do you make your own popcorn from scratch?

[gillenkl]

In an attempt to save a little $ grocery money I decided to buy a bag of popcorn kernels and pop my own. My kids eat a bag of microwave popcorn everyday so it's starting to add up. I don't have an air popper yet but I'm on the lookout for one on sale. In the meantime I am using my pan on the stove but it doesn't really taste as good as microwave popcorn. Any hints to stovetop popcorn popping?

 

[DVCBELLE]

If you look for coupons - you could get the microwave boxes for next to nothing. I would do that before I invest in an air popper! I only buy popcorn when it is $1 or less a box and have a ton of it!

 

[Mickeypooh99]

I have a microwave popcorn popper. It works great. It is just a big bowl with a lid with vent holes. You don't need to add oil or anything. It doesn't taste like the microwave popcorn, but you could add butter and salt to make it taste better.

I have found air poppers to be noisy and hard to clean.

 

[Colleen27]

We have an air popper and love it. I think it cost us $10 on sale a back when we were first married, and we paid $15 on sale at Target for the one we gave my BIL & his fiancee for Christmas this year. Ours has more than paid for itself in what we're not spending on microwave popcorn, and it is healthier as well.

For us, the trick is to use real butter; the liquid at room temp stuff is more convenient but just doesn't taste as good. We also have popcorn salt, which is finer than table salt, and a couple of flavors of popcorn seasoning that we use sometimes.

 

[It'sWDW4me]

I think there's butter flavored oil that you can use in the pan while popping. Otherwise, lots of butter and salt! yummm.

Have you tried some of the store brand microwave popcorn? I've tried Ka-Pop extreme butter from Giant and it's very good. If memory serves, they sometimes have the 3 pack on sale for $1 and the 6 pack for $2 (regular price is $2.50).

 

[leadfootlevi]

I thought about doing this but more because of the preservatives that exist in most microwave popcorn (YUCK!). If it doesn't have preservatives it's quite pricey (boo). We had an air popper and I didn't like it at all. Mostly because I could never figure out how to pour butter on without getting it all on a handful of popped kernels.

 

[Madison'smommy]

In an attempt to save a little $ grocery money I decided to buy a bag of popcorn kernels and pop my own. My kids each a bag of microwave popcorn everyday so it's starting to add up. I don't have an air popper yet but I'm on the lookout for one on sale. In the meantime I am using my pan on the stove but it doesn't really taste as good as microwave popcorn. Any hints to stovetop popcorn popping?

I always make stove top popcorn. We love it! I often get microwave popcorn for free, and will pick it up then... but we really prefer homemade. I just throw some oil in the bottom of the pan, put in the kernals.... once its done, I just add a little bit of salt.. that is it. We love it!

 

[QVCshopper]

I use 1-2 tbsp oil with 1/3 cup popcorn. Heat the oil for a few seconds, add popcorn, cover, shake often until the noise stops. Salt and done. I actually like this much more than microwave popcorn.

 

[TiffanyK]

We use a popper called Stir Crazy. It uses oil and is similar to popping on the stove. We really prefer white kernels. They are harder to find. Our favorite is Tiny Tender White from Yoder's Popcorn, but we have to order that online. I buy it as a gift for my dh who is a big popcorn fan.

Try using popcorn salt, which is finer than regular salt. Also, you can get flavored salts that are tasty.

 

[Mkaz]

You can make it in a brown paper lunch bag. Add about 1/4 cup of popcorn, a bit of salt, and fold the bag over at the top. Place it in the microwave. Press the popcorn button, and you're good to go. Just make sure to keep an eye on it.

 

[scrapquitler]

You can use regular popcorn and a brown paper lunch bag to make the popcorn right in your microwave.
http://www.squawkfox.com/2010/07/27/popcorn-recipe-gourmet-popcorn/

 

[julirina]

I think if you're used to super-salty, super-yellow microwave popcorn, you're going to find that stovetop or air-popped popcorn isn't your thing -- at least at first. It's definitely a different taste and texture. Practically a whole different food group, IMO. That being said, I have acquired a real taste for homemade! I have a whirley pop stovetop popper and I think it makes the best popcorn ever, but I wouldn't run right out and buy one until you know that you're really going to make the switch from micro.

You can use a butter flavored popcorn oil for popping, butter flavored cooking spray to get more even coverage, flavored popcorn salt, etc -- but to me, this just adds all the junk that's on micro popcorn -- exactly the stuff I'm trying to get away from by making my own. I'm a real-butter-and-salt girl.

The trick to not getting soggy popcorn when you pour melted butter over it is to wait at least two minutes after popping -- it lets the popcorn cool and crisp up a little. Then drizzle the melted butter slloooooowwwllly over the popcorn...stop, salt, toss to coat...drizzle a little more butter...stop, salt, toss...repeat. If you just dump a bunch of melted butter on hot popcorn, you'll end up with shrivelly greasy kernels and a whole bunch of unbuttered popcorn that the salt won't stick to.

Even at that, you'll never get that perfect coating of butter and salt on every piece like you do with micro. They use some kind of food lab magic to do that. That's why it's best to eat homemade popcorn in big handfuls, so you're bound to get some buttery pieces in the mix!

