March 27, 2025 • 22 mins
Who popped corn first? What early recipes used popcorn as an ingredient? Who invented the popcorn machine? Who brought popcorn to the movies? From garlands worn by young Aztec girls to honor of the rain god, Tlaloc, to a beloved movie treat around the world, Eva and Maite get into the rich history of our favorite snack… popcorn!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I just had palomitas last night, did you really? Yeah?
Sometimes I like a Sunday night dinner is palomitas, popcorn
with jalapenos and a glass of wine.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I've never had popcorn with halapenos. You put slices?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
What? Never? What? What?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Stop? Hang up right now?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Go make some cooking popcorn.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Wait, you open a can.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, the halapenos with the carrots and the all the racas,
and you pour the juice and all of it all
over and you eat it. Your will be forever changed.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
How have I never had this before?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I don't know. You don't go to the movies and
get the nachosjlapenos from the nachos and you put it
on your popcorn.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I've never done that. I mean, are not again your
Mexican card.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
My name is Evil Longoria and I am and welcome
to Hungry for History, a podcast that explores are past
and present through food.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
So make yourself at home. En popcorn to me feels
as American as apple pie and hot dogs, but it's
origins go back to Meso America. And one might not
think that popcorn is Mexican, but of course it is.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
It's corn, of course, right. I mean, we've talked about
the history.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Of corn season one and how integral it has always
been to our culture, but we never think about that
when we're enjoying our popcorn while watching a movie or
when pouring our jalapeno juice on it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Now, Yeah, yeah, well you know what I mean. You
know why I think of popcorn, I think Jiffy Pop.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Did you have Jiffy Pop growing up?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah? Well, let me tell you that was a luxury,
right because as Mexicans you can buy corn kennels and
my mom's like, well, pop them ourself, and I'm like,
I want Jiffy Pop because I loved the foil and
how it blew up on the stove. I thought that
was the cool list thing ever.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Same me too. And it was such a treat. It
was such a treat. It was basically like magic, you know.
It was just like such a like that's what I
remember from my childhood. And it was like a summer
thing or like movie night that.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
We would do that. So yeah, it was just like
it was so good, so good.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
My favorite kind of popcorn is movie theater popcorn. I
like going to the movies. I like it fresh. I'll
wait until they're popping a new batch. I stand there
like a crazy customer, and I'm like, na, that one's
from the back, that one's from the back. I want
the one that's coming flowing off the top, like it
has to be fresh. I put my hell up in
you on it. And yeah, So some of my favorite
(02:39):
memories are are movie theater popcorn and Jiffy pop. But
why do I I do associate it with Americana culture.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I mean I do too.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Actually I never really thought about I mean, it makes
sense corn is native to news, but I never really
associated it with Mesoamerica either.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I associated with growing god and.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Still by years on Amazon. Oh god, I mean I
didn't know. I just I'm just ordering it right now.
Don't mind me who popped kernels first. I guess that's
that's who gets to take credit.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes, so popcorn has been made by indigenous cultures for
thousands of years in the Americas, right, I mean it
dates back. This practice dates back at least five thousand
to seven thousand years, and there is even evidence of
popped corn found in archaeological sites in what is modern
day Mexico and Peru and in the southwestern US.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Right, So it's this.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Early variety of corn, because not all corn pops. It
was a really early variety with a really hard outer
shell makes that you know, makes the unpopped kernels really
difficult to chew unless it was heated. And so this
this really hard to shell.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
This is a scientific question. But kernels pop because of
heat or how does it pops? Because it but like
what makes it turn into a big flower? That's like,
it's so weird to me.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
It is, it is, it's sort of magical.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Right, So kernels pop because they have this right balance
of moisture and the really hard outer shell to trap
the pressure inside.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So this dealer cursed.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, So these kernels of popcorn, they have about fourteen
to twenty percent water and starches and everything, and it's
inside this shell. And then when heated, the water inside
that shell turns into steam and the pressure begins to
build and then this outer shell eventually can't hold the
pressure anymore and then it pops. And it's that explosion
(04:51):
that creates this fluffy little clouds, right that we know
and love as popcorn.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Oh my god, so moisture, heat rush, your explosion. Well yea,
