New York, you have to wonder how people originally discovered how to eat some foods that are prized today. The yucca plant is toxic if not carefully processed in multiple steps. Yogurt is basically old milk that has been around for a while and is contaminated with bacteria. And who discovered that popcorn could be a toasty, tasty treat?
These types of food mysteries are quite difficult to solve. Archeology depends on solid remains to discover what happened in the past, especially for people who did not use any type of writing. Unfortunately, most of the things that people traditionally use made of wood, animal materials or fabrics decompose quite quickly and archaeologists like me never find them.
We have a lot of evidence for hard objects, such as pottery and stone tools, but softer objects, such as food remains, are much harder to find. Sometimes we are lucky if we find softer things in very dry places that preserve them. Also, if something burns, it can last a long time.
The ancestors of corn
Luckily, corn – also called maize – has some hard parts, like the hull of the kernel. They're the little bits at the bottom of the popcorn bowl that get caught between your teeth. And since corn has to be heated to make it edible, it was sometimes burned, and archaeologists find evidence of that. Most interesting of all, some plants, including corn, contain small rock-like fragments called phytoliths that can last for thousands of years.
Scientists are pretty sure they know how old corn is. We know that corn was probably first grown by Native Americans in what is now Mexico. Early farmers domesticated corn from a species of grass called teosinte.
Before agriculture, people gathered wild teosinte and ate the seeds, which contained a lot of starch, a carbohydrate like that found in bread or pasta. They collected the teosinte with the largest seeds and finally began to weed and plant it. Over time, the wild plant became something similar to what we call corn today. You can distinguish corn from teosinte by its larger grains.
There is evidence of corn cultivation in dry caves in Mexico as far back as 9,000 years. From there, corn cultivation spread throughout North and South America.
Popcorn, preserved food
Figuring out when people started making popcorn is more difficult. There are several types of corn, most of which pop if heated, but one variety, actually called "popcorn," makes the best popcorn. Scientists have discovered phytoliths from Peru, as well as burned kernels, of this type of "poppable" corn from 6,700 years ago.
You can imagine that popping corn kernels was first discovered by accident. Some corn probably fell on the kitchen fire, and whoever was nearby discovered that it was a useful new way of preparing food. Popped corn would last a long time and was easy to prepare.
Old-fashioned popcorn probably didn't look much like the snack you eat at the movies today. There was probably no salt and definitely no butter, since there were still no cows to milk in America. It probably wasn't served hot and was probably quite chewy compared to the version you're used to today.
It's impossible to know exactly why or how popcorn was invented, but my guess is that it was a clever way to preserve the edible starch in corn by eliminating the small amount of water inside each kernel that would make it more susceptible to spoilage. It is the heated water in the kernel that escapes as steam that causes the popcorn to pop. The popcorn could last a long time like this. What you might consider a tasty snack today probably began as a useful way to preserve and store food. (The conversation)
GSP
These types of food mysteries are quite difficult to solve. Archeology depends on solid remains to discover what happened in the past, especially for people who did not use any type of writing. Unfortunately, most of the things that people traditionally use made of wood, animal materials or fabrics decompose quite quickly and archaeologists like me never find them.
We have a lot of evidence for hard objects, such as pottery and stone tools, but softer objects, such as food remains, are much harder to find. Sometimes we are lucky if we find softer things in very dry places that preserve them. Also, if something burns, it can last a long time.
The ancestors of corn
Luckily, corn – also called maize – has some hard parts, like the hull of the kernel. They're the little bits at the bottom of the popcorn bowl that get caught between your teeth. And since corn has to be heated to make it edible, it was sometimes burned, and archaeologists find evidence of that. Most interesting of all, some plants, including corn, contain small rock-like fragments called phytoliths that can last for thousands of years.
Scientists are pretty sure they know how old corn is. We know that corn was probably first grown by Native Americans in what is now Mexico. Early farmers domesticated corn from a species of grass called teosinte.
Before agriculture, people gathered wild teosinte and ate the seeds, which contained a lot of starch, a carbohydrate like that found in bread or pasta. They collected the teosinte with the largest seeds and finally began to weed and plant it. Over time, the wild plant became something similar to what we call corn today. You can distinguish corn from teosinte by its larger grains.
There is evidence of corn cultivation in dry caves in Mexico as far back as 9,000 years. From there, corn cultivation spread throughout North and South America.
Popcorn, preserved food
Figuring out when people started making popcorn is more difficult. There are several types of corn, most of which pop if heated, but one variety, actually called "popcorn," makes the best popcorn. Scientists have discovered phytoliths from Peru, as well as burned kernels, of this type of "poppable" corn from 6,700 years ago.
You can imagine that popping corn kernels was first discovered by accident. Some corn probably fell on the kitchen fire, and whoever was nearby discovered that it was a useful new way of preparing food. Popped corn would last a long time and was easy to prepare.
Old-fashioned popcorn probably didn't look much like the snack you eat at the movies today. There was probably no salt and definitely no butter, since there were still no cows to milk in America. It probably wasn't served hot and was probably quite chewy compared to the version you're used to today.
It's impossible to know exactly why or how popcorn was invented, but my guess is that it was a clever way to preserve the edible starch in corn by eliminating the small amount of water inside each kernel that would make it more susceptible to spoilage. It is the heated water in the kernel that escapes as steam that causes the popcorn to pop. The popcorn could last a long time like this. What you might consider a tasty snack today probably began as a useful way to preserve and store food. (The conversation)
GSP
