[Popcorn’s path to ubiquity is marked by the same milestones
that we associate with the development of culture—from notable
technological advancements to the tension between colonization and
repatriation.]
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PORTSIDE CULTURE

POPCORN IS A TIME CAPSULE FOR HOW WE SNACK  
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Jane Godiner
September 19, 2023
Taste
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_ Popcorn’s path to ubiquity is marked by the same milestones that
we associate with the development of culture—from notable
technological advancements to the tension between colonization and
repatriation. _

The movie theater staple is ever evolving, just like our snacking
habits., jeannetteferrary.photoshelter.com

 

“The butter is the best part,” Summer Adams told me during my
first visit to the Eveningstar Cinema in small-town Brunswick, Maine.
“We melt it by the pound—I unwrapped some sticks today.”

In a black choker and a Scream pullover sweater, Summer was proud to
scoop me up some Eveningstar popcorn. I’d heard murmurs about these
kernels—better, allegedly, than those from any mainstream movie
theater or, of course, the microwavable bag—all over my nearby
college campus, but I was skeptical. When I thought of a
quintessential, regionally famous food in a small town, I wouldn’t
typically think of popcorn. In fact, before visiting the Eveningstar,
I rarely thought of popcorn at all.

I stood, arms crossed and eyebrows raised, as Summer filled my cup and
tossed it with two generous pumps of real (read: colorless)
butter—first at the halfway-full mark, and then again when the cup
was teeming with white popcorn. Although I was rounding out my fourth
and final year at Bowdoin College, a mere 15-minute walk from the
cinema, I had come here for the first time only by happenstance. On my
way, I confirmed that my favorite gluten-free bakery had, in fact,
just closed—and then the unique smell of Eveningstar popcorn one
door over became too tempting to ignore.

There are many things about Eveningstar popcorn that distinguish it
from a traditional movie theater tub, but the first thing I noticed
was its mild scent, more akin to grilled corn on the cob than the
nostalgia of synthetic butter. The second thing I noticed was the
crowded countertop, packed with seasonings that had names like
cayenne-spiked “Mexican Hot Cocoa” and “Pizza Party” sourced
from local purveyors in Maine. No powdered cheddar or saccharine,
caramel concoction in sight. “We’re trying to have more of an
elevated popcorn experience as opposed to other cinemas,” she said,
smiling proudly.

Popcorn is often regarded as a near-requisite, though mindless, movie
theater snack. But popcorn’s path to ubiquity is marked by the same
milestones that we associate with the development of culture—from
notable technological advancements to the tension between colonization
and repatriation—and there’s nothing mindless about it.

The first popcorn plants were farmed in the eighth century BCE by
Indigenous groups, such as the Aztec and Maya in southern Mexico,
according to Andrew Smith, culinary history writer and lecturer in
food studies at the New School in New York. These popcorn seeds, when
placed on rocks or in pots over fire, would explode upon reaching
about 355 degrees Fahrenheit.

“I like to think popcorn was the first snack food,” says
now-retired Jim Iverson, a plant breeder who developed and sold hybrid
popcorn varieties for over 40 years for Crookham Company, one of the
nation’s largest popcorn seed banks and wholesale kernel purveyors.
“People munched on it at nighttime or at home with their
breakfast.”

Thousands of years later, this early-stage popcorn, referred to by the
Aztec nation as “izquitl,” or “parched corn,” spread across
the Americas during European colonization. The crop became a popular
and lucrative national export. Popcorn became easier than ever to
prepare, thanks to advancements like the newly minted “wire over the
fire” popping method in 1837, which involved placing kernels in a
wire basket over an open flame, and, eventually, the invention of the
traditional popcorn machine in 1893. In the wake of the Great
Depression, cinemas began selling popcorn at concession stands because
of the snack’s steep profit margins. Now, almost a century later,
popcorn sales are still how cinemas make up to 80% of their revenue.

“Theater owners want to have a huge popping volume, so that’s our
most important selection criteria when breeding,” Iverson says. “A
large popcorn tub can go for ten bucks, so if you can get just ten
more bags, it’s a hundred dollars more out of a fifty-pound bag of
popcorn.”

Some Crookham varietals, such as the excitingly named R98114W, have a
popping yield of 77 kernels per 10 grams, with a 50-to-1
popped-to-unpopped kernel ratio, making them well-suited for the movie
theater concession market. Along with popping volume, Iverson cited
high expansion rates and the perfect balance between crunch and fluff
as some of the most important qualities for Crookham’s theater
clients. With all of these criteria, the process of breeding the
perfect movie popcorn is not an easy one. “I would make 600 hybrids
a year, hoping to get one good one,” he says. “It’s not a great
science in terms of predictability. It’s just trial and error.”
While difficult, this work ultimately pays off. If movie theaters are
the main reason popcorn is so ubiquitous in the United States today,
microwaves might claim the title of second place.