is it true that the Aztecs popped corns and wore
popcorn garlands during ceremonies and festivities? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, what so, Yes, it's crazy because I always think
of popcorn garlands like around Christmas trees. Right, But so
the Aztecs they they popped corn, they popped you know, garlands,
and they used it in celebrations and festivals. So usually
young girls would wear garlands around their heads like in
(05:31):
tiaras or as chokers, and the main purpose of these
celebrations was to ask for water from the gods. Popcorn
was called momo chitu and it was used as an
offering to the gods, particularly the god La Looch who
was the rain god, and other deities associated with fertility
(05:51):
and agriculture.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Oh my goodness. So they did they have a jiffy
pop type apparatus.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Well, they probably put it the corn, the hard corn,
on a gomal on a hot on a hot griddle
and then it would pop or put it in a pan.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That'd like catch it. I mean they would have to
catch it.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
They would have to get Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So so a lot of it would would get lost,
and then eventually they came up with these contraptions like
the jiffy pop this idea to keep it contained, so
they would put on a comal and then or like
in clay pots.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
And then eventually you know.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Because yeah there was a there would lose a lot
of corn originally.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Wow, but isn't that cool?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Okay? If Aztecs were doing it, don't you think earlier
cultures were doing it? Like even before the Aztecs.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Aztecs were doing it, Mayans were doing it. Yeah, yeah,
I'm sure Incas were doing it wo. And also in
the southwestern US right modern day Texas and New Mexico
and Arizona, Georgia, like the pl and Jopie and the
Cherokees and all of these native cultures were also cultivating
(07:03):
maize and popping corn, making walpcorn.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So and so during the conquest and colonization, did that
get taken back to Europe?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Well yeah, oh yeah, I got biged. Yes, absolutely got
taken back to Europe. Yeah, and then it eventually spread
its way around the US. But it is one of
these foods we never think of popcorn of having deep
significance or it is.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
But of course it did. Yeah, the corn. Yeah, well,
when we come back, popcorn becomes part of street food
culture in the US and it's the perfect grab and
go snack at train stations that's after the break. This
is crazy, okay. So obviously if it's if it was
already in the US in like Arizona and Texas, and
(07:55):
I mean it was everywhere New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Atlanta, Alabama.
So when did we start seeing popcorn all over the
US because obviously we started growing the crop of corn.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah, so it must it either you know, spread from
from you know, the Southwest. And there's also a theory
Andrew Smith, he's the author of a book called Popped Culture,
a Social History of Popcorn in America, and he suggests
that that claimers from New England may have seen it
(08:31):
when they were in South America and introduced it west
of the Mississippi or you know, in New England. So
there's that, you know theory. But during the eighteen forties,
popping corn became really popular in the US, So it
took that you know, the eighteen hundreds and boys used
to sell popcorn at train stations and you know, there
(08:53):
were popcorns would be sold by street vendors in Boston
sort of fit in these wagons. So it became this
kind of Americana thing, and we start seeing these really
interesting popcorn recipe in American cookbooks in the nineteenth century,
like really innovative popcorn recipes. So one of my favorites
(09:16):
is popcorn and milk. It's the earliest document Yeah, it's
not that crazy. It's one of the earliest documented ways
to eat. Popcorn was basically a breakfast cereal with milk.
I remember when we were kids, there was like a pop,
like a corn pop.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I think it was called corn pop.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And so it was called corn pops, right, I think
they were I never really really.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
They weren't in the shape of popcorn, but it was
a version of a popped corn.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It was like a little ball, right, It wasn't like
the little flour.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yeah. So there's there's that.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
There's popcorn pudding, so softening popcorn and milk, then mixing
it with eggs and sugar, creating this sort of custard
like desserts. Like I feel like we don't see these
recipes anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
No, I've never had popcorn pudding or well maybe I
did have popcorn balls. I feel like my aunt might
have made something with like caro. You know, not my lasses,
but caro. Remember carol or syrup, Yeah, high fruittose corn syrup, yeah,
high fructose corn syrup. But popcorn pudding I never had.
(10:22):
When did people start sweetening? Because I know, like I
feel like buttered popcorn is natural, But when did they
start sweetening them?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Well, there is also evidence around this time in the
nineteenth century when people started adding butter and sugar to popcorn. Right,
so there are recipes for caramelizing popcorn and even like
the cheese popcorn that you hate and all of that.
We start seeing them in the in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century in just these you know recipes.
(10:52):
So there's also something called corn Dodgers that's a variation
of corn bread, so with ground popcorn in place of meal.
