From The Food Encyclopedia by Jacques Rolland and Carol Sherman
A variety of Indian corn that pops open when heated, first recorded as a product of Aztec life, used primarily for decoration; similarly, the Incas cultivated popcorn to use decoratively for burials. Early popcorn makers could expand a kernel of popcorn to 15 times its original size; now, they can puff a kernel to 40 or more times its original size, with 4 cups (1 L) of popcorn containing only about an ounce (30 g) of corn.
