Venus Rising

Food for SoulIssue: Pisces 2009 - The Movie Issue

Make Your Own Ultimate Movie Popcorn

Watercolor by Philip GaligaThe Oscars are upon us with the red carpet, the glam, the awards. Even if you don’t watch them, this last bit of winter is a great time catch up on 2008’s best movies. Why not curl up for a stint on the couch to watch a flick with the ultimate movie food – popcorn!

Fluffy and airy, bright and delicate…popcorn is not only the most popular snack food in the United States (we eat approximately 55 quarts per person per year), but it has sparked poetic waxing. Its beloved stance in American culture was even sentimentally described by Henry David Thoreau, “…I have been popping corn tonight, which is really only a more rapid blossoming of the seed, under greater than July heat. The popped corn is a perfect winter flower, hinting of anemones and houstonias. By my warm hearth sprang these cerealious blossoms...” This may be an overly romantic musing about popcorn but you have to admit that those small white puffed kernels fairly resemble the paper whites forced to sprout this time of year.

It is thought that the first use of wild and early cultivated corn was for popping and that the practice began over 5000 years ago. Images of corn and its popped blossoms are depicted in South American artifact etchings depicting headdresses and garlands of popcorn in celebratory ceremonies and giving rise to the theory that South America may have been its origin. Un-popped and partially popped corn was discovered in caves of agrarian natives in New Mexico and kernels and popping vessels were uncovered in archeological sites in the northern plains. Iroquois legend says that some tribes believed that popcorn seeds housed quite spirits and that heating the kernels made the spirits angry until they became so angry that they burst out of their homes in a huff…and puff. It wasn’t until the late 19th century that popcorn became a popular American snack food.

The first company to specialize in popcorn was a small Iowan company that sold two types: Big Buster and Little Buster. Shortly thereafter the machine-operated popcorn maker was invented in Chicago and carts started popping up all over on city street corners. At the turn of the 20^th century, the American Pop Corn Company was created in Sioux City, Iowa and sold its first brand, Jolly Time.  Because popcorn requires a precise amount of moisture in the kernel (13.5%) in order for it to pop when heated, Jolly Time sold popcorn in metal cans to seal in that moisture and be able to make their claim “Guaranteed to Pop.” The Jolly Time brand remains the oldest popcorn company in the world and it is still in the hands of the family that started it.

Since the time of its modern inception, popcorn has rarely, if ever, seen ebb in its demand. With the advent of movie theaters around 1929 demand increased, as it did again with the invention of the television in the 1950s. As the microwave became the norm, the popcorn industry grew again, with its innovative popcorn in a bag.