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Grains, flours & pasta

Popcorn

Also called popping corn, popped corn and pop-corn

Popcorn is a variety of maize whose seeds are used as a cereal grain. When cooked, it can be chewy, crisp, or tender, and cooks pair it with salt, butter, sugar, or coconut oil.

  • Plant-based

About the plain ingredient, not packaged products; general information, not medical advice. Details

Variety of
Maize
Part used
Seed
Texture
Chewy, crisp, tender
Cooked most in
Europe
Top country
Spain
Popcorn, whole

Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

In the kitchen

How to use popcorn

Preparing it

Rehydrate kernels before popping to reduce the number left unpopped.

Cooking with it

Heating kernels too quickly can leave hard centers. Heating kernels too slowly can keep them from popping. Over-dried kernels expand less and fewer will pop.

Goes well with

Flavour

Taste and texture

Texture, cooked

  • Chewy
  • Crisp
  • Tender

Nutrition

What 100 g of popcorn holds

Per 100 g. Averages from USDA; real values vary by variety, season and growing conditions.

Protein 14%Fat 5%Carbohydrate 82%of the macronutrients by weight

Nutrition per 100 g of popcorn
Energy387 kcal · 1,618 kJ
Protein13 g
Fat4.5 g
of which saturated0.64 g
Carbohydrate78 g
of which sugars0.87 g
Fibre15 g
Sodium8 mg
Cholesterol0 mg
Nutrition per 100 g of popcorn: minerals and vitamins
Potassium329 mg
Calcium7 mg
Iron3.2 mg
Magnesium144 mg
Zinc3.1 mg
Vitamin A (RAE)10 µg
Folate31 µg

Source: USDA FoodData Central (food 167959), public domain. Minerals and vitamins are listed only where USDA measured a non-zero amount.

Around the world

Where popcorn is cooked

1 dish in the catalogue uses popcorn. Here is where they come from.

Dishes by continent

Countries whose dishes use it most

Counts are catalogued dishes from each country that list popcorn among their ingredients.

Origins

  1. 1885 · United States

    Charles Cretors invented a popcorn machine in Chicago.

Good to know

Diet and allergens: popcorn in detail

These notes describe the plain ingredient. Packaged and prepared products vary, so read the label; for allergies and medical diets ask a doctor or dietitian.
Allergens
None of the 15 listed allergens foundChecked and not found: eggs, fish, milk, molluscs, sulphites, crustaceans.
Animal origin
No animal ingredients foundChecked and not found: egg, fish, meat, dairy, honey, insect, gelatin, poultry, bone char, shellfish, other animal, animal fining, animal rennet.
Alcohol
None
Pork
None

Family

Related forms

A kind of
maize
A variety of
maize

Cooked together

Ingredients that go into the same catalogued dishes.
Photo credits for this page (1)

Around the world

What popcorn is called

Names in 90 languages, from Wikidata.

  • Spanish

    palomitas de maíz · cotufas · palomita de maíz · palomitas

  • French

    pop-corn · pop corn · maïs soufflé · maïs éclaté

  • Italian

    popcorn · pop-corn · mais scoppiato · pop corn

  • Portuguese

    pipoca

  • German

    Popcorn · Puffmais

  • Dutch

    popcorn · Popcorn (voedsel)

