98 Fun Facts About Popcorn

Popcorn is a small, hard-shelled variety of which type of corn?

Flint corn has a hard outer shell, and popcorn is its small, extra-tough cousin: that shell is what lets steam build inside until the kernel bursts.

Popcorn is one of how many major types of corn?

Six major types are recognised: dent, flint, flour, sweet, pod and popcorn. Dent corn fills American silos; sweet corn is what you eat off the cob.

What do growers do to freshly harvested popcorn kernels so that they pop best?

Dry them out: fresh from the field the kernels are too moist and pop chewy, so growers dry them to about 14 percent moisture, though if they dry further fewer of them pop.

Against a car tire's 32 psi, roughly what pressure bursts a popcorn kernel?

135 psi, roughly four times a car tire, is what the hull holds before it ruptures; the trapped steam then expands so fast that the starch inflates into foam.

At roughly what temperature does a popcorn kernel pop?

356°F (180°C) is the critical temperature physicists measured in 2015: the water inside boils at 212°F, but the hull holds the steam in until the pressure finally bursts it.

A single popcorn kernel can swell to as much as how many times its original size?

50 times is the upper figure popcorn makers quote: steam blows the softened starch up into a foam, and the kernel literally turns inside out.

The oldest known popcorn, cobs about 6,700 years old, was dug up on the coast of which country?

Peru's Paredones and Huaca Prieta sites yielded the cobs, even though corn itself was first domesticated far to the north, in southern Mexico.

In which US state is the 'Bat Cave', where 1948 digs turned up ears of popcorn thousands of years old?

New Mexico's Bat Cave was dug by two Harvard graduate students hunting for traces of early humans; they found hundreds of ancient corn cobs instead.

Which relative appeared alongside Orville Redenbacher in some of his popcorn commercials?

His grandson Gary shared the screen with him; when a digitally recreated Orville starred in a 2007 advert, Gary said, 'Grandpa would go for it.'

What kind of business did Charles Cretors run before he built his steam-powered popcorn machine?

A candy store was Cretors' trade: unhappy with the roaster he bought for the shop, he rebuilt it with a small steam engine, then turned the idea on popcorn.

At which event did Cretors introduce his popcorn machine to the public in 1893?

The Columbian Exposition in Chicago is where Cretors set up his steam popper on the Midway and gave away free samples until fairgoers lined up to buy.

How did American street vendors pop corn before steam machines?

Holding a wire basket over an open flame left the corn hot but dry and unevenly cooked, the problem Cretors' machine solved by popping it evenly in seasoned oil.

Cretors' machine popped corn in a mixture of salt, lard and what?

Clarified butter went into Cretors' popping mix with lard and salt, so the corn came out already seasoned instead of dry.

Under what name did Chicago's Rueckheim brothers begin selling their molasses-coated popcorn confection in 1896?

Cracker Jack took its name from 1890s slang for anything first-rate; in the best-known telling, a taster blurted 'That's a crackerjack!' and the brothers registered the name in 1896.

The Rueckheim brothers' famous snack recipe mixed popcorn with molasses and which nut?

Peanuts joined popcorn and molasses in the Rueckheims' recipe; the breakthrough, in 1896, was a way to keep the sticky molasses-coated pieces from clumping together.

Which company bought the Rueckheim brothers' caramel-corn brand from Borden in 1997?

Frito-Lay, PepsiCo's snack arm, bought the brand from Borden in 1997 and two years later ran its first commercial in 15 years, aired during the Super Bowl.

Why did popcorn sales keep rising during the Great Depression?

Bags cost 5 or 10 cents, a luxury even struggling families could afford, and cinemas that started selling it survived while many that refused went under.

Americans ate three times as much popcorn during World War II largely because what was in short supply?

Sugar was the missing ingredient: with supplies sent to the troops and exporters like the Philippines cut off, candy makers were squeezed and snackers switched to popcorn.

Why did many early movie-theater owners dislike popcorn?

They thought it distracted from the films and dirtied their carpets; vendors sold it on the sidewalk outside until theaters realised how much money they were missing.

Which late-1920s change in the movies brought in far bigger crowds and helped popcorn win a place in theaters?

Talking pictures swelled movie audiences from the late 1920s, and popcorn vendors followed the crowds, setting up poppers right outside to sell to moviegoers on their way in.