And it was a way to use leftover popcorn. I
can't imagine leftover popcorn, you know, but but it was
just a way for them to use it all.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
It would feel stale. So I guess when did we
migrate from popping it over and open fire into like
a machine that was made to pop these corns.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
So there's this guy, a man named Charles Creeters. He
was a Chicago based candy store owner and he was
this entrepreneur and he developed the first popcorn maker, like
the first official popcorn maker in eighteen eighty five. And
he with this machine, he was able to pop the
kernels and evenly cook them with butter, and it was like, wow,
(11:45):
super successful. You know, before this, kernals were placed near
a fire and then they've kind of fell all over
the place. When they pop, they fell into the fire
and they fill on the floor. And so you know,
he developed this machine that revolutionized the popcorn industry, and
because of him, popcorn became popular at fairs and carnivals
(12:08):
and then eventually in movie theaters and his companies.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
The Creator Company. So this guy Charles made that iconic
looking one, right, the one that we still they still
kind of emulate at fairs and stuff. It was like
that that like a little wagon looking.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Thing exactly exactly, this really kind of romantic looking looking
Now it's like, oh, yeah, it looks kind of retro,
but yeah, he's the guy. He's the guy. The company's
still in business today. They still produce popcorn, you know,
machines and concession you know equipment. And what's super cool
is that he introduced this popcorn machine at the eighteen
(12:48):
ninety three World's Fair. And that was the same World's
Fair that sauat. Yes, that's the World's Fair, but in
Kikila and something else. There was another important thing. The
Chili Queens introduced chili. We talked about the Chili Queens
last seas of Santoi Chili queens. So it was popcorn, thicky,
laugh and chili all at the same world's fair.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That is crazy.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
That was Chicago World's Fair of Chicago.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Also cracker jacks and the first Okay, well I do.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
I did love a cracker jack back in the day.
That's sweet.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, me too. I just hated the peanut.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Me too.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
I'm gonna get the peanut out of here.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Like why, It's like why it's like a raisin in
a cookie or or.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
It's like why why would why?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Why? Why? I ate a raisin? I ate a raisin
And at the Maley one time and I vomited because
it I was like, oh, what is that? That's a yeah,
oh it's like a raisin and a cookie or a
raisin in a pudding. So, okay, Jiffy Pop? What made
this pop? Was it a guy named Jiffy or pop?
(14:01):
Or how did this come to be? So?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Fredmannen invented Jiffy Pop in nineteen fifty eight, and it was,
you know, for people who don't aren't familiar with this,
it was this aluminum pan with a pre measured amount
of oil, salt, and carniols, and then it had this
foil dome.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
It had like a foil dome.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, and remember I used to literally it was like
it would pop. Band it as it popped, you had
and it had a little handle. It looked like a
frying pan and it had a little handle and you
would shake it, shake and shake it and it would pop.
And it was like a fun way to make popcorn.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
But you know, it was also I feel like this
happened when lightweight aluminum became available and it was like
along with the TV Dinners and like all of this
like easy to prepare food movement. Don't you think it
was like around that same time TV Dinners Jiffy like
shit that you could make on the stove quickly because
(15:03):
it was pretty. It was it was it was a novelty.
I mean now I think it's a novelty, but it
was just a really fun way to make popcorn. It
was also, like, like I said, kind of expensive, uh
compared to my mom was like, I have kernels, just
throw them in the pote. I was like, I went
jivvy bop. How did we move from street food to
(15:26):
movie theaters?
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Because I can't think.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Of movies without popcorn, and I really don't think of
popcorn without movies. We've got so much more after the
break stay with us, oh, the ball games, yeah, and
movie theaters to places that you Yeah, popcorn plays a
(15:48):
big role.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
By the late nineteenth century, popcorn was one like one
of the most popular snack foods. It was sold at
fairs and circuses and gatherings. And then we start seeing
the crackerjack sold at ballgames, and the song take Me
Out to the Ballgame includes the lyrics buy.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Me some peanuts and crackerjacks. You know, I don't care
if I ever go back.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So you see this association between crackerjacks and baseball stadiums.
