LONG before popcorn forged its reputation as a snack food, it had another life in the American kitchen. It may have been a novelty, but as cooks ground it into flour and folded it into puddings, cakes and soups, there was a reverence for its value as a gift of the harvest season, one that could be savored through the cold months.

Although American Indians are often credited with introducing colonists to the uses of popcorn, ''there is no evidence that any native American ever used popcorn for any purpose whatsoever,'' said Andrew Smith, the author of ''Popped Culture: A Social History of Popcorn in America'' (Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001). In fact, he added, there is no archaeological evidence of popcorn consumption before the 1800's, other than some found in a pre-Columbian cave dwelling in New Mexico.

Popcorn arrived in New England by way of whalers or sailors who brought it back from Chile, Mr. Smith said. It slowly spread south and west. ''It doesn't go very far until the popper comes along,'' he said. ''If you don't have something to contain it, it goes all over the place.''

The first poppers, in the 1830's, were crude baskets for holding over the fire. Home cooks made confections with popcorn and molasses -- the original popcorn ball. They soaked it in milk to make mush, and used it as a substitute for nuts in baking and as a stuffing for fowl.

It wasn't until the late 19th century, when it became a commercial product, that recipes, many of them provided by popcorn companies, began showing up in cookbooks. Some dishes, like popcorn soup, lived a short life. Others, like popcorn pudding and caramel popcorn with nuts, stuck.

During World Wars I and II, popcorn took on other roles. When wheat and regular corn was in low supply, people ground unpopped kernels as a substitute for flour.

When microwave bags were invented in the 1980's, it changed the way Americans eat popcorn. Preseasoned, often artificially, popcorn in a microwave bag now makes up 80 percent of all retail sales, said George K. Brown, president of the Wyandot Popcorn Museum in Marion, Ohio. Seed manufacturers now work to increase the size of the kernels' pop, not their flavor.

I like my popcorn the old-fashioned way, cooked on the stove and seasoned while it's in the hot pan. I find butter too heavy for popcorn and prefer walnut oil, truffle oil or a buttery olive oil, along with coarse salt. I've added pepper and freshly grated Parmesan cheese, both with delicious effect.

At Le Relais in Louisville, Ky., in the heart of America's popcorn belt, Daniel Stage, the chef, tosses popcorn in a lavender honey caramel, then serves wedges of it with a gently sweetened chocolate mousse.

At home, I tweaked his recipe a little. I like my sweet popcorn salty, so instead of a heavy caramel, I heated a thin syrup of sugar and orange-blossom honey and treated it like vinaigrette on white popcorn that I had mixed with coarse salt and salted nuts, tossing to coat the kernels.

It took me all of 15 minutes to do, 10 minutes more and 10 times better than anything that could come out of a microwave oven.

Photo: SCIENCE OF A SNACK -- Popcorn is leveled in a Ramsey company storage bin. (Jim Roshan for The New York Times)