One day, an employee, Edward Wilson, watched workers pouring cornmeal into the flaking machine, moistening it to keep it from clogging. Because the machine was very hot, the wet cornmeal came out of it in puffy ribbons that hardened when they hit the air.
Edward Wilson decided to take some of the ribbons home, added oil and flavouring them, thus inventing the modern-day cheese curl.
He applied for a 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 invented by the Elmer Candy Corporation of New Orleans, Louisiana sometime during or prior to 1936 at which time the sales manager for Elmer's, Morel M. Elmer, Sr., decided to hold a contest in New Orleans to give this successful product a name.
The winning name "CheeWees" is still being used today by the manufacturing company, Elmer's Fine Foods. 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.
History of cheese puffs
