Monday, October 22, 2012

Making Popcorn at Home

My family eats a TON of popcorn.  It is one of our favorite snacks and a must-have on movie nights.

I tried switching my family over to air popped popcorn for awhile.  For one, it is much healthier than the stuff we were getting.  I wasn't exactly sure what they were putting into those bags that makes all that bright orange yumminess my kids and husband love.  My family was not impressed with air popped and they went back to buying the microwave bags.  Sigh...

Then one day I went to my dads for a potluck.  My step sister had brought popcorn.  Huh-I thought, what a good snack to share.  Little did I know that day would change the way I bought and made popcorn forever!

We sampled her popcorn and man-o-man it was the best popcorn I had ever had!  I had to know how she made it.  After getting all the details from her a few days later I tried it myself.  Not only was it easy and super delicious but ALL of my family absolutely loves it!  And the best part?  It is WAY cheaper than buying microwave popcorn!

Here is how we do it.

Take a pot, my step sister uses a large skillet, I use a large stockpot.  Whatever you choose just make sure it has a proper lid.  Cover the bottom of the pan in oil, if I had to guess I would say about 1/4 cup.  I use just plain ol' canola.  I am assuming you could use whatever oil you prefer.

Sprinkle the bottom of the pan with popcorn seeds.  I cover the entire bottom with just a single layer of seeds.  Set the burner on medium high.  You can use whatever popcorn seed you prefer.  I like buying my seed from a local producer and I also prefer white over yellow.










Place your lid on top and wait for that pop, pop, pop.  Once the corn starts popping I give the pan a little shake shake about halfway through and again at the end to make sure all the seeds get a chance to pop.  Once the popping slows down, remove from burner.  Once the popping is over slowly remove lid but BE CAREFUL the steam from the popcorn is very hot and will burn you if your not careful.

I like to add a little popcorn salt to ours before serving.

Have you ever made popcorn on the stove?  You should try it.  Trust me, you'll never go back to microwave again!




8 comments:

  1. We love popcorn! I tried to switch us to air popped, but my husband hates it. I did buy a stir crazy for him for Christmas on year. I like it, but not as much as stove top popcorn! It is how my Grandma used to make it for me as a kid. Saturday sleepovers at my grandparents house were the best!

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  2. Yum! We love popcorn, and eat quite a bit of air popped, but I miss proper old style kettle corn. We have a family movie night once a week and definitely going to give this a try. Thank you for sharing!

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  3. Your post brought back memories of watching my Dad cook popcorn on the stove when I was kid (back before we had microwaves or air poppers). We used to have it almost every Sunday night and it was so good! I've always relied on my air popper and find that it works well for making a frugal and tasty batch of popcorn.

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  4. We make ours very similar but I use a big metal bowl and cover with foil. We pokes in the foil then when the corn starts to pop we add a generous mixture of sugar and salt for keetle corn. My family loves it this way. We saw it on Alton Brown.

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  5. My dad always made it this way growing up so it was never an option for us to buy microwave popcorn. However, I have to say that I have perfected it by using coconut oil! Yum.

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  6. We use coconut oil. I add in a big dash of salt and sugar.. stir it around and then add kernels. Pop them. Then I gently stir them a little to coat the ones that didn't get any flavoring. The best kettle corn!

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  7. This is the only way we eat popcorn. It is delish! Isn't is so funny and so sad at the same time, that our generation is having to learn this? It's exactly how the food "giants" want us...ignorant to making food without the processed junk they provide. Just my humble opinion. :)

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  8. You can also put regular popcorn in a brown paper bag and fold the top down and put a tiny piece of tape on it to hold it closed then put it in the microwave.

    There's no mess, it's easy and to me the popcorn is tender and good. Spray some 0 calorie I cant believe it's not butter on it and it's good! Whenever I pop corn in a pot it turns out tough to me.

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