Rob's Rants

OK you say. I don’t feel like cranking my Whirly Pop and making your ultimate popcorn, and I sure as hell won’t buy a big monstrosity of a theater style popcorn popper that you say is hard to clean. All I want is some quick popcorn so I can watch a movie … can’t I just make some in the microwave?

Image from Wikimedia Commons, courtesy: Fir0002 / flagstaffotos.com.au. Provided under GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 (click image for details)

The answer is YES! And you don’t have to buy that crap with the goopy yellow faux-butter sludge in the bag either. There’s a way to make your own! (Popcorn … not goopy yellow faux-butter sludge.) I’ll credit Alton Brown for developing the basics of this recipe and assuring the world that our microwaves won’t catch on fire. Here’s what you need:

• 1/4 cup popcorn
• 2 -3 Tablespoons oil (canola, peanut, corn, etc.; Alton Brown uses olive oil, but that has a really strong flavor)
• 3/4 teaspoon popcorn salt (I use flava-col)
• Melted butter (optional)
• Brown paper lunch bag
• Stapler

And here’s what you do:

1. Dump popcorn, oil, salt in brown paper bag. Give it a quick shake.
2. Fold over about 1/2 inch of the bag and staple closed with one or two staples (no, they won’t spark in the microwave)
3. Put in the microwave for three to three and a half minutes (or use the built-in popcorn setting like I do)
4. When done, remove, butter (if you wish), and serve

It really doesn’t get easier than that.

As interest in home theaters has increased, so has the interest in movie or theater style popcorn machines. So in the last few years, many companies have begun to sell professional style (or even small professional) popcorn poppers for home use. A quick search on EBay will yield several different models of popcorn machines for sale at any time.

What makes a “theater-style” machine you ask? The classic theater popper has a “dumpable” kettle with a motorized stirrer. The kettle hangs inside a glass or polycarbonate box which also has heat or lights. Here’s a picture of the Waring Pro example I’m reviewing.

If you read my original popcorn post, you know that I said that no home electric poppers were worth using. Since I reserve the right to change my mind, I will exercise that right now. Commercial-style poppers can get hot enough to do a decent job. And the reason is really in the kettle and the surface area exposed to heat. For any given wattage, the commercial-style machines concentrate the heat in a smaller area than the typical home machine, so the kernels are exposed to higher temperatures in the commercial-style kettle. So these machines usually work reasonable well compared to typical counter-top electric poppers.

A Note About Sizes

Manufacturers of commercial-style machines typically describe the capacity one of two ways: either the capacity of unpopped kernels in the kettle or the capacity of popped corn in the tank after a typical load of corn is popped. Of the two, the capacity of the kettle is more standard and easier to compare across machines, since the volume of popped corn depends on the type of corn you are using. The standard kettle sizes are 4 ounce, 6 ounce, and 8 ounce (volume or fluid ounces, not weight ounces). For reference, 4 ounces of corn is 1/2 cup. This yields anywhere from 10 to 14 cups of popped corn.

The Waring Pro Machine

Waring sells the WPM40 popcorn machine in a couple of models. The WPM40 is sold at various retailers in a red color. Mine is a black model sold exclusively at BJ’s Wholesale Club. But the guts of the machine is the same. This is a typical 4 ounce kettle machine sold for between $100 and $160 depending on location and how steep the sales are at any given time.

The case is polycarbonate, the tray and drawers are aluminum, the body is steel, and the kettle is stainless steel. The machine has a bulb socket for a light bulb to act as a heater (real commercial machines use heat lamps). There are two control switches, one for the motor and one for the lamp. It’s a basic theater-style popper.

Construction

Rating:  

The popper is mostly solid. I gave it 3 out of 5 because although nothing was loose or hideously misaligned when I received it, the finish wasn’t great. The tray at the bottom and the other aluminum parts had some seriously rough (like cut your fingers rough) edges. And some of the sheet metal needed a little bending and flexing to get a proper fit. Also the door didn’t close when I received the popper and the magnet needed some adjustment. But at least the main mechanical parts worked.

Performance

Rating:  

The popper does what it’s supposed to do pretty well. It heats up relatively quickly and once the popping starts, the stirrer keeps things from burning. It pops kernels relatively quickly. The big drawback is the number of unpopped kernels that escape the kettle. This is mainly a function of the small size of the kettle; as the popcorn begins to pop, some kernels are blown out the top with the first popped kernels. This is the tradeoff for not having to stir the kettle manually.

Design

Rating:  

The popper has some decent features, though they’re not all well executed. For example, although there is room for a lamp inside the machine to warm the popcorn, the outlet isn’t rated to handle anything like a real heat lamp. And, the bottom tray has holes to allow the unpopped kernels (old maids) to fall through to a little drawer. But the holes are concentrated in such a small area that them miss many unpopped kernels. But overall it’s a decent design for the price.

Cleaning

Rating:  

This is where the popper runs into trouble. Not a single part of this thing with the exception of the bottom tray and old maid drawer (which can be put in the dishwasher) is easy to clean. In addition to all the sharp edges on the metal parts which will cut you at every chance, the poly carbonate panels are impossible to get free of greasy streaks, unpopped kernels find their way to the bottom and can’y be picked out by hand, and the kettle itself is simply impossible to clean. The kettle cannot be put in the dishwasher, so it must be wiped down and periodically thoroughly cleaned. What a pain.

Overall

Rating:  

Overall, this is a decent theater-style popper if that’s what you want. Although it has shortcomings, the low price can make those more bearable. It certainly does its primary job well enough. It gets hot, and pops corn without you having to stir it. For the price, I recommend it.