What new technology of the 1940s caused popcorn consumption to fall?

Television kept people home and out of cinemas in the late 1940s and early 1950s; the Popcorn Institute responded by promoting popcorn as a snack to eat at home in front of the set.

In which year was the Orville Redenbacher's brand launched?

The brand launched in 1970, when Redenbacher was already in his sixties; he had spent decades breeding hybrids before an ad agency put his name and face on the jar.

Orville Redenbacher earned his degree in agronomy from which university?

Purdue is where Redenbacher studied agronomy, ran track and played tuba in the marching band; sixty years after he graduated, the university gave him an honorary doctorate.

What name did Orville Redenbacher and partner Charles Bowman give the popcorn hybrid they settled on after years of trials?

RedBow was the pick of tens of thousands of hybrid strains the partners tested; when their gourmet corn reached stores in 1970, an ad agency had them sell it under Orville's own name instead.

High-speed film shows a popping kernel vaulting off the pan like a gymnast, pushing off with what?

A 'leg' of starch bursts out first and presses on the pan, flinging the kernel upward; the 2015 study that filmed it traced the 'pop' sound to a sudden release of water vapor.

How did Orville Redenbacher die at his California home in 1995?

He drowned in his hot tub after a heart attack at his Coronado condominium, aged 88; twelve years later a digitally recreated Orville returned to pitch popcorn in a new commercial.

'Popcorn lung' got its name after which group fell ill in the early 2000s?

Microwave popcorn factory workers breathed in vapor from the butter flavoring day after day and developed scarred, narrowed airways, a disease doctors call bronchiolitis obliterans.

What is built into a microwave popcorn bag to concentrate heat on the kernels and oil?

Metal film, a thin layer called a susceptor, absorbs microwaves and turns them into heat right where the flavored oil sits, so it melts and coats the kernels before they pop.

Raytheon engineer Percy Spencer discovered microwave cooking when what melted in his pocket?

A candy bar turned to goo in Spencer's pocket beside a live radar tube; curious rather than annoyed, he was soon aiming the same tube at popcorn kernels.

Which food exploded when Percy Spencer tried it in his first microwave cooking experiments?

A raw egg shook, then burst in the face of whoever was watching, during the same early tests that popped his first popcorn; Raytheon filed its microwave cooking patent on October 8, 1945.

Which appliance brand's countertop Radarange, sold from 1967 for just under $500, brought microwave ovens into ordinary kitchens?

Amana, bought by Raytheon two years earlier, shrank the microwave to counter size; the first Radaranges of 1947 stood about six feet tall and cost thousands of dollars.

Which state has two towns claiming to be the 'Popcorn Capital of the World'?

Indiana has two claimants: Valparaiso, where Orville Redenbacher built his business and a festival now honors him, and Van Buren, whose town motto makes the same boast.

Popcorn became the official state snack of which state, thanks to an elementary-school project?

Illinois made popcorn its official snack after second and third graders at a Joliet elementary school proposed it as a class project, then watched the governor sign their bill.

What does the popcorn industry call kernels that fail to pop?

Old maids stay shut because they cannot build enough steam: usually the kernel has lost too much moisture, or a crack in the hull lets the pressure leak away.

Which popcorn flake shape is preferred for caramel corn because it is sturdier?

Mushroom flakes are compact balls that stand up to stirring and coating, so they go into caramel corn; winged butterfly flakes are lighter and crisper but break easily.

Popcorn kernels are classed by shape as pointed 'rice' or which rounded type?

Pearl kernels are rounded on top, while rice kernels are long and pointed at both ends; pearl types once popped mostly yellow and rice mostly white, but both shapes now come in both colors.

What color is the popped corn from red, blue or black kernels?

Off-yellow or white, like any other popcorn: only the hull carries the pigment, while the starchy inside that puffs up is always white or yellow.

Popcorn owes much of its smell to an aroma compound it shares with which rice?

Basmati gets its scent from 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, the same molecule that forms when corn is heated; chemists describe the pure compound's smell as roasty and popcorn-like.

How many calories are in 100 grams of plain air-popped popcorn?

