Popcorn, long associated with cinema-going during the Great Depression for its low cost and high profitability, has also gained a reputation as a superfood. Longevity expert Dan Buettner recently described popcorn as the best snack for living to 100, noting it is “very high in fibre, very high in complex carbohydrates, and even has more polyphenols than a lot of vegetables.” Humans have consumed popping corn for at least 4,000 years, but its widespread popularity likely stems from the Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, where inventor Charles Cretors introduced the first mobile, steam-powered popcorn machine, enabling street vendors to sell at fairs, baseball games, and rallies. At the same exposition, two brothers began selling a sweet molasses-coated popcorn and peanut mix later packaged as Cracker Jack, often considered America’s first junk food.
Healthy and Spiced Variations
Popcorn’s health impact depends on added salt, sugar, and fat. The British Heart Foundation offers a simple spiced popcorn using half a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a quarter-teaspoon of ground cumin per 50g of kernels, popped with sunflower oil. Guardian reader Rachel Kelly suggests a spiced salt variation with chilli and lime. Nigel Slater’s fennel seed and pancetta popcorn uses butter and bacon fat for popping.
Sweet and Savory Concoctions
Yotam Ottolenghi’s spicy popcorn features a caramel made from butter, sugar, salt, chilli, and dried shrimp, baked for an hour and mixed with plain popcorn in a two-to-one ratio. For toffee popcorn, a simple butter and muscovado sugar recipe works, while Susanna Booth offers a dairy-free version with margarita (lime and salt) or coffee flavours. Liam Charles’s honey-caramel popcorn resembles traditional Cracker Jack, inspired by a cinema collision of toffee popcorn and honey-roasted nuts. Homemade Cracker Jack from Brown Eyed Baker is a close approximation.
Snack Bars and Buns
Popcorn granola snack bars, promoted by the Popcorn Board (a nonprofit funded by US popcorn processors), combine popcorn, peanuts, granola, honey, and peanut butter. Bombay popcorn mix offers a less-stuck-together version with peanuts, sultanas, and crispy chickpeas. Tom Kerridge’s popcorn bars are fused with chocolate and marshmallows. Salted caramel and popcorn crumble choux buns, featuring three kinds of sugar and toffee popcorn cream, are far from superfood territory.
Popcorn in Breads and Coatings
Popcorn can be ground into powder for bread recipes, as in Australian Better Homes and Gardens’ popcorn bread. It also serves as a coating for fish, such as popcorn and mushroom-crusted tilapia from Big Popcorn.
Popcorn Salads and Soup
Two popcorn salad recipes exist: a traditional American heartland dish from The Kitchn with grated carrots, celery, spring onions, water chestnuts, cheddar, bacon, mayonnaise, and ranch dressing; and a simple rocket and onion salad with vinaigrette from Three Many Cooks, using popcorn as a crouton alternative. Popcorn soup recipes typically involve whizzing and sieving for a smooth texture, as in A Food Lover’s Kitchen’s version with fresh corn on the cob, celery, carrot, onion, and cream, resulting in a buttery corn chowder.
