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Popcorn
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Native Americans first showed the settlers popcorn, another type of corn. This type of corn bursts into white, fluffy morsels when exposed to heat. The Pilgrims had their first taste of this corn when American Indians presented a deerskin bag of popcorn to them at the first Thanksgiving.
The Indians had several methods for popping popcorn. One method was to invert a stick into the ear of popcorn and hold it over the campfire. Some popcorn would fall into the fire, they seemed to like this method best.
Another method included throwing loose kernels into the fire. When the popcorn popped, it usually flew out of the fire onto the ground. This method required a lot of running and bending.
A third method was the hot sand method. A layer of sand was put in a clay vessel and held over the fire, as the sand became very hot, the vessel was removed from the fire and kernels of popcorn were poured into the hot sand. The sand was stirred and the popped kernels would rise to the top for easy removal.
The early settlers or colonists were very impressed with popcorn and at first served it for breakfast as cereal with cream and sugar. They developed an easier method to pop the kernels and eventually designed a mesh shaker with a long handle.
By the 1800s, popcorn was very popular. They then ate it with salt or sugar. They also enjoyed eating popcorn as a confection adding a thickened sugar or syrup to form popcorn balls.
One of the first recipes for popcorn was published in E.F. Haskell's book, "Housekeeper's Encyclopedia". Mrs Haskell's recipe was simple:
"Boil honey, maple, or other sugar to the great thread; pop corn and stick the corn together in balls with the candy." Making popcorn was usually the job of girls and women.
Another Pop-Corn Ball recipe from England :
"Roast the corn berries over a smokeless fire in a corn-popper; keep shaking until every berry has burst; boil sufficient sugar and water to the degree of feather, 245 degrees; add to each 7 lbs of syrup, four ounces of dissolved gum arabic; wet the popped corn in the syrup, and roll them in fin pulverized sugar until coated all over, then lay them aside; when dry, repeat the coating process in the same manner until they have taken desired thickness of sugar. Weigh or measure sufficient coated berries, according to size of ball required; moisten them with thin syrup, partly from the ball by hand, then put it into a squeezer (something like a lemon squeezer), and press tightly into shape. N.B.--The corn berries may be coated in a comfit pan like other seeds or almonds, then form into balls in the usual way." Recipe from:
"Skuse's Complete Confectioner: A Practical Guide to the Art of Sugar Boiling in All Its Branches", by E. Skuse, 1890.
Other information from:
"Hasty Pudding, Johnnycakes, And Other Good Stuff" by Loretta Frances Ichord.
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