And this was early, this was nineteen oh eight is
when we start seeing the crackerjack in in ballparks.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
When did popcorn become so integral with film culture?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
So this is actually relatively a relatively new thing, right, so,
which blows my mind because you can't really think of
one without the other. But moon movies became popular in
the early nineteen hundreds. They were the movie theaters were
modeled after super fancy opera houses, right, there were super
elegant theater owners didn't sell popcorn inside, but vendors street
(16:50):
vendors sold popcorn outside the movie theater. They didn't want
popcorn inside. It was messy, it was loud, and up
until yeah, but up until nineteen twenty seven there were
showing silent films, so it had to be quiet, and
so they didn't want people munching on.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
The popcorn because it was just too loud.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
But it wasn't until the Great Depression in nineteen twenty nine,
and that's when popcorn sales really started to skyrocket. Right,
movies had sound and they sort of started to gain,
you know, traction. You know, mo movies became even more
popular because now people didn't have to be literate to
go to the movies, and popcorn was cheap. And at
(17:33):
the same time, popcorn wagons started to disappear from the
streets as a result of zoning restrictions, and so theaters
started to close, and theater owners really they were desperate
for a new source of revenue, and they began partnering
with street vendors and selling popcorn inside. So it took
(17:54):
the Great Depression, you know, for that, and it took
a pioneering woman to play a significant role in introducing
popcorn in the twentieth century.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, I mean, of course, a woman has a significant
role in another great invention. I know.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
So who Mexico and a woman right, of course. Of course.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Her name was Julia Brayden, and she was born in
eighteen sixty two. She was the daughter of an immigrant
German immigrants. She was raised, born and raised on a
farm in Illinois, So she grew up churning butter, gathering eggs.
So then she moved to Kansas City, Missouri in nineteen
hundred and after she widowed, she jumped into the popcorn
(18:37):
kind of bandwagon candy business, and she branded her popcorn
as Braiden's Golden Flake Popcorn, just to make it, you know,
just to stand out from the crowd. And so then
by the nineteen thirties, she started you know, selling, you know,
operating popcorn stands near you know, movie theaters. And she
(18:58):
claimed that she was buying one hundred pounds of but
are a week and contracting five hundred acres of land
annually to grow her own corn.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Corn.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Smart smart Julia, she was a very smart lady. And
she established one of the first successful popcorn concessions within
a theater. And so her venture was so profitable that
it became the model for movie theaters nationwide. And thanks
to Julia Branden, that's why all of us associated popcorn
(19:31):
with the movie going experience. And then it just became
as the thing right after, you know, during World War Two,
when sugar was rationed, candy sales declined, and popcorn boom.
It became you know even more so became the go
to snack. But then, of course there's microwave popcorn, right,
(19:53):
That's all That's what we all have.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
But did did It's like the chicken or the egg?
What came first, the microwave or the popcorn? But no,
because it feels like they were closely tied together development wise,
because the microwave game and it was like foam popcorn.
I feel like they engineered a microwave just for the popcorn.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Microwave popcorn dates the mid twentieth century, and we start
seeing this connection between popcorn microwaves when this man named
Percy Spencer, he was an engineer at a company called
the Raytheon Company in Massachusetts, and he noticed that he
had a chocolate bar in his pocket. He noticed that
(20:35):
the chocolate bar melted near this thing that he developed
called the magnetron that was a microwave generating device, and
he was like, wait a minute, there's just something here.
So he experimented with popcorn and he found the popcorn
that this corn popped quickly under microwave radiation. And this
was in the nineteen forties, and so this discovery led
(20:59):
to the development of the first microwave oven, which is
called the Radar range in nineteen forty six. But it
was too big, it was too expensive, Like nobody had it,
you know, in their homes because it was just too big.
So microwaves didn't really become a common household appliances until
the nineteen eighties. So we started seeing microwave popcorn like
(21:19):
in the nineteen seventies and eighties, like companies like you know,
I don't know, Orville Red and Baker and pop Secret
and Act too. Like all of the microwaves that are
still the ones that are popular. They started seasoning it
and sort of making different flavors and all of that.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
So, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Popcorn is one of the reasons microwaves became popular.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Well, I'm so excited that US Mexicans can claim yet
another incredible popular food, the all time snack of popcorn.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
You're welcome, bravo of course, of course, the best stuff
in the world.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Bravo, Meso America, Bravo, bravo. Oh, thank you everybody for listening.
If you have a popcorn recipe, something creative, send it in.
We'd love to read it.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Ah, that's a great idea. Yeah, thank you for listening.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Hungary for History is a hyphen media production in partnership
with Iheart's Mikeuura podcast network.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I just had palomitas last night, did you really? Yeah?
Sometimes I like a Sunday night dinner is palomitas, popcorn
with jalapenos and a glass of wine.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
I've never had popcorn with halapenos. You put slices?
