Popped Culture

Popped Culture

A Social History of Popcorn in America

  • Autor: Smith, Andrew F.
  • Editor: University of South Carolina Press
  • ISBN: 9781570033001
  • eISBN Pdf: 9781643362816
  • Lloc de publicació:  South Carolina , United States
  • Any de publicació digital: 2021
  • Mes: Novembre
  • DDC: 641.6/5677
  • Idioma: Anglés

The history, legends, and cookery of America's favorite snack food

Whether in movie theaters or sports arenas, at fairs or theme parks, around campfires or family hearths, Americans consume more popcorn by volume than any other snack. To the world, popcorn seems as American as baseball and apple pie. Within American food lore, popcorn holds a special place, for it was purportedly shared by Native Americans at the first Thanksgiving. In Popped Culture, Andrew F. Smith tests such legends against archaeological, agricultural, culinary, and social findings. While debunking many myths, he discovers a flavorful story of the curious kernel's introduction and ever-increasing consumption in North America.

Unlike other culinary fads of the nineteenth century, popcorn has never lost favor with the American public. Smith gauges the reasons for its unflagging popularity: the invention of "wire over the fire" poppers, commercial promotion by shrewd producers, the fascination of children with the kernel's magical "pop," and affordability. To explain popcorn's twentieth-century success, he examines its fortuitous association with new technology—radio, movies, television, microwaves—and recounts the brand-name triumphs of American manufacturers and packagers. His familiarity with the history of the snack allows him to form expectations about popcorn's future in the United States and abroad.

Smith concludes his account with more than 160 surprising historical recipes for popcorn cookery, including the intriguing use of the snack in custard, hash, ice cream, omelets, and soup.

  • Cover
  • Popped Culture
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • List of Illustrations
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • PART I: HISTORY
    • Chapter 1 The Pop Heard ’round the Americas
      • Botanical Maize
      • Archaeological Maize
      • Historical Maize
      • Pops Heard ’Round the World
      • Popcorn in North America
    • Chapter 2 The Invention of Popcorn
      • Wire-over-the-Fire Corn Poppers
      • Literary Corn
      • Why Does Popcorn Pop?
      • The Healthy Snack
    • Chapter 3 Popcorn Children
      • Holiday Corn
      • Popcorn Boys
      • Popcorn Parties
      • Twentieth-Century Popcorn Children
      • Popcorn Children Revisited
    • Chapter 4 Pop Cookery
      • Popcorn Pudding and Flour
      • Popcorn as a Breakfast Cereal
      • Popcorn Balls
      • Popcorn Cakes
      • Popcorn Crisps and Crispettes
      • Popcorn Candy
      • Soups, Salads, and Entrées
    • Chapter 5 Early Pop Pros
      • Growers
      • Processors
      • Vendors
      • Prepared Popcorn Products
      • Commercial Poppers
      • The Invention of Snack Food
    • Chapter 6 The Popcorn Boom
      • Motion Pictures
      • Radio
      • Popcorn Technology and Breeding
      • Popping through World War II
      • After the War
      • A Global Business
      • The Heyday of Movie Popcorn
      • Television
    • Chapter 7 Pop Convenience
      • TV Time Popcorn
      • Jiffy Pop
      • Microwave Popcorn
    • Chapter 8 Pop Mania
      • The Popcorn King
      • Gourmet Microwave Popcorn
      • Popcorn Boutiques
      • Popcorn Celebrations
      • The Prepopped Surge
      • Pop Food Revival
      • Popping Devices
      • Odds and Ends
    • Chapter 9 The End of Popcorn?
      • A Healthy Snack?
      • The Popcorn Processor’s Shuffle
      • Research and Breeding
      • New Technologies
      • The Global Marketplace
  • PART II: HISTORICAL RECIPES
    • 1. Almond Nougat
    • 2. Balls
    • 3. Bars or Squares
    • 4. Best Evers
    • 5. Biscuits
    • 6. Bricks
    • 7. Brittle
    • 8. Cakes
    • 9. Canapes
    • 10. Candy
    • 11. Cereal
    • 12. Cheese and Nuts
    • 13. Chocolate-Covered Popcorn
    • 14. Cookies
    • 15. Corn-Nut Loaf
    • 16. Cornlets, Kornettes, and Dusky Maidens
    • 17. Cracker Jack
    • 18. Crisps and Crispettes
    • 19. Custard
    • 20. Cutlet
    • 21. Dainties
    • 22. Dates Stuffed with Popcorn
    • 23. Dressing
    • 24. Flake
    • 25. Fritters
    • 26. Fudge
    • 27. Hash
    • 28. Hunky-Dories
    • 29. Ice Cream
    • 30. Johnny Cakes
    • 31. Lace
    • 32. Macaroons
    • 33. Marguerites
    • 34. Mock Violets
    • 35. Muffins
    • 36. Nests
    • 37. Nuggets
    • 38. Omelets
    • 39. Pie
    • 40. Popcorn and Apples
    • 41. Popcorn and Bacon
    • 42. Popcorn and Macaroni
    • 43. Popcorn and Raisins
    • 44. Popcorn and Vegetables
    • 45. Popping Corn (Directions)
    • 46. Puddings
    • 47. Roast
    • 48. Rolls
    • 49. Salads
    • 50. Sandwiches
    • 51. Scrapple
    • 52. Smacks
    • 53. Soups and Accompaniments
    • 54. Stuffings
    • 55. Sugared Popcorn
    • 56. Tac-Tac
    • 57. Taffy
    • 58. Trifle
    • 59. Wafers
  • Notes
  • Select Bibliography and Resources
    • General Works on Snack Food
    • General Works on Maize
    • Popcorn Books, Cookbooks, and Pamphlets
    • Historical Catalogs and Advertising Brochures
    • Agricultural Bulletins, Chapters, Circulars, and Journal Articles
    • Children’s Popcorn Books
    • Selected Commercial Popcorn Businesses
    • Other Resources
  • Index
  • About the Author

Matèrias