Back In Time Popcorn
Tacio Allaire
I would also go back to the time when my best friend and I, Kelly Jordan, would go to the movies. It was not uncommon for us to see two back-to-back shows. A Pepsi, popcorn and Milk Duds were my snacks of choice. To this day, when I eat Milk Duds it is very nostalgic.
It is easier than ever to serve up fresh popcorn! ReadyPop Jr. combines the power of an 8-oz popper and the convenience of a self-serve popcorn dispenser in one compact unit. Operators can pop multiple batches then hold the popcorn in the cabinet until it is dispensed. Customers will enjoy filling their cups or bags with just the push of a button. ReadyPop Jr. includes a stainless-steel E-Z Kleen kettle, PowerOff Control that automatically turns off kettle heat after 15 minutes of idle time, and a heated corn deck to keep the popcorn warm and fresh. For the back counter model you operate the popper and dispense product from the same side of the machine.
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When I was a kid, there were two kinds of popcorn, as far as I knew: movie theater and microwave. (The only exception was the output from my grandma's electric air-popper, which saved me the trouble of finding out what packing peanuts tasted like.) Most of my grown-up friends still seem to hold this benighted worldview. In fact, serving popcorn made on the stove, rather than in the microwave, is the most reliable way I've found to impress guests without doing anything actually impressive.
Look, I get why people eat microwave popcorn. It's good in the same way Doritos are good: Doused in artificial flavoring, it's addictive and crazy salty, and it leaves your hands covered in weird powdery stuff. As with most commercial snack foods, its flavor seems designed to be both intense and fleeting so that you can't stop yourself from reaching for the next handful, even though the payoff diminishes with each bite.
Stovetop popcorn, on the other hand, tastes good in the way that real food tastes good. The key is the oil, which lends a satisfying savoriness that actually gets better with each mouthful, making the last few bites feel pretty decadent. (Have you ever wondered why movie popcorn is even more addictive than the microwave kind? It's popped in amounts of oil that would make Mike Bloomberg weep.) Any oil should work, but extra-virgin olive oil will yield by far the most delicious results.
And stovetop popcorn is easy to make. There are three steps: turn on stove, add oil, add popcorn. The Internet abounds with neurotic tips and warnings about how easy it is for your kernels to burn, but as long as you don't add more than a single layer of kernels to your saucepan, don't set the heat too high and leave the lid slightly ajar, you will have a very hard time making a bad batch. You can melt some butter to pour on at the end, but frankly, I think you'll find you don't need it.
Apart from taste, there are some empirical benefits to eschewing microwave popcorn. First, there's cost: a box of Pop Secret costs $3.59 at my local grocery store. At three bags of popcorn per box, that's about $1.20 per 100-gram bag. A 900-gram bag of plain yellow popcorn kernels, on the other hand, goes for $2.59, or about 29 cents per 100 grams. So you're paying four times as much for the dubious convenience of getting to heat your corn kernels using microwaves rather than fire.
When the popping slows to the point that there is an interval of 1 to 2 seconds between each pop, remove the pan from the heat and transfer the popcorn to a bowl. Season with salt and serve immediately.
It is believed that the first use of wild and early cultivated corn was popping. 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 4,000 years old.
Popcorn was integral to early 16th century Aztec Indian ceremonies. Bernardino de Sahagun writes: "And also a number of young women danced, having so vowed, a popcorn dance. As thick as tassels of maize were their popcorn garlands. And these they placed upon (the girls') heads." In 1519, Cortes got his first sight of popcorn when he invaded Mexico and came into contact with the Aztecs. Popcorn was an important food for the Aztec Indians, who also used popcorn as decoration for ceremonial headdresses, necklaces and ornaments on statues of their gods, including Tlaloc, the god of rain and fertility.
An early Spanish account of a ceremony honoring the Aztec gods who watched over fishermen reads: "They scattered before him parched corn, called momochitl, a kind of corn which bursts when parched and discloses its contents and makes itself look like a very white flower; they said these were hailstones given to the god of water."
Although popcorn is typically thought of as a snack food today, popcorn was once a popular breakfast food. Ahead of its time and very likely a role model for breakfast cereals to come, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, popcorn was eaten just as we eat cereal today.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, popcorn balls were one of the most popular confections and often given as gifts. Their popularity spawned an industry of popcorn ball making gadgets. Victorian families often decorated fireplace mantels, doorways and Christmas trees with ornate ornaments made from popcorn balls. And by the turn of the century, most cookbooks featured at least one recipe.
During the Depression, popcorn at 5 or 10 cents a bag was one of the few luxuries down-and-out families could afford. While other businesses failed, the popcorn business thrived. An Oklahoma banker who went broke when his bank failed bought a popcorn machine and started a business in a small store near a theater. After a couple years, his popcorn business made enough money to buy back three of the farms he'd lost.
Unlike other confections, popcorn sales increased throughout the Depression. A major reason for this increase was the introduction of popcorn into movie theaters and its low cost for both patron and owner. One theater owner actually lowered the price of his theater tickets and added a popcorn machine. He soon saw huge profits.
During World War II, sugar was sent overseas for U.S. troops, which meant there wasn't much sugar left in the United States to make candy. Thanks to this unusual situation, Americans ate three times as much popcorn as usual.
Popcorn went into a slump during the early 1950s, when television became popular. Attendance at movie theaters dropped and with it, popcorn consumption. When the public began eating popcorn at home, the new relationship between television and popcorn led to a resurgence in popularity.
Percy Spencer, Raytheon Manufacturing Corporation, figured out how to mass-produce magnetrons which were being used to generate microwaves for use in World War II. Looking for post-war applications of Raytheon technology, Spencer spurred the development of the microwave oven in 1946. Popcorn was key to many of Spencer's experiments.
Exploring Paraguay during the 18th century, Felix de Azara told of a kind of popcorn with kernels on the tassel which, when "it is boiled in fat or oil, the grains burst without becoming detached, and there results a superb bouquet fit to adorn a lady's hair at night without anyone knowing what it was. I have often eaten these burst grains and found them very good."
During the early nineteenth century Americans tried several methods of popping popcorn. Some threw kernels in hot ashes, stirred, and sifted out the popped corn. Others tried cooking popcorn in kettles filled with fat, lard or butter. A more popular method was cooking popcorn over an open fire in a wire box with a long wooden handle.
Charles Cretors, founder of C. Cretors and Company in Chicago, introduced the world's first mobile popcorn machine at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Scientific American reported: "This machine...was designed with the idea of moving it about to any location where the operator would be likely to do a good business. The apparatus, which is light and strong, and weighing but 400 or 500 pounds, can be drawn readily by a boy or by a small pony to any picnic ground, fair, political rally, etc. and to many other places where a good business could be done for a day or two."
Whether stovetop popped, fresh from the microwave (see above) or ready to eat, Americans love popcorn. In fact, Americans today consume some 14 billion* quarts of popped popcorn each year. That averages to about 43 quarts per person.
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