Speaker 1 (00:14):
What? Never? What? What?
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Stop? Hang up right now?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Go make some cooking popcorn.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Wait, you open a can.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Yeah, the halapenos with the carrots and the all the racas,
and you pour the juice and all of it all
over and you eat it. Your will be forever changed.
Speaker 3 (00:35):
How have I never had this before?
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I don't know. You don't go to the movies and
get the nachosjlapenos from the nachos and you put it
on your popcorn.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
I've never done that. I mean, are not again your
Mexican card.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
My name is Evil Longoria and I am and welcome
to Hungry for History, a podcast that explores are past
and present through food.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
On every episode, we'll talk about the history of some
of our favorite dishes, ingredients, and beverages from our culture.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
So make yourself at home. En popcorn to me feels
as American as apple pie and hot dogs, but it's
origins go back to Meso America. And one might not
think that popcorn is Mexican, but of course it is.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
It's corn, of course, right. I mean, we've talked about
the history.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Of corn season one and how integral it has always
been to our culture, but we never think about that
when we're enjoying our popcorn while watching a movie or
when pouring our jalapeno juice on it.
Speaker 1 (01:38):
Now, Yeah, yeah, well you know what I mean. You
know why I think of popcorn, I think Jiffy Pop.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
Did you have Jiffy Pop growing up?
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Yeah? Well, let me tell you that was a luxury,
right because as Mexicans you can buy corn kennels and
my mom's like, well, pop them ourself, and I'm like,
I want Jiffy Pop because I loved the foil and
how it blew up on the stove. I thought that
was the cool list thing ever.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Same me too. And it was such a treat. It
was such a treat. It was basically like magic, you know.
It was just like such a like that's what I
remember from my childhood. And it was like a summer
thing or like movie night that.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
We would do that. So yeah, it was just like
it was so good, so good.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
My favorite kind of popcorn is movie theater popcorn. I
like going to the movies. I like it fresh. I'll
wait until they're popping a new batch. I stand there
like a crazy customer, and I'm like, na, that one's
from the back, that one's from the back. I want
the one that's coming flowing off the top, like it
has to be fresh. I put my hell up in
you on it. And yeah, So some of my favorite
(02:39):
memories are are movie theater popcorn and Jiffy pop. But
why do I I do associate it with Americana culture.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
I mean I do too.
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Actually I never really thought about I mean, it makes
sense corn is native to news, but I never really
associated it with Mesoamerica either.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I associated with growing god and.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Still by years on Amazon. Oh god, I mean I
didn't know. I just I'm just ordering it right now.
Don't mind me who popped kernels first. I guess that's
that's who gets to take credit.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yes, so popcorn has been made by indigenous cultures for
thousands of years in the Americas, right, I mean it
dates back. This practice dates back at least five thousand
to seven thousand years, and there is even evidence of
popped corn found in archaeological sites in what is modern
day Mexico and Peru and in the southwestern US.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Right, So it's this.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Early variety of corn, because not all corn pops. It
was a really early variety with a really hard outer
shell makes that you know, makes the unpopped kernels really
difficult to chew unless it was heated. And so this
this really hard to shell.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
This is a scientific question. But kernels pop because of
heat or how does it pops? Because it but like
what makes it turn into a big flower? That's like,
it's so weird to me.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
It is, it is, it's sort of magical.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Right, So kernels pop because they have this right balance
of moisture and the really hard outer shell to trap
the pressure inside.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So this dealer cursed.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, So these kernels of popcorn, they have about fourteen
to twenty percent water and starches and everything, and it's
inside this shell. And then when heated, the water inside
that shell turns into steam and the pressure begins to
build and then this outer shell eventually can't hold the
pressure anymore and then it pops. And it's that explosion
(04:51):
that creates this fluffy little clouds, right that we know
and love as popcorn.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Oh my god, so moisture, heat rush, your explosion. Well yea,
is it true that the Aztecs popped corns and wore
popcorn garlands during ceremonies and festivities? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Yeah, what so, Yes, it's crazy because I always think
of popcorn garlands like around Christmas trees. Right, But so
the Aztecs they they popped corn, they popped you know, garlands,
and they used it in celebrations and festivals. So usually
young girls would wear garlands around their heads like in
(05:31):
tiaras or as chokers, and the main purpose of these
celebrations was to ask for water from the gods. Popcorn
was called momo chitu and it was used as an
offering to the gods, particularly the god La Looch who
was the rain god, and other deities associated with fertility
(05:51):
and agriculture.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Oh my goodness. So they did they have a jiffy
pop type apparatus.