Plain air-popped popcorn has 382 calories per 100 grams; it is about 78 percent carbohydrate, including 15 percent dietary fiber, and counts as a whole grain.

Why does the American Academy of Pediatrics warn against popcorn for toddlers?

Choking hazard is the reason: small children cannot yet grind food properly and may swallow a piece unchewed, so pediatricians group popcorn with grapes, marshmallows and hot dogs.

'Popcorn lung' is a respiratory illness linked to which artificial-butter flavoring chemical?

Diacetyl gave butter-flavored popcorn its taste until it was linked to scarred, narrowed airways; it has since turned up in some e-cigarette liquids.

In which country is cinema popcorn usually sold sweet, while salted is the exception?

Germany treats sweet as the default: ask for plain popcorn at a Berlin cinema and you get the sweet kind, the reverse of an American theater.

How did 19th-century Americans commonly eat popcorn at breakfast?

With milk and sweetener, popcorn was eaten just as cereal is today; colonial families had served it sweetened, with cream, long before the corn flake was invented.

Popcorn balls, hugely popular around 1900, survive today as a traditional treat for which holiday?

Halloween kept the popcorn ball going; around 1900 the syrup-glued treats were so popular that an industry of ball-making gadgets sprang up and most cookbooks carried a recipe.

Early French explorers saw the Iroquois pop corn in pottery vessels filled with heated what?

Sand heated in a pottery jar popped the tough kernels, French explorers of the Great Lakes reported in the early 1600s; the Iroquois even made the popped corn into soup.

Some shipping companies have tested popcorn as a biodegradable substitute for what?

Polystyrene packing peanuts were the target, but real popcorn proved heavier, more flammable and a feast for insects and rodents, so a processed corn-starch foam took the job instead.

Which stovetop popcorn brand comes in a foil-topped pan that balloons into a dome as it cooks?

Jiffy Pop reached stores in 1959, and its swelling foil dome was the selling point: its slogan calls it as much fun to make as it is to eat.

When is the sugar added to kettle corn to give it a thin sweet crust?

While it is popping, the corn cooks with sugar, salt and oil together in the kettle, which gives a light glaze but needs constant stirring or it burns; caramel corn is coated with cooked syrup afterwards.

Spray-on 'popcorn ceilings' from before the 1980s often contained which hazardous material?

Asbestos fibers went into many spray-on ceiling textures until US regulators banned spray-applied asbestos surfacing in the 1970s; later mixes got their bumps from paper or polystyrene instead.

What is the starchy interior of a popcorn kernel, which puffs into the flake, called?

The endosperm is the starchy interior; when water inside flashes to steam, it gelatinizes, bursts through the hull and sets into the familiar white foam.

On what date is National Popcorn Day celebrated?

National Popcorn Day falls on January 19; October is separately promoted as National Popcorn Poppin' Month, timed to the harvest.

How did 1930s theater owners first make money from popcorn?

Charging vendors a fee by the day kept the popping out on the sidewalk; once owners cut out the middleman and sold popcorn themselves, their profits soared.

Which oil have nutrition watchdogs criticized movie theaters for popping corn in?

Coconut oil is high in saturated fat, which is why a consumer group's 1994 report on theater popcorn pushed the snack's fat content into the public eye.

What goes wrong when popcorn kernels are heated too quickly?

They pop with hard centers because the hull bursts before the starch in the middle has softened; heat them too slowly and steam leaks out through the tip, so nothing pops at all.

What small mechanical figure rode on Charles Cretors' steam popcorn machines to draw a crowd?

A clown called the Tosty Rosty Man was driven by the same little steam engine that stirred the corn, and the machine added a shrill steam whistle to pull in passers-by.

Botanist Alexander Anderson fired grain from cannon-like cylinders at the 1904 World's Fair, launching which cereal?

Puffed Rice burst out when Anderson uncapped his heated cylinders, the same steam explosion that pops corn; Quaker went on to advertise the cereal as 'food shot from guns'.

Why is high kernel expansion so closely tied to a cinema's profit on popcorn?

They buy by weight and sell by volume, so the further each kernel expands, the more buckets a cinema fills from the same sack of corn.

What is popcorn called in Mexican Spanish?

Palomitas, a diminutive of paloma, 'dove', is the word in Mexico and Spain, but Spanish never settled on one name: Argentines say pochoclo, Chileans cabritas and Venezuelans cotufas.

