C. NELSON Nebraska has long been America’s leading producer of popcorn, with Indiana as its only serious rival, although the Popcorn Institute is in Chicago and the Popcorn Museum in Marion, Ohio. Like most of the stories surrounding “the first Thanksgiving” in 1621 the legend of the Indian Quadequina bringing out popcorn to serve the Pilgrims seems dubious. But it probably was an Indian invention made from hard flint corn, which has a starch casing that expands with heat and explodes. Cortés and his men saw the Aztecs use it as ornament and Puritan governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts saw Indians making it. It was embraced by the early New England settlers, who, apparently more fastidious about questions of grammar than today’s Americans, kept calling it “popped corn.” It was always popular, both as a snack at public events and as ornaments at Christmas time. But although popcorn was popular at the time of America Eats, it was not nearly as popular as it is today. According to Betty Fussell, who wrote the 1992 The Story of Corn, during World War II candy was shipped overseas to G.I.s, leaving the homefront to eat popcorn.
What do You think about The Food Of A Younger Land?