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Well, they probably put it the corn, the hard corn,
on a gomal on a hot on a hot griddle
and then it would pop or put it in a pan.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
That'd like catch it. I mean they would have to
catch it.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
They would have to get Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So so a lot of it would would get lost,
and then eventually they came up with these contraptions like
the jiffy pop this idea to keep it contained, so
they would put on a comal and then or like
in clay pots.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
And then eventually you know.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Because yeah there was a there would lose a lot
of corn originally.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Wow, but isn't that cool?
Speaker 1 (06:35):
Okay? If Aztecs were doing it, don't you think earlier
cultures were doing it? Like even before the Aztecs.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Aztecs were doing it, Mayans were doing it. Yeah, yeah,
I'm sure Incas were doing it wo. And also in
the southwestern US right modern day Texas and New Mexico
and Arizona, Georgia, like the pl and Jopie and the
Cherokees and all of these native cultures were also cultivating
(07:03):
maize and popping corn, making walpcorn.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
So and so during the conquest and colonization, did that
get taken back to Europe?
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Well yeah, oh yeah, I got biged. Yes, absolutely got
taken back to Europe. Yeah, and then it eventually spread
its way around the US. But it is one of
these foods we never think of popcorn of having deep
significance or it is.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
But of course it did. Yeah, the corn. Yeah, well,
when we come back, popcorn becomes part of street food
culture in the US and it's the perfect grab and
go snack at train stations that's after the break. This
is crazy, okay. So obviously if it's if it was
already in the US in like Arizona and Texas, and
(07:55):
I mean it was everywhere New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Atlanta, Alabama.
So when did we start seeing popcorn all over the
US because obviously we started growing the crop of corn.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
Yeah, so it must it either you know, spread from
from you know, the Southwest. And there's also a theory
Andrew Smith, he's the author of a book called Popped Culture,
a Social History of Popcorn in America, and he suggests
that that claimers from New England may have seen it
(08:31):
when they were in South America and introduced it west
of the Mississippi or you know, in New England. So
there's that, you know theory. But during the eighteen forties,
popping corn became really popular in the US, So it
took that you know, the eighteen hundreds and boys used
to sell popcorn at train stations and you know, there
(08:53):
were popcorns would be sold by street vendors in Boston
sort of fit in these wagons. So it became this
kind of Americana thing, and we start seeing these really
interesting popcorn recipe in American cookbooks in the nineteenth century,
like really innovative popcorn recipes. So one of my favorites
(09:16):
is popcorn and milk. It's the earliest document Yeah, it's
not that crazy. It's one of the earliest documented ways
to eat. Popcorn was basically a breakfast cereal with milk.
I remember when we were kids, there was like a pop,
like a corn pop.
Speaker 3 (09:31):
I think it was called corn pop.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
And so it was called corn pops, right, I think
they were I never really really.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
They weren't in the shape of popcorn, but it was
a version of a popped corn.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It was like a little ball, right, It wasn't like
the little flour.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
Yeah. So there's there's that.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
There's popcorn pudding, so softening popcorn and milk, then mixing
it with eggs and sugar, creating this sort of custard
like desserts. Like I feel like we don't see these
recipes anymore.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
No, I've never had popcorn pudding or well maybe I
did have popcorn balls. I feel like my aunt might
have made something with like caro. You know, not my lasses,
but caro. Remember carol or syrup, Yeah, high fruittose corn syrup, yeah,
high fructose corn syrup. But popcorn pudding I never had.
(10:22):
When did people start sweetening? Because I know, like I
feel like buttered popcorn is natural, But when did they
start sweetening them?
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Well, there is also evidence around this time in the
nineteenth century when people started adding butter and sugar to popcorn. Right,
so there are recipes for caramelizing popcorn and even like
the cheese popcorn that you hate and all of that.
We start seeing them in the in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century in just these you know recipes.
(10:52):
So there's also something called corn Dodgers that's a variation
of corn bread, so with ground popcorn in place of meal.
