In Love with the Shape of Food

Proof

America's Test Kitchen

Cooking, Culinary, Food, Arts, Society & Culture, History

4.4 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2024

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As we kick off a new season of Proof, we dig into the psychology and science behind our fascination with food shapes. From popcorn to square watermelons, you'll learn that there's a reason behind the choices we make when it comes to what our food looks like. Eliza Rothstein reports.

Try making your own sweet and salty popcorn at home, with our recipe for Spicy Caramel Popcorn.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Okay, I am at a Mets game and I just had a revelation that I need to document. I got some popcorn.
0:10.0	I'm here with a friend. We got two different kinds. I got Krakkerjacks and my friend got like standard
0:16.5	everyday sort of movie theater popcorn.
0:20.3	This is reporter, Eliza Rothstein.
0:23.6	I'm looking down in my palm and I'm realizing that these two different kinds of popcorn
0:29.9	have like very distinctly different shapes and I've never really clocked that before like
0:36.2	the movie theater popcorn sort of looks like an explosion there's like little
0:42.0	bulges and balls kind of popping out all over the place and then the
0:47.6	Cracker Jacks are like pretty perfectly spherical they have cracks all over the surface,
0:55.4	kind of like a concha or like a shoe bun with crackleant
1:00.8	topping.
1:01.8	And I don't know, it's crazy. I've been eating popcorn for my whole life and
1:05.3	I feel like looking down at my palm right now I'm noticing something about shape for the first time. We may not be conscious of it, but food shapes affect our lives in unexpected ways.
1:22.0	The flavors we taste, the purchases we make, they even
1:25.8	impact our own self-image. And I found out through my reporting that the shape of
1:30.5	our food is no accident, even if it was grown in the dirt or raised on a farm.
1:37.2	You could say it's been shaped for us.
1:41.4	Today on proof from America's test kitchen, we investigate the impact of food shapes.
1:50.0	From kernels of popcorn to cubed watermelons to cultivated chicken strips,
1:55.2	we'll explore why humans are in love with the shape of food. reporter Eliza Rothstein brings us today's story.
2:09.0	So come on, let's all pop some jolly time tonight. I've been in the popcorn industry my entire life which if you include my high school
2:20.0	and college years that would be well over 50 years so I don't know much but I know
	...

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