“In the ’80s, microwaves were new in offices. Everyone was
suddenly making microwave popcorn,” says Corby Kummer, now a senior
editor at the Atlantic and executive director of the Food and Society
policy program at the Aspen Institute.“It was goopy and horrible
most of the time, but I was interested in exploring this newly
emerging idea of microwavable popcorn.”

At the very same time that Kummer explored then-innovative popping
techniques in his 1988 feature “Hot Popcorn” for the Atlantic,
popcorn’s image was undergoing a major makeover. In the wake of
harrowing sociopolitical commentary on the “dangers” of fats and
carbohydrates, marketing surrounding popcorn began to change
rapidly—popcorn would no longer fly off the shelves if it were
advertised as an indulgent treat or a dietary vice. The average
American consumer in the 1980s was searching for a quick fix when it
came to a healthy snack. Thankfully, popcorn, with its minimal
ingredients and easy preparation, was a natural fit.

The 1980s, Smith says, marked the era of popcorn’s enshrinement as a
“health food”—an era that was ultimately short-lived. In the
early 1990s, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI)
published a scathing study on the saturated fat content of movie
theater popcorn. In the blink of an eye, popcorn’s status in the
under-nuanced “good vs. bad food” debate shifted to the other
extreme, even though not all brands or popping mechanisms relied on so
much melted butter.

Even 30 years after the CSPI’s study, it’s safe to say that local
cinemas are still feeling its pressure. At the Eveningstar, Summer was
eager to reassure me about the cinema’s competitive, “healthier”
edge in popcorn preparation.

“A lot of places use a butter-flavored oil, which is just bad for
you,” Summer says. “We try to keep it as clean as possible.”

It’s entirely possible that, in the 21st century, pervasive diet
culture could once again shake popcorn’s reputation. At the same
time, with the recent emergence of a new wave of popcorn, it’s also
possible that the nutritional yeast-dusted BjornQorns from Upstate New
York and sunflower-oil-popped Boom Chicka Pops of the world are
manufacturing popcorn’s new image—as the slightly quirky,
sometimes homegrown, and mostly all-natural snack that it always has
been. After all, Bruce Hamaker, director of the Purdue University
Whistler Center for Carbohydrate Research, argues that people overlook
popcorn’s many virtues.

“There’s a lot of noise around processed foods, but popcorn is
very simple,” Hamaker says. “It’s got a good amount of fiber in
it, which people don’t recognize. It’s a whole-grain product.”

Award-winning food journalist Max Falkowitz, who refers to popcorn as
a “good ingredient,” suggests that those who discount popcorn’s
value should consider the use of popcorn, and other grains like it, in
nonwestern culinary practices.

“There’s a whole genre of foods, like South Asian chaat, that are
made with puffed rice, amaranth, and sorghum. In Japan, puffed rice
goes in tea to make genmaicha—it’s a native craft,” he says.
“There’s a lot of flavor and creativity in the way that puffed
grains are used in other cultures.”

Indeed, in both growing and selling, popcorn has connected communities
that might otherwise be isolated, alienated, or fragmented from one
another. Iverson, who likens popcorn breeding to “playing around in
nature’s toolbox,” would frequently experiment with breeding
popcorn kernels in vibrant colors, such as blue, mauve, and even red
stripes. With gratitude for popcorn’s indigenous roots, he sent some
of these creations to the Hopi Tribe, some of whose members he learned
have a notably religious connection to corn.

“The Hopi are great farmers, and some of them talked to me about how
God gave them all different types of corn to cultivate,” Iverson
said. “I wanted to send them even more colors, shapes, and sizes of
corn. The markets were so small for these specialty crops, but they
were fascinating.”

While popcorn’s reputation might have been altered—and sometimes
tarnished—during its centuries-long run, it’s never lost its
relevance. In fact, with the influx of modern popcorn brands embracing
new preparation methods and unconventional flavors like ube and dill
pickle, it seems that popcorn might be having a renaissance. Knowing
that the image of popcorn has consistently mirrored the evolving
values and priorities of its consumers, it’s worth keeping an eye on
the concession stand. After all, what’s next for popcorn might also
be what’s next for us.

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