Popcorn: An all-American snack comes home from the movies

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When the Academy Awards show starts Sunday, one movie-perfect food — popcorn — will be served at most Oscars-themed parties.

Once associated only with movie-theater munching — the advent of television caused an initial popcorn slump in the 1950s — now most popcorn is eaten at home, usually in front of the TV.

The popped whole grain is so simple it can be paired with dozens of flavors, from sweet to salty — or, as in the case of the ubiquitous kettle corn, both at the same time.

It makes a healthful snack, full of carbohydrates, or a decadent one, drenched in caramel, chocolate or butter.

"It's a universal snack that lends itself to a lot of different flavorings," said Tom Elsen, vice president of marketing for Iowa-based Jolly Time. "You can find a recipe to fit any type of party."

Americans consume 16 billion quarts of popped popcorn each year, with the average person gobbling about 68 quarts annually, said Joe Carbonara, communications manager for the Chicago-based Popcorn Board.

The majority (70 percent) is eaten at home, while the rest is purchased at stadiums, movie theaters, fairs and the like.

"Popcorn is one thing just about everyone enjoys," Carbonara said. The industry saw sales rise from 934 million pounds in 1998 to 981 million pounds in 2000.

Popcorn has been an American treat for millennia. Native Americans introduced English colonists to popcorn at the first Thanksgiving feast.

The first use of microwave heating in the 1940s was to pop popcorn. Now most popcorn eaten at home is made in the microwave (70 percent). A fifth is purchased already popped in ready-to-eat bags, with loose kernels taking up the remaining 10 percent.

Microwave popcorn accounts for about $240 million in annual U.S. sales.

The hottest flavor in microwave popcorn is the slightly sweet, slightly salty kettle corn, which has been available for about a year. Though most people prefer the convenience and ease of microwave popcorn, some say the bagged stuff just can't compete with the taste of popcorn made by the traditional method.

Mary MacLean of West Seattle has friends who insist she make three or four batches of popcorn when they come over. She makes it on the stovetop because she thinks the oil in microwave popcorn gives it a funny flavor.

She uses canola oil and only white popcorn — because "it's fluffier and I like it better than yellow" — in a four-quart pan she reserves for popcorn.

Though she'll put butter or Parmesan cheese on it for friends, she prefers it with salt only.

A stovetop popper with a stirring rod, which pops corn in just a couple minutes, sells well at Sur la Table, a Seattle-based chain of upscale kitchen-equipment stores, said spokeswoman Susanna Linse.

Another popper with a basket and long handle, designed to pop kernels over a campfire or barbecue, is popular during the summer.

"It makes a huge difference to pop popcorn on the stove," said Sur la Table President Renee Behnke.

Cooks who make plain popcorn can have fun experimenting with different seasonings, such as sprinkling corn with flavored oils instead of butter or dusting it with garlic or chili powder.

Though white and yellow varieties are most common, gourmet popcorn kernels also come in red, black, blue, pink, purple and brown (they all pop up white, however). The red variety, also known as strawberry popcorn, has a nutty flavor and crunchy texture; black popcorn pops without a hull and is therefore very tender.

Popcorn took a public-relations hit in the early 1990s when the Center for Science in the Public Interest blasted a container of theater popcorn for having as much fat as six Big Macs.

Carbonara says popcorn is like salad — a good food that can become less good when people start adding high-fat toppings. Microwave popcorn also makes it harder to control fat and salt.

Popcorn is one of those things that is easy to keep nibbling away at. Two people sharing a bag of Newman's Own natural-flavor microwave popcorn, for example, could each consume approximately 16 grams of fat, 270 milligrams of sodium and 255 calories in a sitting.

Dieters still rely on air-popped popcorn as a filling nonfat, sugar-free, low-calorie snack (30 calories in a cup). But most people eat popcorn because it tastes good, not because it's good for them.

"We eat popcorn in America like nobody else eats it," said Behnke, noting that movie fare in Italy or France is wine and toasted nuts. "Popcorn is truly only an American phenomenon."