Which empire's people, met by Spanish invaders in 1519, hung popcorn on statues of their gods?

The Aztecs also wore popcorn on ceremonial headdresses and necklaces, and one ornamented statue was of Tlaloc, their god of rain and fertility.

Which holiday's origin story wrongly includes popcorn, a detail first found in fiction from 1889?

Thanksgiving at Plymouth in 1621 left no account of popcorn, and the corn the colonists raised had delicate kernels unsuitable for popping.

In Native American lore, what lived inside each popcorn kernel and burst out angrily when heated?

A spirit grew angry as its home heated up, burst out and fled into the air as a disgruntled puff of steam.

Which small pet is said to be 'popcorning' when it hops repeatedly into the air with excitement?

Guinea pig owners read the little hops as a sign of happiness; ferrets have a 'war dance' and rabbits have 'binkies' for the same mood.

Popcorn jumps as it cooks because the first starch to escape the kernel acts like which body part?

A leg of starch forms first and catapults the kernel like a gymnast while the rest of the starch spills out.

Nutritionists place plain popcorn in which food category?

Whole grains keep every part of the seed, and popcorn qualifies: three cups count as one serving from the grain group.

A famous sing-along tied the Rueckheim brothers' caramel popcorn and peanuts to which US sport?

Baseball crowds still sing about the snack during the seventh-inning stretch, though neither of the song's writers had attended a game before writing it.

Which accessory joined horn-rimmed glasses in popcorn pitchman Orville Redenbacher's trademark look?

A bow tie and wavy white hair made him look so folksy that customers wrote in asking whether Redenbacher was a real person or an actor.

Which fast-food chain launched bite-sized 'popcorn chicken' across the United States in 1992?

KFC's popcorn chicken was devised by food technologist Gene Gagliardi, who also invented the Steak-umm.

Which color of popcorn did movie-theater vendors make America's standard because it popped bigger?

Yellow corn expanded more and its tint hinted at butter; before the Depression most popcorn sold was a white variety costing half as much.

Popcorn grows on a plant from which botanical group, shared with wheat, rice and bamboo?

Grasses include every cereal crop, and a popcorn stalk shows the family likeness: about eight feet tall, with long green leaves and a feathery tassel on top.

Which insect names the popcorn shape with irregular 'wings', prized for its light, crisp texture?

Butterfly popcorn, also called snowflake, has the more tender bite, but it breaks easily, so packaged and candy-coated popcorn uses a rounder shape.

Signs in early movie theaters asked patrons to do what with popcorn they had bought outside?

Check it with their coats, the signs said, because street vendors were selling popcorn to moviegoers on their way in and theaters wanted none inside.

Which 1927 change to movies widened theater audiences, and with them popcorn's market?

Sound did away with the title cards of silent films, and by 1930 movie theaters were drawing 90 million people a week.

Which brass instrument did popcorn king Orville Redenbacher play in his university's marching band?

Tuba duty was one of several student pursuits: Redenbacher also ran track and worked on the campus newspaper before graduating in 1928.

In 2016 the toy prize inside the Rueckheims' famous caramel popcorn boxes was replaced by what?

A QR code that unlocks a mobile game took over, ending a long tradition of rings, figurines and stickers tucked into the boxes.

Trail's End popcorn is a fundraising brand sold by members of which American youth organization?

Scouting America, formerly the Boy Scouts of America, sells it as a fundraiser, and buyers can also pay to send popcorn to US troops and first responders.

On a popcorn plant, what are the long strands on each ear that catch wind-blown pollen called?

Silks catch the yellowish pollen shed by the tassels at the top of the stalk, and only then can the ear fill out with kernels.

Which farm machine usually harvests popcorn, stripping ears from the stalk and shelling the kernels?

A combine shells the kernels and throws the bare cob out of the back, then the crop is dried in bins with air forced up through the floor.

The signature Garrett Mix at Garrett Popcorn Shops pairs caramel popcorn with which other flavor?

Cheese and caramel popcorn are tossed together for the mix; sales more than doubled in the month after Oprah put a Garrett tin on her 2002 Favorite Things list.

Popcorn is a variety of which type of corn, the kind often used as colorful harvest decoration?

