Popcorn

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

Im engaged in another historical forum on the commonality of popcorn in the colonial period. I was wondering if there are any maritime references to it in the way of trade goods on ships manifests, and what is the story on it across the pond? Can anyone come up wih anything from these angles? I've already googled the stuff and read most of whats there but there are alot of ares not covered. Thanx!

Capt. Bo

[blackjohn]

uhhh... how about...

we call it popped maize

???

[William Brand]

http://www.factmonster.com/spot/popcorn1.html

"Tens of thousands of years before there were movies, there was popcorn.

Archaeologists have found 80,000-year-old corn pollen below Mexico City. Because this pollen is almost exactly the same as modern popcorn pollen, researchers believe that "cave people" most likely had popcorn.

Popcorn probably grew first in Mexico, though it was also used in China and India hundreds of years before Columbus reached the Americas.

The oldest popcorn ever found was discovered in the "Bat Cave" of central New Mexico. It is thought to be about 5,600 years old. In tombs in Peru, archaeologists found ancient kernels of popcorn that are so well preserved that they can still pop.

popcorn

Sometimes, conditions can preserve ancient popcorn so perfectly that it still looks fluffy and white when the dust is blown off of it. In a cave in southern Utah, researchers found surprisingly fresh-looking 1,000-year-old popcorn.

Popcorn was probably an important part of life in the ancient Americas. On a 1,700-year-old painted funeral urn found in Mexico, a corn god is shown wearing a headdress of popcorn. Decorated popcorn poppers from around the same time have been found in Peru.

Europeans learned about popcorn from Native Americans. When Cortes invaded Mexico, and when Columbus arrived in the West Indies, each saw natives eating popcorn, as well as using it in necklaces and headdresses.

Native Americans brought a bag of popped corn to the first Thanksgiving. A common way to eat popcorn at that time was to hold an oiled ear on a stick over the fire, then chew the popped kernels off it. Natives throughout the Americas also made a popcorn beer. Some made popcorn soup."

http://www.nal.usda.gov/speccoll/images1/p....html#Europeans

"European explorers throughout the Americas were introduced to, and intrigued by, popcorn. Around the year 1612, early French explorers through the Great Lakes region noted that the Iroquois popped popcorn with heated sand in a pottery vessel and used it to make popcorn soup, among other things. Writing of Peruvian Indians, Bernabé Cobo, a missionary in Peru between 1609 and 1629, remarked that they toasted "a certain kind of corn until it bursts. They call it pisancalla, and they use it as a confection."

The new settlers embraced popcorn. Colonial families sometimes ate popcorn with sugar and cream for breakfast. Some colonists popped corn using poppers consisting of a cylinder of thin sheet-iron that revolved on an axle in front of the fireplace like a squirrel cage. Popcorn was still very much a small, home-grown crop."

[Dorian Lasseter]

Colonial families sometimes ate popcorn with sugar and cream for breakfast.

Ever have Kellogs 'corn pops'?

Among other breakfast cereals....

[Capt. Bo of the WTF co.]

Yeah I've seen all of those, plus several that mention a cylindrical popper that was made of sheet metal and was designed like a squirrel cage in "colonial" times. I'd like to find something really significantlike a drawing or photo of this, or more solid evidence that shows it was widely used. I have it in house gardens, used as cereal and all the references to the Indians and stuff, but I want to find some actual period reference for absolute proof if possible. Can't find an image of that popper yet either.

Capt. Bo