The History of Kettle Corn
 

The history of KettleCorn:

Indians in central Mexico developed corn from a wild grass over 7000 years ago.

The Native Americans were growing corn – which they called Maize; in the New World before Columbus arrive. The Native Americans learned to plant corn at the right time for their climate. Corn was eaten fresh, some dried , some corn was ground into meal on a flat stone called a metale – and some was saved for SEED.

Corn was important to the Native Americans, it was their main food, and their lives depended on it. Various tribes prayed to the Corn Gods. They had festivals at planting and harvest time. Some tribes had a Corn dance.

In American Indian folklore, some tribes were said to believe that quiet contented spirits lived inside of each popcorn kernel. When their houses were heated, the spirits would become angrier and angrier, shaking the kernels until the heat became unbearable, at which point the spirits would burst out of their homes and into the air in a disgruntled puff of steam.

Chief Massosoit taught the Pilgrims and other European settlers how to grow corn. On the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrims and the Indians gave thanks for the corn harvest, as the Native Americans had always done.

The Pilgrims learned other uses for corn from the Indians, such as stuffing mattresses with corn husks, burning the cobs for fuel, making toys from husk and of course feeding their livestock. The Pilgrims could not make their hasty pudding from wheat as they had trouble growing it so they make it with corn flour and called it corn pudding. Corn pudding was easy to carry and was called journey cake and was later known as journey cakes.

The colonists loved popcorn so much they served it with sugar and cream for breakfast. This was the very first puffed breakfast cereal.  Corn cooked with beans today is called succotash today.

Kettle Corn: There are many stories about the history of kettle corn. Most go back more than 200 years. Kettle corn was first introduced in the early 1700’s. Claims are that European immigrant farmers would cook corn in large cast iron pots. Legend has it that, at the end of a long, hard day of work, it was a farm custom to pop corn in the large cast iron kettle used to render lard from hogs. The corn popped very quickly in the hot kettle, and farmers often added a sweetener such as molasses, honey or sugar to the popcorn and the popcorn quickly popped into the wonderful sweet and slightly salty treat we know today as Kettle Corn.

Another tale is told that kettle corn disappeared until 10 plus year ago when a Midwestern farmer remembered how his grandparents used to pop this wonderful popcorn.  About to lose his farm to the local bank, he revived the Kettle Corn tradition at local events.

History: The oldest ears of popcorn ever found were discovered in the Bat Cave (a site known to have been occupied by cave dwellers practicing primitive agriculture three thousand years ago) of west central New Mexico in 1948 and 1950 by anthropologist Herbert Dick and botanist Earle Smith, Harvard graduate students. would still pop. In fact, they took a few unpopped kernels and dropped them into a little hot oil to prove that they could still pop. They have been carbon dated to be about 5,600 years old.

Today the American public eats over one billion pounds of popcorn per year; translating to seventeen and a half billion quarts! The average American chows down on approximately 70 quarts per person yearly.

Our Kettlecorn by Giggles is made with the finest corn, and each batch is hand popped in a large kettle over high heat, we add the perfect amount of sugar and salt to leave you with a perfect healthy treat of old fashion New England Kettle Corn.