitis, diarrhoea and dementia, swept corn-dependent populations in Europe and the US South; alkali treatment, used by Mesoamericans for millennia, unlocks the grain's bound niacin.

The dough made from nixtamalized corn, the base of tortillas and tamales, is called what?

Atole is the drink made from it; polenta and grits are the Italian and Southern US porridges made from plain cornmeal.

Mămăligă, a thick cornmeal porridge, is a national dish of which country?

Mămăligă is Romania's traditional cornmeal porridge, also a staple in neighbouring Moldova; its cousins include Italian polenta, Brazilian angu, South African mieliepap and East African ugali.

Who first brought corn to Africa, where it is now the most important staple crop?

It arrived in the 16th century and spread because it grows in so many climates.

For which food did early Spanish settlers refuse to substitute corn flour for wheat?

Communion bread had to be wheat: church doctrine held that only wheat bread could become the body of Christ, so settlers shipped or grew wheat at any cost.

Corn uses which photosynthetic pathway, shared with sugarcane and sorghum?

Corn is a C4 plant, like sugarcane and sorghum: it concentrates CO2 in bundle-sheath cells, which lets it keep its stomata more closed and use water far more efficiently than C3 crops such as wheat and soybeans.

US corn yields climbed sharply from the 1930s after farmers adopted what kind of seed?

Hybrid seed, produced by crossing inbred lines, swept the Corn Belt in the 1930s and 1940s; Iowa went from a few percent hybrid in the early 1930s to nearly all hybrid by 1940, and yields climbed steadily after.

Apart from animal feed, what has been the US corn crop's biggest use since 2010?

Ethanol fuel has taken roughly a third or more of the US corn crop since the late 2000s, driven by the Renewable Fuel Standard of 2005 and 2007; exports and corn syrup take far smaller shares.

Bourbon whiskey must legally be made from a mash of at least what proportion of corn?

Federal rules require a bourbon mash of at least 51 percent corn, aged in new charred oak containers; Congress declared bourbon a 'distinctive product of the United States' in 1964.

The 'HFCS 55' grade of high-fructose corn syrup is used mostly to sweeten what?

HFCS 55, about 55 percent fructose, is the grade used in US soft drinks such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi; HFCS 42, with less fructose, goes into processed foods, baked goods and cereals.

Will Kellogg created corn flakes in 1894 as food for what kind of institution?

The flakes were made for the Battle Creek Sanitarium, the Michigan health resort run by Will's brother John Harvey Kellogg; the brothers later fought a long legal battle over use of the Kellogg name.

Which former Battle Creek patient set up a rival breakfast cereal business to Kellogg's?

C. W. Post, a Battle Creek Sanitarium patient in 1891, founded the Postum Cereal Company in 1895 and launched Grape-Nuts in 1897; Kellogg's later answered with Rice Krispies in 1928.

Popcorn kernels expand to roughly what multiple of their original size when they pop?

A popping kernel expands to 20 to 50 times its original volume; steam pressure inside the hull reaches about 135 psi before it bursts and the starch puffs into foam.

At roughly what temperature does a popcorn kernel finally burst?

At about 180 °C (356 °F) the hull gives way; the starch inside has already gelatinised, so the escaping steam whips it into an airy foam that sets as it cools.

Kernels that fail to pop are known in the popcorn trade by what nickname?

'Old maids', also called spinsters, are the kernels that never pop, usually because they lack enough moisture to build up steam or have a cracked hull that cannot hold pressure.

Charles Cretors, who invented the steam popcorn machine in 1885, ran what kind of Chicago shop?

Cretors ran a candy store in Chicago and adapted a peanut roaster into a steam-driven popcorn machine, which he showed at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Which molasses-coated popcorn snack was introduced in 1896 by Louis Rueckheim?

Cracker Jack got its name in 1896 after Louis Rueckheim found a way to keep the molasses-coated kernels from clumping; his brother F. W. had sold a candied popcorn at the 1893 Chicago world's fair.

By what factor did American popcorn eating rise during World War II sugar rationing?

