A staple on every American snack aisle from gas stations to grocery stores Corn Nuts are a bit of a misleading snack. That’s because despite the name there are no nuts in a package of Corn Nuts; the snack is actually roasted or fried corn kernels. Originally seasoned only with salt the jaw-droppingly crunchy snack has evolved and now comes in a variety of flavors from barbecue to ranch to jalapeño cheddar.
| Channel | Publish Date | Thumbnail & View Count | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
 Western Growers | 2017-08-02 22:17:29 |  11,912 Views |
Origin of corn nuts
The Corn Nuts that Americans are most familiar with have been around for almost a century. In 1936 (after Prohibition ended) Bay Area entrepreneur Olin Huntington created them as a cheap snack that could be handed out for free in bars. However that fell apart when California passed a law banning bars from giving out free food. This prompted another man Albert Holloway to take over the company and focus on selling the corn snack in stores. He trademarked the name Corn Nuts (sometimes spelled "CornNuts") in the 1940s and he and his family kept the company until 1997 when it was sold to Nabisco which merged with food giant Kraft Heinz and later food processor Hormel. But that's just the modern story of Corn Nuts as the snack's history goes back much further.
Corn is native to the Americas so it should come as no surprise that indigenous peoples had figured out ways to roast and toast corn kernels in the style of Corn Nuts long before Huntington created them as a salty snack. Native Americans have been roasting corn kernels for centuries calling them “roasted corn” and European colonists adopted this preparation method as well when they settled in parts of the United States.
Meanwhile other versions of the snack exist in South America. For example Peru has cancha salada in which dried corn is fried in oil or lard and then seasoned. It is also a popular accompaniment to beer and other alcoholic beverages. In Ecuador you can find more or less the same snack but with a different name chulpi. You can also find the same super-crunchy snack called "maiz tostado" in other Spanish-speaking parts of South America.
