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