And it was a way to use leftover popcorn. I
can't imagine leftover popcorn, you know, but but it was
just a way for them to use it all.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
It would feel stale. So I guess when did we
migrate from popping it over and open fire into like
a machine that was made to pop these corns.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
So there's this guy, a man named Charles Creeters. He
was a Chicago based candy store owner and he was
this entrepreneur and he developed the first popcorn maker, like
the first official popcorn maker in eighteen eighty five. And
he with this machine, he was able to pop the
kernels and evenly cook them with butter, and it was like, wow,
(11:45):
super successful. You know, before this, kernals were placed near
a fire and then they've kind of fell all over
the place. When they pop, they fell into the fire
and they fill on the floor. And so you know,
he developed this machine that revolutionized the popcorn industry, and
because of him, popcorn became popular at fairs and carnivals
(12:08):
and then eventually in movie theaters and his companies.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
The Creator Company. So this guy Charles made that iconic
looking one, right, the one that we still they still
kind of emulate at fairs and stuff. It was like
that that like a little wagon looking.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
Thing exactly exactly, this really kind of romantic looking looking
Now it's like, oh, yeah, it looks kind of retro,
but yeah, he's the guy. He's the guy. The company's
still in business today. They still produce popcorn, you know,
machines and concession you know equipment. And what's super cool
is that he introduced this popcorn machine at the eighteen
(12:48):
ninety three World's Fair. And that was the same World's
Fair that sauat. Yes, that's the World's Fair, but in
Kikila and something else. There was another important thing. The
Chili Queens introduced chili. We talked about the Chili Queens
last seas of Santoi Chili queens. So it was popcorn, thicky,
laugh and chili all at the same world's fair.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
That is crazy.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
That was Chicago World's Fair of Chicago.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Also cracker jacks and the first Okay, well I do.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
I did love a cracker jack back in the day.
That's sweet.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, me too. I just hated the peanut.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
Me too.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
I'm gonna get the peanut out of here.
Speaker 2 (13:32):
Like why, It's like why it's like a raisin in
a cookie or or.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
It's like why why would why?
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Why? Why? I ate a raisin? I ate a raisin
And at the Maley one time and I vomited because
it I was like, oh, what is that? That's a yeah,
oh it's like a raisin and a cookie or a
raisin in a pudding. So, okay, Jiffy Pop? What made
this pop? Was it a guy named Jiffy or pop?
(14:01):
Or how did this come to be? So?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Fredmannen invented Jiffy Pop in nineteen fifty eight, and it was,
you know, for people who don't aren't familiar with this,
it was this aluminum pan with a pre measured amount
of oil, salt, and carniols, and then it had this
foil dome.
Speaker 1 (14:20):
It had like a foil dome.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, and remember I used to literally it was like
it would pop. Band it as it popped, you had
and it had a little handle. It looked like a
frying pan and it had a little handle and you
would shake it, shake and shake it and it would pop.
And it was like a fun way to make popcorn.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
But you know, it was also I feel like this
happened when lightweight aluminum became available and it was like
along with the TV Dinners and like all of this
like easy to prepare food movement. Don't you think it
was like around that same time TV Dinners Jiffy like
shit that you could make on the stove quickly because
(15:03):
it was pretty. It was it was it was a novelty.
I mean now I think it's a novelty, but it
was just a really fun way to make popcorn. It
was also, like, like I said, kind of expensive, uh
compared to my mom was like, I have kernels, just
throw them in the pote. I was like, I went
jivvy bop. How did we move from street food to
(15:26):
movie theaters?
Speaker 3 (15:27):
Because I can't think.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Of movies without popcorn, and I really don't think of
popcorn without movies. We've got so much more after the
break stay with us, oh, the ball games, yeah, and
movie theaters to places that you Yeah, popcorn plays a
(15:48):
big role.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
By the late nineteenth century, popcorn was one like one
of the most popular snack foods. It was sold at
fairs and circuses and gatherings. And then we start seeing
the crackerjack sold at ballgames, and the song take Me
Out to the Ballgame includes the lyrics buy.
Speaker 3 (16:05):
Me some peanuts and crackerjacks. You know, I don't care
if I ever go back.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
So you see this association between crackerjacks and baseball stadiums.
And this was early, this was nineteen oh eight is
when we start seeing the crackerjack in in ballparks.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
When did popcorn become so integral with film culture?
