Cheese puffs, cheese curls, cheese balls, cheese ball puffs, cheesy puffs, or corn curls are a puffcorn snack food, coated with a mixture of cheese or cheese-flavored powders. They are manufactured by Food extrusion heated corn dough through a die that forms the particular shape. They may be ball-shaped, curly ("cheese curls"), straight, or irregularly shaped. Puffcorn is a similar food, without cheese flavoring.
History
Cheese puffs were invented independently by two companies in the United States during the 1930s.
According to one account, Edward Wilson noticed strings of puffed corn oozing from flaking machines in the mid 1930s at the Flakall Corporation of Beloit, Wisconsin, a producer of flaked, partially cooked
compound feed. He experimented and developed it into a snack.
[ Atlas Obscura: A Brief History of the Cheese Curl Retrieved May 26, 2018] Clarence J. Schwebke applied for an improved extruder patent in 1939
and the product, named
Korn Kurls, was commercialized in 1946 by the Adams Corporation, formed by one of the founders of Flakall and his sons.
Adams was later bought by
Beatrice Foods.
Another version was created by the Elmer Candy Corporation of New Orleans, Louisiana in 1936. The sales manager Morel M. Elmer Sr. held a contest to name the new product "CheeWees". The trademark was lost when the candy company was sold in 1963, but the family's Elmer's Fine Foods continued to make the snack and repurchased the name in 1993.
Notable brands
| + Common brands of cheese puffs
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In popular culture
A fictitious brand of cheese puffs called "Cheesy Poofs" has appeared periodically in the animated television series
South Park. The
Frito-Lay company produced a limited, promotional run of the snack in August 2011.
See also