Flint corn takes its name from a kernel shell likened to the stone, and popcorn's own tough shell is what lets steam pressure build inside.

Popcorn pioneer Orville Redenbacher was born in a Midwestern town named like which country?

Brazil is where Redenbacher grew up on the family farm, sometimes selling popcorn from the back of his car.

The tune 'Popcorn', a worldwide 1972 hit for Hot Butter, was written for which instrument?

Moog synthesizer player Gershon Kingsley wrote the tune in 1969 and built its title from 'pop' for pop music and 'corn' for kitsch.

What really happens to the hull of popcorn varieties marketed as 'hull-less'?

It shatters on popping, so the pieces go unnoticed; every kernel needs a hull, because the hull is what holds the steam in until it bursts.

In the lingo of popcorn growers and processors, what does the word 'popability' refer to?

Share of kernels that pop is one of two yardsticks used to judge a crop; the other is how much each popped piece expands.

Lolly Gobble Bliss Bombs, toffee-coated popcorn rolled in crushed peanuts, come from which country?

Australia got the snack in the 1970s in packets covered with surreal psychedelic artwork, after its maker had delayed the launch, unsure it would sell.

Historian Andrew Smith thinks which travelers probably brought popcorn from Chile to New England?

Whalers calling at Chilean ports in the early 19th century most likely picked up the kernels as a curiosity and carried them home.

In an early Spanish colonial account, popped corn scattered before a water god stood for what?

Hailstones given to the god were what the worshippers called the offering, and the chronicler likened each burst kernel to a very white flower.

The living part of a popcorn kernel, which the surrounding starch exists to feed, goes by what name?

The germ, or embryo, is the part that would sprout into a new plant, and a kernel counts as mature once a 'black layer' forms at its tip.

Which grain, popped as a snack in India, makes puffs like popcorn's but smaller?

Sorghum kernels puff up when heated much as popcorn does, and the grain is one of the richest food sources of the flavonoid proanthocyanidin.

Which bagged popcorn brand was created by the couple who later founded Annie's Homegrown?

Smartfood was sold to a snack giant for $15 million in 1989, only a few years after Annie Withey and Andrew Martin launched it with partner Ken Meyers.

Which popcorn brand is the flagship of Iowa's American Pop Corn Company, founded in 1914?

Jolly Time moved from cardboard packs to metal cans in 1924 to keep its corn fresh, and founder Cloid H. Smith's family still owned the firm a century after he started it.

Which company sold microwave popcorn in vending machines around 1974, before supermarkets had it?

Pillsbury's vending-machine popcorn moved onto grocery shelves only as sales of microwave ovens climbed and more homes had one.

Which Ohio city hosts a yearly Popcorn Festival and houses the Wyandot Popcorn Museum?

Marion's museum shares a 1910 former post office with the county historical society and bills itself as the only museum in the world dedicated to popcorn.

Which microwave popcorn brand did Golden Valley Microwave Foods launch in 1984 as a shelf-stable product?

Act II needed no refrigeration, unlike its 1981 forerunner Act I, which was made with real butter and had to be kept chilled.

Popcorn descends from which wild Mexican plant, bred into maize by farmers thousands of years ago?

Teosinte has small seeds and looks little like modern corn; generations of selective breeding turned it into maize, and popcorn was among the first kinds grown.

Which butter-flavored seasoning have US movie theaters commonly put on popcorn since the 1960s?

Flavacol is a fine seasoning with butter flavoring and artificial colors mixed in, so theater popcorn is flavored and tinted before any topping is added.

Which stage magician endorsed Jiffy Pop, the stovetop popcorn with the swelling foil dome, in 1976?

Harry Blackstone Jr. suited a product whose foil top balloons as the corn pops; chemist Frederick Mennen had developed it in 1958.

A popcorn recipe from the 1840s called the kernels by the name of which Chilean port city?

Valparaiso corn was Daniel Browne's other name for popcorn, and his method was a frying pan rubbed with a little lard and shaken over the fire.

Angie and Dan Bastian began selling their kettle corn in 2002 outside which NFL team's home games?

Minnesota Vikings fans were the first customers, buying bags outside the Metrodome; by 2011 the business was reportedly turning out 80,000 bags a day.