 

[kinghorse]

I don't like microwaving anything but when we stay at Disney I will bring microwave popcorn, at home I look for Jiffy Pop (yes, they still make it). Don't want to have to clean a hot air popper and we don't eat popcorn that often.

 

[KristinU]

I think if you're used to super-salty, super-yellow microwave popcorn, you're going to find that stovetop or air-popped popcorn isn't your thing -- at least at first. It's definitely a different taste and texture. Practically a whole different food group, IMO.

Completely true...and when you do get used to the "real deal" you won't ever want to go back to the microwave stuff.

We air pop 95% of the time. We've been using an old air popper that I stole from my parents when I went off to college 20 years ago (it was probably a good 10 years old at that point!) It finally seems to be conking out and not blowing enough for teh popcorn to come out, so I recently bought a new one on Amazon. It is an Air Crazy and what I like about it is that it has an on/off switch, whereas most of them plug and unplug to turn them on and off. Fine for one batch, but we often make a couple of batches in a row, so I was looking for that feature.

The other 5% of the time we oil pop on the stove top when we're camping - ooh, it tastes so good! I add a bit of sea salt in with the oil.

Over time we've cut out most things processed and cook low/no sodium, so even a dash of sea salt in some canola oil is very flavorful for us since our tastebuds aren't used to the fake flavorings anymore. And DS and DH like their air popped popcorn plain. I like mine with some olive oil and some sea salt - olive oil out of one of the Misto spray canisters as it comes out - works great!

 

[lucyem]

We are HUGE popcorn fans. We much prefer it cooked in a pan on the stove, but that can be hard on your pans if you burn it. I bought a original whirley pop corn pan 15 years ago and it is still going strong with weekly use. I use just a little oil and some organic popcorn.

Personally I think microwave popcorn is kind of too much money, too much of a strong taste and too many preservatives, not to mention the smell. I think air poppers produce a very very bland popcorn, it always reminded me of cardboard. I cannot imagine going from one to the other because their tastes are on either end of the spectrum.

 

[MariDisney]

I just had to chuckle a little. We make our popcorn on the stove and never buy microwave popcorn. But, I don't really consider it "from scratch" I guess because it's just always how we do it and seems convenient enough. I was picturing you asking if people are somehow getting the kernels off the cob and drying them or whatever to pop later. I was picturing a whole lot of work and wondering what the payout was because buying the kernels is so covenient.

 

[kellia]

We use an air popper. I got it for about $10, 16 years ago. I like it plain, with popcorn salt, to save on calories. Kids love it with the kettle corn flavor on it. DD (15) makes it almost every day after school. We got one of the huge bags from Sam's Club and put in a storage bin downstairs. I'm not sure if we'll ever finish it, but we've definately gotten our money out of it!

 

[mamaLori05]

I just had to chuckle a little. We make our popcorn on the stove and never buy microwave popcorn. But, I don't really consider it "from scratch" I guess because it's just always how we do it and seems convenient enough. I was picturing you asking if people are somehow getting the kernels off the cob and drying them or whatever to pop later. I was picturing a whole lot of work and wondering what the payout was because buying the kernels is so covenient.

I was thinking the same thing!!

We pop our popcorn on the stove all the time. I'll buy microwave once in a while, but find I don't like it. The stove top tastes better to us. I think it's all in what you are used to. We use orville Redinbacker's butter flavored oil and salt. Sometimes I'll put different seasonings on it for a different taste.

 

[charming23]

I just had to chuckle a little. We make our popcorn on the stove and never buy microwave popcorn. But, I don't really consider it "from scratch" I guess because it's just always how we do it and seems convenient enough. I was picturing you asking if people are somehow getting the kernels off the cob and drying them or whatever to pop later. I was picturing a whole lot of work and wondering what the payout was because buying the kernels is so covenient.

Me too. I love popcorn cooked on the stove and find it to be so much better than the microwave variety. It is so funny though because my mom made some at our beach house this summer and my cousins (25 and 22) and no idea you could make it like that.

I would agree that adding salt and butter always makes it better. They also have lots of great flavorings for popcorn that you can buy at the grocery store. But my favorite way is to sprinkle on some parmesean cheese along with the butter, yummy

 

[kyra's mommy]

We always did movie nights on the weekends and microwave popcorn was a must until I read this article that was on the Yahoo homepage one day:

Chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), are in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans, according to a recent study from UCLA. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize—and migrate into your popcorn. "They stay in your body for years and accumulate there," says Naidenko, which is why researchers worry that levels in humans could approach the amounts causing cancers in laboratory animals. DuPont and other manufacturers have promised to phase out PFOA by 2015 under a voluntary EPA plan, but millions of bags of popcorn will be sold between now and then.

The solution: Pop natural kernels the old-fashioned way: in a skillet. For flavorings, you can add real butter or dried seasonings, such as dillweed, vegetable flakes, or soup mix.


So now we have big pan I use just for popcorn, it's so easy and we have come to love the taste. We flavor it with real butter and lots of sea salt.

Good luck finding a good option for you.