Nothing too deep this morning. Made popcorn last night in a high-walled, non-stick-lined skillet with a glass lid, which may be the perfect vessel for the job: it pops up nice with little olive oil (yum!) and you get to watch rather than be surprised when the treat pushes up the lid of the pan.
I love popcorn but not the nasty supposed-butter flavoring that's about all you can find (other than "kettle corn" and other perversions of the pure form*) in nukeable packs. Nonstick + glass lid = WIN!
__________________
* Look, if that's what you want, just buy CrackerJack
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
11 comments:
Try it with sesame oil. Really good!
Olive oil?
Sesame oil?
Plargghhh!
Popcorn requires coconut oil which makes the health nazis cry.
Plus butter and salt, of course.
I don't care for kettle corn either. Popcorn should be salty, not sweet.
Mycroft
Our favorite utensil is the West Bend Stir Crazy Corn Popper -- we've had several because although it makes the best popcorn we've had by any means, the base is made of that old Bakelite that is very brittle. My usual calamity is to drop it while cleaning and shatter the built-in handles. When we buy a new one, we always buy two because we know someday we'll need it.
Best combination is Peanut Oil with Orville Redenbackers, both from Walmart.
You guys are making me hungry. I can't have popcorn anymore. :(
We also use the stir-crazy. It violates Alton Brown's "No uni-taskers!" rule, but I notice that even he ignores the rule when it suits him. (Like when home-brewing beer...) (And it's a reasonable rule, uni-taskers usually take up lots of space.)
So far, after almost two decades of use (!) I have only managed to break one lid for Mrs. Drang's original stir-crazy. Fortunately, West Bend will ship a replacement lid.
Mrs. Drang usually likes it dry, with "popcorn salt", I comply in the interest of domestic tranquility.
WV: crossect. "Roberta's readership is a good crossect of the gun blogging community."
For seasoning popcorn, I prefer butter with salt, pepper, and ancho chile powder.
+1 to the high walled, lidded pan. We usually use olive oil, but now that I have coconut oil in the cabinet I am thinking we really need to try that next time we watch a movie.
Hmm... had an itch for Ghostbusters lately... or maybe something in the action family.
My first job was a shill for a popcorn vendor. Get a bag of corn and a dime, go to the other end of the midway grinning like a fox eating bumblebees, munching all the way. Hand the dime over for another bag. Munch n' grin back. Rinse, lather, repeat. 9AM to 12PM, 7 days. Best job I ever had.
After that I ran poppers for a few summers. Anyhow......
The really GOOD carnival and movie theater popcorn is popcorn popped in Mazola oil, salted and "buttered" after the kettle is emptied.
Mazola because it does not turn rancid the way other oils do - and there's not much difference in the taste of corn or coconut oil. But coconut oil will turn on you. Rather quickly in a hot supply truck.
Olive oil is fine for one kettle, But heated residue on the pot will give the corn an off taste after a few kettles. Canola is rapeseed, and rapeseed oil has an evil reputation. Like soybean oil cubed. I don't trust "denatured rapeseed oil," and men who know in particular don't want to take the risk.
Actually, carefully dry popped corn in either a seasoned iron or a non-stick pot is very good, but "air popped" is unfit for animal consumption.
Butter never hurt anyone but I have seen corn popped in pure butter. No! It burns too easily. "Butter" it after you dump the kettle.
Salt? To taste. I prefer mine at about a pound box per twenty four kettles, or 50/10 by weight, but everyone to their own taste - "ez t' gudman sed ez kissed t' pig."
Oh oh, I made myself hungry again.
Stranger
All I know is that I'm thankful at least once a day for the miracle that is Teflon. (Just another fine product brought to you by a little serendipity and the Manhattan Project)
Jim
I can't believe no one has mentioned the ultimate popping oil - BACON FAT!
Oil, flavor, and salt all in one.
I credit my mother-in-law for this discovery, she's not all bad.
Then again, there's the greatest of snack foods about to enter the gold-plated latinum ranks: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/16/low-calorie-no-melt-chocolate
Post a Comment