Surprise! A friend told me that I could pop just regular popping corn in my microwave. And it was as simple as a bag, some popping corn, three minutes and done.
So I tried it. And guess what? She was right. It is as simple as this:
1. buying popping corn at the store (for a LOT less than the microwave bags).
2. put 1/2 cup in a paper lunch bag. Fold the top over about 3 times to seal the bag as well as possible. A piece of tape might be a good idea, although I have not done that...yet.
3. put the bag on its side in the microwave with the fold UP and cook on HIGH for 3 minutes.
That's it--it's done! I added salt and a little melted butter when the popcorn was done, and it was delicious, light and fluffy and even better than the stovetop popcorn I've been making.
Not all my kernels popped; there were quite a few unpopped in the bag when I removed it from the microwave. Had they all popped, 1/2 cup might have been too much. My corn is about a year old; I bought a 9-pound bag on Amazon for really cheap and we had not used a lot of it. But with this method, I expect to use up my old corn pretty fast. So if you try this, you may want to start with 1/3 cup.
If you try this, let me know how it worked for you. It certainly is a much cheaper--and just as fast as the store-bought bags of microwavable popcorn.
Linking to Housewife How-To Tuesday and Try a New Recipe Tuesday today. Check them out for some great ideas!
BTW, you can buy as huge bag of popcorn on Amazon, still: Weaver Handi Pak Gourmet Popcorn - 4 pk. - 12.5 lb. - Popcorn Packaging & Accessories (Google Affiliate Ad)
Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
This is perfect timimg! I bought a box of organic microwave popcorn yesterday and then remembered why I had stopped buying it - it leaves an unpleasant taste (almost like a coating on my teeth and tongue - yuck!) which I think must have something to do with the way they treat it or the flavoring or such. I was thinking I should experiment with plain popcorn and a paper bag, because I do enjoy snacking on popcorn now and then. Thanks for the details about how you did it, I will look for some organic popping corn the next time I go shopping, and will report back!
ReplyDeleteAlton Brown showed this method on his Food Network show a few years back. His "recipe" called for 1/3 cup of popcorn, a generous sprinkling of Cajun (or similar) seasoning, and a pinch of salt, plus a smallish glug of olive oil to make sure the seasoning stuck to the popped kernels. Microwave on high, but stand by to stop the process when the popping slows down. (In mine, that usually comes around the two minute mark.) I've been doing this almost every weekend now for several years, and it works perfectly well.
ReplyDeleteTwo things, though: first, the obvious -- that oil will leak, so put the bag on a paper plate before you put the oil in; and, second, you can close up the bag, after folding over the top, by using a staple or two. That little bit of metal doesn't faze the microwave one little bit.
Dry popping is, of course, less messy, but then you need to add the melted butter to make the salt stick, and I tend to be far too generous with that butter.--Mario R.
Quinn, I love synchronicity! I hope it works as well for you as it does for us. Read Mario's comments below for some more tricks to try.
ReplyDeleteMario, I wondered about adding a little oil and salt to the bag. A paper plate under would be a good idea. Right now we're enjoying the plain popcorn with a little salt added at the end. But now I'm thinking there could be variations endlessly on this theme...
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing what you know! It's good information.
Cool to know!
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What a great idea! I am going to try this, as I don't want my kiddos having all of the chemicals that are in the bags of the store-bought variety. Thanks so much for linking up with "Try a New Recipe Tuesday!" I hope you will be able to join us again this week. :-) http://our4kiddos.blogspot.com/2013/05/try-new-recipe-tuesday-may-14.html
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