Speaker 2 (16:24):
So this is actually relatively a relatively new thing, right, so,
which blows my mind because you can't really think of
one without the other. But moon movies became popular in
the early nineteen hundreds. They were the movie theaters were
modeled after super fancy opera houses, right, there were super
elegant theater owners didn't sell popcorn inside, but vendors street
(16:50):
vendors sold popcorn outside the movie theater. They didn't want
popcorn inside. It was messy, it was loud, and up
until yeah, but up until nineteen twenty seven there were
showing silent films, so it had to be quiet, and
so they didn't want people munching on.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
The popcorn because it was just too loud.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
But it wasn't until the Great Depression in nineteen twenty nine,
and that's when popcorn sales really started to skyrocket. Right,
movies had sound and they sort of started to gain,
you know, traction. You know, mo movies became even more
popular because now people didn't have to be literate to
go to the movies, and popcorn was cheap. And at
(17:33):
the same time, popcorn wagons started to disappear from the
streets as a result of zoning restrictions, and so theaters
started to close, and theater owners really they were desperate
for a new source of revenue, and they began partnering
with street vendors and selling popcorn inside. So it took
(17:54):
the Great Depression, you know, for that, and it took
a pioneering woman to play a significant role in introducing
popcorn in the twentieth century.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
Yeah, I mean, of course, a woman has a significant
role in another great invention. I know.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
So who Mexico and a woman right, of course. Of course.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Her name was Julia Brayden, and she was born in
eighteen sixty two. She was the daughter of an immigrant
German immigrants. She was raised, born and raised on a
farm in Illinois, So she grew up churning butter, gathering eggs.
So then she moved to Kansas City, Missouri in nineteen
hundred and after she widowed, she jumped into the popcorn
(18:37):
kind of bandwagon candy business, and she branded her popcorn
as Braiden's Golden Flake Popcorn, just to make it, you know,
just to stand out from the crowd. And so then
by the nineteen thirties, she started you know, selling, you know,
operating popcorn stands near you know, movie theaters. And she
(18:58):
claimed that she was buying one hundred pounds of but
are a week and contracting five hundred acres of land
annually to grow her own corn.
Speaker 3 (19:06):
Corn.
Speaker 2 (19:06):
Smart smart Julia, she was a very smart lady. And
she established one of the first successful popcorn concessions within
a theater. And so her venture was so profitable that
it became the model for movie theaters nationwide. And thanks
to Julia Branden, that's why all of us associated popcorn
(19:31):
with the movie going experience. And then it just became
as the thing right after, you know, during World War Two,
when sugar was rationed, candy sales declined, and popcorn boom.
It became you know even more so became the go
to snack. But then, of course there's microwave popcorn, right,
(19:53):
That's all That's what we all have.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
But did did It's like the chicken or the egg?
What came first, the microwave or the popcorn? But no,
because it feels like they were closely tied together development wise,
because the microwave game and it was like foam popcorn.
I feel like they engineered a microwave just for the popcorn.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Microwave popcorn dates the mid twentieth century, and we start
seeing this connection between popcorn microwaves when this man named
Percy Spencer, he was an engineer at a company called
the Raytheon Company in Massachusetts, and he noticed that he
had a chocolate bar in his pocket. He noticed that
(20:35):
the chocolate bar melted near this thing that he developed
called the magnetron that was a microwave generating device, and
he was like, wait a minute, there's just something here.
So he experimented with popcorn and he found the popcorn
that this corn popped quickly under microwave radiation. And this
was in the nineteen forties, and so this discovery led
(20:59):
to the development of the first microwave oven, which is
called the Radar range in nineteen forty six. But it
was too big, it was too expensive, Like nobody had it,
you know, in their homes because it was just too big.
So microwaves didn't really become a common household appliances until
the nineteen eighties. So we started seeing microwave popcorn like
(21:19):
in the nineteen seventies and eighties, like companies like you know,
I don't know, Orville Red and Baker and pop Secret
and Act too. Like all of the microwaves that are
still the ones that are popular. They started seasoning it
and sort of making different flavors and all of that.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
So, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Popcorn is one of the reasons microwaves became popular.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Well, I'm so excited that US Mexicans can claim yet
another incredible popular food, the all time snack of popcorn.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
You're welcome, bravo of course, of course, the best stuff
in the world.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
Bravo, Meso America, Bravo, bravo. Oh, thank you everybody for listening.
If you have a popcorn recipe, something creative, send it in.
We'd love to read it.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
Ah, that's a great idea. Yeah, thank you for listening.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Hungary for History is a hyphen media production in partnership
with Iheart's Mikeuura podcast network.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
For more of your favorite shows, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
MAITE GOMEZ-REJÓN
Eva Longoria
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