One of the first foods I learned to make on my own was popcorn. Since the first JiffyPop I made on our stove top (useless link: Cute chick making JiffyPop on YouTube) I have been on a life-long quest to make the ultimate bowl. Along the way I have learned a lot about popcorn. Here’s the core dump.

First, lets get something out of the way — good popcorn consists of popcorn, butter, and salt. Anything else is just an attempt to cover up shitty popcorn, so you will find no recipes here for kettle corn, caramel corn, or popcorn with cheese, taco seasoning or, God forbid, cauliflower popcorn. Oh, and good popcorn is popped in oil. I lived through the era of the hot air popper and can say quite emphatically that hot air poppers are useful only for producing packing material.

The Equipment

For the last several years I’ve used a Back-to-Basics 6 quart stove-top popper (available from Amazon — I don’t make any money on this). I have the aluminum version which is OK. The stainless version is much better, but I’m not sure it’s $50 better. The aluminum version is good enough. I love popcorn, but you would have to really loooooooove popcorn to pay $50 for something that you have to crank by hand.

Forget right now about any consumer-grade, countertop electric poppers, no matter what the box, sales person, or TV commercial says. None of them are going to get and stay hot enough to work well. If you are even more frugal, you can use a big dutch oven or stock pot with a lid. I’d rather use this method than any electric popper if given the chance.

Oil

Perhaps the biggest debate in all of popcorn popping  is about the type of oil to use. More than anything else, the oil will lend a flavor to the final product. And there are noticeable but subtle differences between different oil types. Here are my observations about the flavor characteristics.

• Canola oil: Canola is one of the most popular oils right now and very useful for popping corn. Canola has a high smoke point and can therefore handle high popping heats. This helps it impart a slightly “darker” (meaning well done) flavor to the popcorn.
• Corn oil: Corn oil is similar to canola as far as smoke point, but it gives a less “nutty,” less “dark” flavor to the corn. I like corn oil a lot.
• Peanut oil: Peanut oil has the highest smoke point of any of the oils listed here. Most people say that it has a very neutral taste, but I can always tell when someone has used peanut oil. It sounds cliche, but peanut oil gives the popcorn a nutty taste.
• Coconut oil: Almost all commercial popcorn is popped with some amount of coconut oil. There is a great deal of controversy surrounding coconut oil and whether or not it is healthy or harmful. The argument is essentially whether the detrimental effects of the high saturated fat content are balanced by the presence or high levels of lauric acid which help balance cholesterol and other fats in the bloodstream. I’m going to stay out of that debate — but coconut oil lends both a crispness and a “sweetness” to popcorn. It’s a very distinct flavor element that you’ll recognize when you taste it.
• Cottonseed oil: Also common in commercial mixtures, cottonseed oil behaves a lot like canola oil.

My current favorite is either straight canola oil or something like a 2/3 canola, 1/3 coconut oil mix.

There are a lot of flavored oils on the market, with some or another variety of buttery flavor. I usually avoid these unless I’m using a pre-measured portion pack.

Salt

Popcorn salt comes in two main varieties: plain and flavored. Regardless of which you use, the main characteristic is that popcorn salt is an extremely fine grind. You can either buy special popcorn salt or make your own with kosher salt and a coffee grinder. Just take standard kosher salt and whiz it until it’s an ultra-fine powder. Viola — popcorn salt.

For flavored salts, the industry standard is something called Flavacol, made by the Gold Medal products company. You can read about the bulk sizes here. Flavacol is available from a variety of retailers in normal 1 quart sizes — just google “flavacol.”

Popcorn

Surprisingly, I have found very little difference in flavor between brands of popcorn. The main thing you want for a good batch is fresh kernels, so whatever brand you buy, make sure that it’s fresh. Once opened, popcorn goes stale rapidly, and stale popcorn doesn’t pop as fluffy and leaves a lot more unpopped kernels (called “old maids”) than fresh corn. I don’t buy large bags or jars, but rather smaller sizes that I will use quickly.

Butter

Salted or unsalted — your preference. The thing about butter is that it contains a lot of water (up to 16% I believe). So whatever you use, try and clarify it and use only the fat portion, leaving the solids and water behind.

Technique

This is the important part. There are some important tips here collected from years of experience.

1. Put the popper on the stove and turn on the heat. Give it a minute or two to warm up.
2. After heating, add your preferred oil mix. If you’re trying to be healthy, you can use a ratio of 1:6 oil to popcorn. So for a 4 oz. (1/2 cup) popper (roughly 6 quarts popped) use 4 teaspoons of oil. If you want good tasting popcorn like you get in a theater, then the ratio can be 1:2 — that’s 1/4 cup of oil and 1/2 cup of popcorn. You can play with this ratio until it suits your taste. The oil should shimmer if you’ve heated to the correct temperature.
3. Dump in the popcorn and salt. Close the lid and wait.
4. This is where I start melting the butter in the microwave. I use 3/4 to 1 whole stick for my corn, though I separate and leave behind the milk solids so it’s less than this amount that actually makes it onto the corn. I drop the butter into a one cup measuring cup and microwave it for 30 seconds. Then let it sit and separate.
5. As the corn begins to pop, you can start stirring if your popper is so equipped. Shake it occasionally if you don’t have a stirrer.
6. Here’s the important step — heat that is too high leads to chewy corn, so, just as the popping slows down, I turn the heat off, letting the residual heat finish the corn. This is a critical step.
7. When there are 2 or so seconds between pops, it’s time to dump into a large bowl.
8. Drizzle your butter, mix, end enjoy.

It’s a lot of work, but I promise you it’s worth it.