With sugar rationed and candy scarce in World War II, American popcorn eating tripled; the Depression had already made it a hit at five to ten cents a bag.

Which company received the first patent for a microwave popcorn bag in 1981?

General Mills received the first patent for a microwave popcorn bag in 1981, and home popcorn consumption climbed again once popping it meant pressing a button.

Popcorn is the official state snack of which US state, thanks to an elementary school project?

Illinois named popcorn its official state snack in 2003 after pupils at Cunningham Elementary School in Joliet petitioned the legislature; at least six Midwestern towns separately claim to be the 'Popcorn Capital of the World'.

Popped corn from around 4,700 BCE was found at Paredones and Huaca Prieta in which country?

The Bat Cave finds in New Mexico, from about 3,600 BCE, are the oldest known in what is now the United States.

Candy corn was originally sold in the 1880s under what name?

It was sold as 'Chicken Feed', in rooster-branded boxes, at a time when corn was thought of as animal food; George Renninger of the Wunderle Candy Company invented it, and Goelitz, now Jelly Belly, began making it in 1898.

Which company makes about 7 billion pieces of candy corn a year, roughly 85 percent of the market?

Brach's, founded in Chicago in 1904, makes about 7 billion pieces of candy corn a year, roughly 85 percent of the market; candy corn only became a Halloween fixture in the 1950s.

The National Confectioners Association designates which date as National Candy Corn Day?

The National Confectioners Association designates October 30, the day before Halloween, as National Candy Corn Day, the peak of the candy's selling season.

The 'World's Only Corn Palace', redecorated with corn murals every year, stands in which town?

The Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota, opened in 1892 and is re-covered with fresh corn murals each year; Sioux City, Iowa, built the first corn palace in 1887, but Mitchell's is the only one left.

What is the name of the Corn Palace's fiberglass corn-cob mascot?

Cornelius, the Mitchell Corn Palace's fiberglass corn-cob mascot, stands outside the arena; the building drew national ridicule when it received a Department of Homeland Security grant for security cameras.

The first modern corn maze, the 'Amazing Maize Maze', opened in 1993 in which US state?

Don Frantz and British maze designer Adrian Fisher cut the 'Amazing Maize Maze' at Annville, Pennsylvania, in 1993; Guinness recognised it as the world's largest maze and it launched the autumn corn-maze craze.

A 2012 corn maze in Lacombe, Alberta earned a Guinness record as the world's largest what?

It covered about 7.2 acres and could be read from the air.

In Canada, corn dogs are commonly known by what brand-derived name?

Pogos take their name from the Pogo brand of frozen corn dogs sold across Canada; Australians call them Pluto pups or Dagwood dogs, and in Japan they are simply 'American dogs'.

Which country's coins, issued from 1993, featured a cornstalk with two ripe ears?

Croatia's 1 lipa coin, issued from 1993, showed a cornstalk with two ripe ears; the lipa and kuna were replaced by the euro on 1 January 2023.

What were Chilean protesters implying by throwing corn at military barracks before the 1973 coup?

Corn is fed to chickens, and chickens stand for cowardice; it was a taunt to depose Allende.

As of 2008, the top four US corn states were Iowa, Nebraska and which two others?

In 2008 Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota led US corn output, together growing more than half the crop; the Corn Belt is defined by level land and deep, nitrogen-rich soils rather than any official boundary.

Rootworms and which moth larva have each cost US growers a billion dollars a year?

The European corn borer, a moth larva that tunnels into stalks and ears, and corn rootworm beetles have each cost US growers about a billion dollars a year; Bt corn, engineered to resist both, spread widely after 1996.

Piki, a paper-thin bread of blue cornmeal, is a traditional food of which Native American people?

Piki is the Hopi bread made from finely ground blue cornmeal mixed with ash and water, spread by hand in a paper-thin layer on a hot stone and rolled up.

Raw sweet corn kernels are roughly what percentage water?

USDA data put raw yellow sweet corn at about 76 percent water by weight; the rest is mostly carbohydrate, and a 100-gram serving has only 86 calories.