A popular treat
June 2, 2008 (Monday)
Popcorn is an interesting part of our culture.
There’s an old story about weather getting so hot that corn popped on the stalks in the fields. A guy on a horse was riding through and when his horse saw the popped corn he thought it was snow and froze to death. I warned you it was an old story, so you can stop the groaning.
Such old stories have generated questions, such as, “Why doesn’t the corn pop on the stalk when the weather gets unbearably hot?” The answer is simple: it doesn’t get hot enough to pop. It must be heated to 400-460 degrees Fahrenheit. It doesn’t get that hot in any desert on earth.
Around 1950 some scholars researching the cliff dwellers of New Mexico found some unpopped popcorn kernels. They were carbon dated as 5600 years old, and when one was dropped into hot oil, it popped, pretty as you please. Hey, stop groaning – it’s a true story.
When television viewing became popular in the USA, popcorn sales rose 500%. That ought to give us a little hint about our eating habits, and some idea about why we are becoming a nation of obese people. (It is so much easier to write, “a nation of obese people” than “I’m getting fatter each day,” which I am).
In one of my several jobs growing up, I made the popcorn at a neighborhood theater in Houston. Such theaters were becoming history by that time and mine was open only on weekends. I learned how to make good popcorn, and enjoyed it a lot. Of all the ways popcorn has been made, the old theater poppers were probably the best (my own opinion, based on my own opinion).
I’m through with this blog. Think I’ll have some popcorn.