Suggestions sought: popcorn and popcorn oil

[Squire]

True, we've inherited the genetic code, as well as the ability to burn off excess calories through exercise.

[ShadowsDad]

or work.

[RazorRamone]

After a decade of trial and error, we picked up a Whirlypop manual stove top popper and have enjoyed higher quality popcorn.

[ichabod]

Some great ideas here Buzz, I'll have to give them a whirl. Thanks.

I use Yoder Premium Yellow popping corn ( https://www.yoderpopcorn.com/products/1 ... ium-Yellow ). I pop it in a very big non-stick caldron on the stove top. If you start with too much corn, the caldron will fill and the kernels at the bottom will burn and you will have an abundance of unpopped kernels. One should experiment with how much oil and what type. Mainly I use low grade olive oil or unscented peanut (groundnut) oil that I Get at an Asian market. Sometimes I use coconut oil which keeps well and is solid at room temperature. With college kids and their friends coming and going, we eat a lot of popcorn, I usually buy six three pound bags of Yoders at a time and it lasts about three months at our house.

Nota bene that we don't like buttered popcorn or any greasy or sticky add-on...just salt and maybe spices or herbs. The best variations, however, come from adding to your popping oil. Uses the minimum of aromatic for the maximum and most even distribution of flavor.

A few variations...

Add a few drops of chili oil...also from Asian markets...to the main oil before popping. Spicy Popcorn.

Add about a half cup of sugar to the oil before popping to make Kettle Corn.

Saute crushed fresh garlic in the oil before popping.

My daughter likes to put on just a bit of truffle salt, but she puts truffle salt on lost of things.

I will sometimes add a tablespoon or so of sesame oil (the characteristic aroma of Chinese restaurants) to peanut all. Street Food popcorn

Your choice of herbs, spices, cheese, et cetera to sprinkle on freshly popped corn are endless.

Buzz

[Barry]

I typically use olive or coconut oil.

Pecorino with black pepper and truffle salt or truffle oil is nice. I mix it up with a minimal amount of Pecorino though.

I saw another recipe that included adding dried red chilis and sichuan peppercorns to the oil. I gave it a go and it was interesting... spicy and numbing popcorn.

The yellow/orange popcorn salt that movie theaters use is called Flavacol.

Just noticed I joined in 2005 and reached a milestone today. 600 posts, hah.

[ShadowsDad]

That's it Barry! Flavacol!

[JayTrek]

You have me wanting to invest in one of these!!!

We have a popcorn popper modeled after the ones at cinemas, only smaller.
Something like this (only not this):

People, in general, appear to like my popcorn quite a bit.
Corn kernels from wherever, I think they're different every time.
I pop it with peanut oil, and then dump melted butter on it in amounts usually carried by oil tankers, and douse it with fine ground salt. I put it in a very large bowl for this, and mix it very thoroughly with a spatula before putting it into serving bowls.
Simple and effective. Probably quite bad for anyone avoiding butter and/or salt though. . .

[GA Russell]

Buzz, thanks for the link to the Yoder website. I'll plan to try them.

[GA Russell]

Here's a list of eight healthy foods for midnight snacking, and number one is popcorn!

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2015/02/0 ... =obnetwork

[Kyle76]

Unfortunately, the portions I eat would probably not be considered healthy.

[GA Russell]

Speaking of the devil, here is a news article - Scientists discuss why the popcorn kernel makes the sound it does when it pops.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolog ... guardian11
http://www.newsmax.com/TheWire/why-popc ... id/624076/

and a slo-mo video:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... snack.html

[GA Russell]

I have found a popper that I have never heard of before called the You Pop It. It got great reviews on Amazon, so I decided to pull the trigger.

http://www.youpopit.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Pop-It-Popcorn-Po ... orn+popper

[GA Russell]

I was planning to follow Buzz's recommendation of Yoder Popcorn, but they wanted $14 for shipping, so I decided to look elsewhere.

I decided on the Snappy coconut oil and the pack of three types of Hoosier Hill Farm popcorn.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AU4 ... UTF8&psc=1

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FI2 ... UTF8&psc=1

Anybody familiar with these?

[Squire]

Russ that little buggar looks efficient, would like to hear about how well it works.

[brothers]

I'd like to have one of those. I'm wondering if the same design in microwave-friendly plastic or other non-metallic substance would work exactly the same as on the stove-top.

[GA Russell]

Russ that little buggar looks efficient, would like to hear about how well it works.

Squire and Gary, I have a concern. The You Pop It reminds me of a wok, which as you know works on a gas range but not an electric. My range is an electric, so we'll see if it will work.

[GA Russell]

I'd like to have one of those. I'm wondering if the same design in microwave-friendly plastic or other non-metallic substance would work exactly the same as on the stove-top.

Gary, I got my first microwave in 1982, I think, and I got a popcorn popper for it not long after. It had a similar funnel-like base. It worked just fine, but I didn't use oil, so the popcorn was not tastier than the hot air popper's product.

I don't know if microwaving popcorn with oil would be a problem. After all, everybody's microwave popcorn comes with "oil." However, I didn't know that thirty years ago.

[GA Russell]

Here's something I've never heard of before, but may be old news to all of you culinary sophisticates.

It's faux popcorn. It looks like popcorn, but it's not corn. It's sorghum grain.

Has anybody had this?

http://www.amazon.com/Popping-Sorghum-G ... B0058HB4RI

By the way, everything that I ordered has arrived, but I've decided to wait till Easter to give it all a try.

[M6Classic]

Here's something I've never heard of before, but may be old news to all of you culinary sophisticates.

It's faux popcorn. It looks like popcorn, but it's not corn. It's sorghum grain.

Has anybody had this?

http://www.amazon.com/Popping-Sorghum-G ... B0058HB4RI

By the way, everything that I ordered has arrived, but I've decided to wait till Easter to give it all a try.

Costs a lot more than popcorn. As my vegetarian kids used to observe about veggie burgers, "If I don't like hamburgers, why would I want to eat an immitation hamburger?"

Buzz

[GA Russell]

Yours for only $60...

A popcorn popper that looks like the Stanley Cup!

https://www.groupon.com/deals/gg-nhl-st ... rn-maker-1