  • Greek

    ποπ κορν

  • Turkish

    patlamış mısır

  • Russian

    попкорн · поп-корн

  • Polish

    popcorn · kukurydza prażona · prażona kukurydza

  • Arabic

    فشار · فوشار · البوشار · الفشار

  • Persian

    پف فیل · چس فیل · ذرت‌پفکی · ذرت‌ بو داده

Show all 90 languages

  • acm

    شامية · شاميه · بوب كورن

  • Afrikaans

    springmielies

  • Amharic

    ከኩሪ · ፈንዲሻ

  • Aragonese

    Palometas

  • Armenian

    Պոպկորն

  • Azerbaijani

    popkorn

  • Bangla

    পপকর্ন

  • Banjar

    Ulatih

  • Basque

    krispeta · palomita

  • Bulgarian

    пуканки

  • Cantonese

    爆穀 · 爆谷

  • Catalan

    crispetes · crispetes de blat de moro · roseta · rosa de dacsa

  • Central Kurdish

    پۆپکۆرن · پۆپ کۆرن · گەنمەشامی

  • Cheyenne

    pó'po'êho'hémâhaemenôtse

  • Chinese

    爆米花 · 爆玉米花 · 爆谷 · 爆穀

  • Croatian

    kokice

  • Czech

    popcorn · popkorn

  • Danish

    popcorn

  • Esperanto

    krevmaizo · pufmaizo

  • Estonian

    plaksumais · popkorn · paismais · pop-corn

  • Filipino

    papkorn · pop corn

  • Finnish

    popcorn · paahtomaissi · paukkujyvä · pop corn

  • Georgian

    პოპკორნი

  • Gothic

    𐍀𐌰𐌿𐍀𐌺𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽

  • Guarani

    pororo · pipóka · pururu

  • Hawaiian

    Popcorn

  • Hebrew

    פופקורן · פופ קורן

  • Hungarian

    pattogatott kukorica

  • Icelandic

    poppkorn

  • Ido

    Krev-maizo

  • Igbo

    Popcorn · Popping corn · Popped corn · Pop-corn

  • Inari Sami

    pävkkeemaissâ

  • Indonesian

    berondong jagung

  • Irish

    grán rósta

  • Japanese

    ポップコーン · 炒りとうもろこし · ポプコーン

  • Javanese

    Brondong jagung

  • Kannada

    ಪಾಪ್‌ಕಾರ್ನ್

  • Kashmiri

    لایہٕ

  • Korean

    팝콘

  • Lao

    ປັອບຄອນ

  • Latin

    maizium inflatum

  • Latvian

    popkorns · plīsējkukurūza

  • Literary Chinese

    熬稃

  • Lithuanian

    kukurūzų spragėsiai · popkornai

  • Lombard

    s'cioppaa

  • Luxembourgish

    Popcorn

  • Macedonian

    пуканки

  • Malay

    bertih jagung

  • Malayalam

    പോപ്‌കോൺ · പോപ്പ് കോൺ

  • Māori

    kānga pahū · kānga pāhūhū

  • Marathi

    लाह्या

  • Min Nan Chinese

    Pōng-bí-phang

  • Moroccan Arabic

    ݣلية

  • nah

    momochitl

  • Norwegian Bokmål

    popkorn · sprettmais · springmais

  • Norwegian Nynorsk

    popkorn

  • Occitan

    pòp-còrn

  • Quechua

    p'uqpu · sara p'uqpu · hamk'a · hank'a

  • Romanian

    floricele de porumb

  • Serbian

    кокице

  • Serbian (Latin)

    kokice

  • Silesian

    popkorn

  • Simplified Chinese

    爆米花 · 玉米花 · 爆谷

  • Simplified Chinese (China)

    爆米花

  • Simplified Chinese (Singapore)

    爆米花

  • Slovenian

    pokovka · koruza pokovka · kokice

  • Somali

    daango

  • Sundanese

    Borondong jagong

  • Swedish

    popcorn · popkorn

  • Tamil

    சோளப்பொரி · சோளப் பொரி

  • Telugu

    పాప్ కార్న్

  • Thai

    ข้าวโพดคั่ว · ป๊อปคอร์น

  • Traditional Chinese

    爆米花 · 爆谷 · 玉米花

  • Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong SAR China)

    爆谷

  • Traditional Chinese (Taiwan)

    爆米花

  • Ukrainian

    попкорн · поп-корн · повітряна кукурудза

  • Urdu

    پاپکارن

  • Uyghur

    قوماچ(قۇناق پاخ-پاخغى)

  • Uzbek

    bodroq

  • Vietnamese

    bỏng ngô · bắp rang

  • Waray

    popcorn

  • Welsh

    popgorn

  • Wu Chinese

    爆米花

  • Yiddish

    פאפקארן · קאָקאָשעס · פּאַפּקאָרן

Sources and credits

Data

Wikidata item: Q165112

Photos

Photo: Famartin · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons