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Pat
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Popcorn revisited
09/16/07 12:15 PM
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Now that there has been slightly more evidence that has come out against microwave popcorn safety (albeit much less conclusive than the OVERWHELMING evidence against the safety of grilled and smoked food) I was getting interested in alternative popcorn preparation methodologies. I have done a couple large pans of popcorn on the stovetop but but am looking for a neater solution that can reduce the oil requirement.
Anyone out there who has any oil free popping machines other than the tried and true hot air popper like the Popcorn Pumper and such? I saw a popper which is a bowl you put into the microwave. It can be used with or without oil and the lid is the serving bowl. You pop a bowl full, invert the popper remove the base (now on top) and go for it.
Remember, It isn't the microwave itself that is the cause for concern but the chemicals in the packaging of "microwave popcorn."
Any user reports? Comments? Want to share low fat popcorn seasoning ideas?
I used to use Mrs. Butterworths buttery flavored flakes as a flavor enhancer on popcorn after it was popped as air popped corn is pretty bland most of the time but unfortunately it has too much salt content.
Finely ground New Mexico chili peppers has good flavor with little heat when sprinkled on pop corn. Gives a nice rich color too. Can temporarily stain your fingers.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Edited by Pat (09/16/07 12:17 PM)
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egon
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Pat]
09/16/07 03:43 PM
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Out here I'm stymied on popcorn. We have tried two different hot air poppers with no success. Shaking a pan with oil in does not turn my crank either. Best may be a wok???
The microwave popcorn is all I can get to work and it has just a tad too much goodies in it for my liking. Tastes very good though and we do have some in the cupboard. 
Egon
Edited by egon (09/16/07 03:44 PM)
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Pat
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: egon]
09/16/07 04:07 PM
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Egon, Once again great minds think alike... I too have popped corn in a wok!
I let us run out of microwave popcorn and still have an old supply of Orville R. in the plastic jugs. It pops very well on the stove top. I use a tall stainless stock pan with a thick layer of aluminum on the bottom for heat spreading purposes. I don't use a good fitting lid but one of those round screens on a handle instead. It doesn't knock oil out and it doesn't burn the corn when I don't shake the pan during the popping process. I depend on the agitation of the popping to do the job and it does darned good. Shaking it can't do much better because not shaking pops nearly all of them. I use a third of a cup of corn and table spoon of oil which I preheat in the pan till the 4-6 kernels I put in early swell up and look ready to pop. I don't wait for them to pop. Too much heat before adding the corn seems to tend to burn some of the corn. I don't throttle back untill popping is nearly done. The large layer of aluminum on the bottom undoubtedly holds heat for a while so I throttle back before it is quite finished popping.
I know that air popped will not taste good in comparison but I will find a way to jazz it up without adding too many fat calories. I have margirin that has no saturated or trans fat and some I can't believe it isn't butter in a manual spray bottle. One of those and some New Mexico chili peppers and it should be good enough. If it is wayyyyyyyyyyy to flat I can sprinkle some Molly Mc BUtter on it (has salt in it so will use in moderation but it gives a good butter flavor.
I ordered an air popper through Amazon.com a little while ago. It was so cheap it is no big loss if it can't satisfy me. It was only about $20 with shipping. For a few dollars more I cold have purchased the same thing with the side of it emblazoned with the signature of Orville R. Whoopee, big deal. Can you taste the difference?
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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egon
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Pat]
09/16/07 07:14 PM
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I have used olive oil on popcorn.
We have a cast iron wok.
Egon
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Pat
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: egon]
09/17/07 09:57 AM
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Egon, Authentic woks are hand hammered into the bowl shape. I suppose cast iron works OK, maybe a tad heavy.
I have used olive oil with ground New Mexico chilli pepper and Molly McButter to good effect. I have also "cut" extra crunchy peanut butter with olive oil (heat in microwave to make stirring and pouring easy) and drizzled it over fresh popped corn. The olive oil makes a good thinner for the heavy thick peanut butter we use. Our peanut butter is the old fashioned kind, only peanuts and a little salt with NOTHING ELSE. I have to exercise tremendous will power to make sure the topping is just used aparingly as a spice and not the main ingredient.
There are some BBQ spices in sprinkle on form for meat which I intend to try on popcorn.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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Bird
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Pat]
09/17/07 10:59 AM
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In reply to:
Our peanut butter is the old fashioned kind, only peanuts and a little salt with NOTHING ELSE.
Being a peanut addict, I used to buy raw shelled jumbo peanuts every year just before Thanksgiving by the hundred pound sack at the Lee County Peanut Company in Giddings, TX. I started that in the days before I'd ever heard of a microwave oven, much less owned one, so I had to roast my peanuts on a cookie sheet in the oven. Once we got our first microwave, we started using that. I guess my peanut butter was just almost, but not quite, as pure as yours because I roasted the peanuts first, then added just enough butter to make the salt stick, then salted them. I still do that to make my own roasted peanuts to eat, but haven't made my own peanut butter in a long time. When I did, I just dumped those roasted and salted peanuts in the food processor and turned it on; takes quite a long time for a food processor, but it'll turn those roasted peanuts into peanut butter that's just as good as any you can buy. Sometimes I added a little more butter to the food processor to make peanut butter that was a bit softer and easier to spread on the bread.
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Pat
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Bird]
09/17/07 11:18 AM
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Bird, You can cut the thick peanut butter with a little olive oil with good results too. It is less likely to suffer for lack of refrigeration.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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egon
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Pat]
09/17/07 02:46 PM
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Whatever is used on popcorn my preference would be for Real Butter mixed with garlic for just the right flavor.
The cast iron wok is the first one I have ever seen. I got it for the camper with the propane stove. It works really well for roast potatoes in the oven.
Again I am biased. I feel all cooking pots and pans should be made from good quality cast iron and then well seasoned.
Egon
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Pat
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: egon]
09/17/07 05:16 PM
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I grew up on food cooked in cast iron mostly. A skillet, a deep skilet for baking corn bread, corn molds for fancy corn bread. Dutch oven in the coals of an outside fire.
Then adulthood and back packing to altitudes above 12,000 and NOT carrying cast iron! Now I have some of the same cast iron that fed me as a child plus aluminum with non stick coatings and HD stainless with heavy aluminum pads on the bottoms for heat distribution.
A well seasoned cast iron is good competition for modern non stick coatings. I have threatened to toss out the ultra nice stainless as I have stuff stick all the time.
Anyone know how to "season" stainless steel? It sticks so easily.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Pat]
09/17/07 07:10 PM
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Back Packing is a little different. One gets hungry enough to scape any food item off of anything!
Egon
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Pat
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: egon]
09/18/07 07:53 AM
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Egon, My favorite backpacking fry pan was non stick coated aluminum and wasn't much thicker than freezer wrap (You know the "weight thing." It has a folding handle and fit in a small bag so yo didn't have to clean off the ugly stuff the fire puts on the bottom. Looking back I don't recall ever having popcorn while backpacking except JiffyPop, those little aluminum pans with foil on top that swell up as the corn pops. DEER do love to comeinto camp after you go to bed so they can finish off the last of the oil and salt in the bottom of the JiffyPop pan.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Pat]
09/18/07 10:33 AM
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I never had a deer problem but bears seemed to like my water bottles that had contained fruit juice!
I had one Teflon pan and the rest were stainless steel. I've still got them. Used several different models of MRS stoves.
Egon
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Pat
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: egon]
09/18/07 03:07 PM
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Egon, One of the mathematicians at the lab where I worked went to Alaska to go backpacking for a vacation. He was smart enough to stop at the ranger station nearest their start point (not a published trailhead) to let the ranger know the two guys were going in and when to expect them back. The ranger tried to get them to take a bear proof (bear resistant?) food container.
It is essentially a piece of really heavy wall grey plastic pipe with flat ends inserted and held in placed with set screws with heads below the surface. There are O rings for seals. Not much odor leaks out and it is super tough for the bear to get into one.
HE declined as it required (get this) a $25 refundable deposit!
Soon after they started out they got into brush territory and had to hike stooped way over to get under the intertangled branches. They pushed on. (Note, that this guy competes in the Iron Man and such and is no girlie man.) They push on, confident that it will get better but it gets worse and they are reduced to nearly crawling hoping it will get better.
They camp near a river and set up two areas, one for food and food prep and one for sleeping to dodge the bears. This is day three of the trip and the first night with a set up camp. The bears come the first night they had a camp and ate all their food, even canned stuff (canned stuff on a back pack trip? Remember he is an IRON MAN!)
Now they are three days of very difficult hiking from the nearest civilization (back the way they came) and all they have are partial canteens of water (but can get water with some difficulty along the way) and a couple candy bars and a couple granola bars. They make it tired, hungry, thirsty, and totally out of sorts back to the ranger station and check out so no searches will be started.
They return to San Diego and we all get to hear them complain!
In contrast my wife and I are in a tent in Yellow Stone. I'm (now I make the connection to the subject of the thread) enjoying the last of a pan of Jiffy Pop over her protests against bringing food into the tent. I promise to pick up anything that falls on the floor and to take the empty away from the tent. I keep my promise. Now the only trace of popcorn is just a bit on my breath. Shortly after we go to sleep we are awakened to the snorting of a mama bear with two cubs. The cubs circle the tent with the longer hair of their coat sticking through the fabric.
I am armed with a Coleman lantern and a small hatchet. I decide that if a bear comes in the tent I will split its nose with the hatchet and we will make a run for it hoping the bear is distracted by a serious wound. Mama calls the cubs to her and they wander off and all is good. They are black bears and less likely to chase you down than brown bears. Next day bears shop up at breakfast and try to mug me for the flapjacks, bacon, and eggs. I shared with them. I enthusiastically shared some golf ball sized rocks with them. I pitched baseball in high school and could be lethal with rocks. They left to look for easier prey except for the one that climbed a tree near our tent and slept all day. We went out for a hike and it was gone when we returned. That was my last popcorn inside a tent.
The deer that came into camp to get the last of the old maids and oil and salt didn't hurt anything and their buddies the racoons didn't scatter our trash much. The worst thieves going in the mountains are marmots. They not only come for left over popcorn but will carry off your salt pork.
Pat
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Pat]
09/18/07 04:51 PM
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My food was in a metal storage locker but the little devil went after the water bottle on my bike.
Strangely this yearling bear also was the recipient of a flying rock as the destruction of my only bottle had irritated me and common sense had gone by the wayside.
As this happened in a campground on the highway between Jasper and Banff it was not hard to find some pop bottles to replace the water bottle.
Egon
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Pat
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: egon]
09/18/07 04:58 PM
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Egon, Bears like pop. My mom's uncle used to have a bear at his restaurant/store in Marlo, Oklahoma. The bear loved to drink bottles of soda pop. Folks bought lots of it just to get to see the bear chug them.
I used to use pepper (black or even better cayenne) as a bear deterrent. You sprinkle copious quantities over your food cache and it puts the bear off the scent. Of course I still had the butter, bacon, and similar bear magnets in a burlap bag on a light rope out on a limb 20-30 feet above ground. Not that bears don't climb but it kept the smell from touching down near camp so they didn't go for it. I never had my aerial cache disturbed.
I developed the pepper thing in response to bears coming through camp every night in Yellowstone. They ate my dry pancake mix Macaroni and cheese mix, and all the freeze dried casseroles etc. or at least scattered it. After I started using pepper they went elsewhere for easier pickings. To avoid having eggs broken I put them in a sealed container filled with water to cushion any motion. It worked.
I have eaten boiled eggs prepared by dunking them in a really hot hot spring and checking back later. the bears didn't find them.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Edited by Pat (09/18/07 05:03 PM)
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pappy19
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Pat]
12/04/07 10:17 AM
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A "Whirley Pop" is by far the best popcorn popper ever designed, IMHO. As quick as microwave and 10 times as good. Best I ever found and I now use "baby white" Amish popcorn as it is the tastiest ever. I think I need some now, bye.
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Pat
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: pappy19]
12/05/07 08:52 AM
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Pappy, Who washes it? I get good results with microwave popcorn but the new air popper does a good job and there is no need for oil or washing it out.
I went to their site and checked it out. Looks to be a good machine and it should last a good long time and there warranty sounds great.
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
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jml755
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Pat]
12/05/07 09:20 AM
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Wife and kids use microwave popcorn. Personally, I can't stand the smell of it. (I think it's the chemicals in the bag outgassing.) I use an air popper. Works great. Put the popcorn in and by the time I melt the butter in the microwave, it's done poppin. Couple of minutes, tops. Usually can make a batch during a TV commercial on Modern Marvels or Dirty Jobs (two of my favorite shows). And, as Pat says, when I'm done, just empty the couple of kernels that didn't pop and put it away. (Of course, you do have to wash the bowl). This thread reminded me to ask for a fireplace popper for Christmas, for those nites when I want to aggravate the kids by doing something "old-fashioned" (along with the requisite lecture on how easy they have it). 
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Pat]
12/05/07 09:34 PM
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Pat-
I usually just wipe it out after it cools off. I gave one to my son in law and he makes a batch EVERY DAY, and has done for 2 solid years. That Whirley Pop is amazing. If you ever try one, you'll be hooked. Get some baby white from www.Lehmans.com; they sell the Whirley also but you can get one cheaper at ebay.
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Re: Popcorn revisited
[re: Pat]
10/03/08 03:22 PM
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i love popcorn but i cant really eat any with a lot of butter. i always have to stick with light
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egon
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We have switched from the large bags to ones that are about 1/3 the size. If one concentrates on several kernels at a time and chews very throughly the imagination may stretch the bag from a definite small one to a possible small one!
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