How Was Popcorn Discovered?

[Michie]

Could a spill by the cook fire have been popcorn’s eureka moment?​

You have to wonder how people originally figured out how to eat some foods that are beloved today. The cassava plant is toxic if not carefully processed through multiple steps. Yogurt is basically old milk that’s been around for a while and contaminated with bacteria. And who discovered that popcorn could be a toasty, tasty treat?

These kinds of food mysteries are pretty hard to solve. Archaeology depends on solid remains to figure out what happened in the past, especially for people who didn’t use any sort of writing. Unfortunately, most stuff people traditionally used made from wood, animal materials or cloth decays pretty quickly, and archaeologists like me never find it.

We have lots of evidence of hard stuff, such as pottery and stone tools, but softer things – such as leftovers from a meal – are much harder to find. Sometimes we get lucky, if softer stuff is found in very dry places that preserve it. Also, if stuff gets burned, it can last a very long time.

Corn’s Ancestors​

Luckily, corn – also called maize – has some hard parts, such as the kernel shell. They’re the bits at the bottom of the popcorn bowl that get caught in your teeth. And since you have to heat maize to make it edible, sometimes it got burned, and archaeologists find evidence that way. Most interesting of all, some plants, including maize, contain tiny, rock-like fragments called phytoliths that can last for thousands of years.

Scientists are pretty sure they know how old maize is. We know maize was probably first farmed by Native Americans in what is now Mexico. Early farmers there domesticated maize from a kind of grass called teosinte.

Before farming, people would gather wild teosinte and eat the seeds, which contained a lot of starch, a carbohydrate like you’d find in bread or pasta. They would pick teosinte with the largest seeds and eventually started weeding and planting it. Over time, the wild plant developed into something like what we call maize today. You can tell maize from teosinte by its larger kernels.

There’s evidence of maize farming from dry caves in Mexico as early as 9,000 years ago. From there, maize farming spread throughout North and South America.

Popped Corn, Preserved Food​

Continued below.

How Was Popcorn Discovered?

Could a spill by the cook fire have been popcorn’s eureka moment?

www.discovermagazine.com

 

[Grip Docility]

Could a spill by the cook fire have been popcorn’s eureka moment?​

You have to wonder how people originally figured out how to eat some foods that are beloved today. The cassava plant is toxic if not carefully processed through multiple steps. Yogurt is basically old milk that’s been around for a while and contaminated with bacteria. And who discovered that popcorn could be a toasty, tasty treat?

These kinds of food mysteries are pretty hard to solve. Archaeology depends on solid remains to figure out what happened in the past, especially for people who didn’t use any sort of writing. Unfortunately, most stuff people traditionally used made from wood, animal materials or cloth decays pretty quickly, and archaeologists like me never find it.

We have lots of evidence of hard stuff, such as pottery and stone tools, but softer things – such as leftovers from a meal – are much harder to find. Sometimes we get lucky, if softer stuff is found in very dry places that preserve it. Also, if stuff gets burned, it can last a very long time.

Corn’s Ancestors​

Luckily, corn – also called maize – has some hard parts, such as the kernel shell. They’re the bits at the bottom of the popcorn bowl that get caught in your teeth. And since you have to heat maize to make it edible, sometimes it got burned, and archaeologists find evidence that way. Most interesting of all, some plants, including maize, contain tiny, rock-like fragments called phytoliths that can last for thousands of years.

Scientists are pretty sure they know how old maize is. We know maize was probably first farmed by Native Americans in what is now Mexico. Early farmers there domesticated maize from a kind of grass called teosinte.

Before farming, people would gather wild teosinte and eat the seeds, which contained a lot of starch, a carbohydrate like you’d find in bread or pasta. They would pick teosinte with the largest seeds and eventually started weeding and planting it. Over time, the wild plant developed into something like what we call maize today. You can tell maize from teosinte by its larger kernels.

There’s evidence of maize farming from dry caves in Mexico as early as 9,000 years ago. From there, maize farming spread throughout North and South America.

Popped Corn, Preserved Food​

Continued below.

How Was Popcorn Discovered?

Could a spill by the cook fire have been popcorn’s eureka moment?

www.discovermagazine.com

Hold the phone! Orville Redenbacher didn't invent popcorn! This is a genuine "the Easter bunny" isn't real moment for me!

All humor aside, I enjoy reading things like this that your have authored. Food of all kinds is genuinely fascinating! It's origins and developments of preparation, handling and presentation over the millennia are culturally rich and not to sound corny, just plain cool! Surely, God must smile each time we discover some new way to prepare His provisions.

I found your OP Amaizeing!

 

[Michie]

Hold the phone! Orville Redenbacher didn't invent popcorn! This is a genuine "the Easter bunny" isn't real moment for me!

All humor aside, I enjoy reading things like this that your have authored. Food of all kinds is genuinely fascinating! It's origins and developments of preparation, handling and presentation over the millennia are culturally rich and not to sound corny, just plain cool! Surely, God must smile each time we discover some new way to prepare His provisions.

I found your OP Amaizeing!

Glad you enjoyed it! Discovery magazine always has interesting content.