I try to keep my life simple, but don’t see myself as a serious frugal person. I don’t make my own soap, and I eat out a lot. But one thing I recently fell in love with was making my own popcorn. It sounds so obvious, but it never really sunk in that I could make a huge bowl of kettle corn in 5 minutes and $0.50 in materials. To think, I was buying the stuff from the local farmer’s market for five bucks a bag!
Basic Directions
Heat 1-3 tablespoons of any cooking oil on medium high to high and add a single kernel of popcorn in a large, heavy covered pan. I use a wok-shaped stir-fry pan like this one. After you hear the first kernel pop (the oil is now hot enough), pour in 1/3 to 1/2 cup of popcorn (or enough to cover bottom of pan, no more than 1 kernel deep); re-cover. Shake constantly until all kernels are popped.
Plain Popcorn Tips
Adding salt is classic, but fine salt like popcorn or pickling salt sticks the best. Seasoned salt works too. For a gourmet taste and impressing folks, get some truffle salt. Delicious! I sometimes spray some Pam to have it adhere even better.
I’m not a huge fan, so have never made buttered popcorn. I’m sure you could just melt some butter and pour it over. I’ve also seen special popcorn oil with “butter flavor”, whatever that is. There’s also butter-flavored sprays and popcorn toppers.
Cheese Popcorn
I like these Kernel’s Seasons line of popcorn toppings. White cheddar and nacho cheddar are good. They are really fine so you don’t need to use much, and they are low in calories (6 cal per 1/2 tsp, which is how much I use at once).
Kettle Corn
For every 1/2 cup of popcorn, add in 1/4 cup of plain white granulated sugar. The sugar will dissolve, and after adding some salt you’ll end up with the great salty-sweet taste of kettle corn! Did you know that most microwave versions of “kettle corn” don’t use real sugar because it burns?
Caramel Corn
Instead of plain white sugar above, use brown sugar. The molasses will make it taste amazingly like caramel corn. It takes some practice not to burn the sugar by tweaking the heat level. If you love the “Chicago mix” flavor combination like me, now you can make it yourself by making this and a batch of cheddar cheese popcorn.
Cost Breakdown
First are the retail prices in my area, per Safeway.com. A 30 oz. bottle of unpopped Orville Orville Redenbacher costs $7. A 3-pack of 3.3 oz (10 oz. total) microwave popcorn bags of the same brand costs $3.50. This means each microwave bag and costs $1.16, while the same amount (~5 tbsp) of plain kernels costs $0.56. Adding oil and sugar is another ~5 cents. If you went out and bought bulk popcorn you can get it for $1 per pound, making each serving about 15 cents.
Honestly, I can’t imagine going back to using the microwave, besides the ability to make it at an office or dorm room. I actually burn popcorn less when cooking it manually. Pre-packaged microwave popcorn also comes with preservatives, usually TBHQ. GetRichSlowly offers some tips on DIY microwave popcorn, but I say just use a pan. I do like the idea of not using any oil with a hot air popper, but that’s just one more kitchen appliance I don’t want to deal with.
All I can say is, if you like popcorn, try it!
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A few tips to improve your popcorn (from a combination of Alton Brown, Mark Bittman and personal experience):
1) Add the salt at the same time you add the popcorn. If you shake it all up the hot oil will help the salt adhere to the kernel. You will end up with more salt flavor (while using less salt) than if you add the salt once it is popped.
2) You might be better off using a vessel with a more narrow bottom. Alton Brown actually uses a heavy-gauge metal mixing bowl, though I get by with a pot. You want as small a surface area at the bottom as possible. Using this method you need to keep the popcorn moving pretty regularly but you end up with virtually no chance of burning and pretty much no unpopped kernels.
For the kettle corn when do you add the sugar–before you add the kernels or after they have already popped?
Making your own is so much better than microwave. I use 1 tbs of peanut oil. It’s cholesterol free and gives it a great taste! Popcorn salt is a must. You can also pulse regular salt in a food processor. They key is getting it to stick. Salt is a flavor enhancer so you just need a little to stick to get that great fresh popped flavor rather than mask it with greasy butter. I learned all of these tricks from and episode of Alton Browns ‘Good Eats’ and I haven’t had microwave since.
I personally go for the low-fat microwave version:
1)put a handful or two of kernels in a brown paper bag.
2) fold the open end on itself THREE TIMES (otherwise it opens during popping
3) microwave until there is about a one-second gap between poppings.
careful when opening the bag!
Popcorn, I can see myself making my own. It’s up there with my favorite snacks.
Try making your own beer. Now THAT’S an adventure!
I was doing the homemade popcorn thing for a while but there must be something wrong with my technique or the freshness of the kernels. They never have the same crispness as the store-bought microwaveable bags. I’ve used hot air and a big pot with oil and they still don’t have quite the right snap to them. Any tips?
We converted to old fashioned popcorn on the cob. They have those at our farmers market – SO GOOD.
Not the cheapest, but definitely the freshest. In fact, my kids asked for butter/salt while shoveling mouthfuls of it, plain, into their mouths. I oblige sometimes, but SO not necessary.
Anyway, not the cheapest, but the best. You just throw the cob in a paper bag and microwave it.
As a kid we had a popcorn popper – easy peasy to make popcorn. We never bought one – we probably should. It would be a lot cheaper for the long haul. I just happened to be eating microwave popcorn today. (Farmers market is closed for winter).
I remember the days of popping your own popcorn. Microwave popcorn just made it simplier and easier. Plus no clean up.
I do agree that popping your own tastes completely different than microwave popcorn. The former was better tasting, but it’s been so long since I’ve done anything other than microwave popcorn.
Also the popcorn sold at movie theaters tastes completely different today than it did in the past. They’re using healthier oils, and no salt, which give the popcorn an almost rice-cake like styroform flavor (if you don’t add butter flavoring).
I think the old style ‘bad-for-you’ popcorn can still be found if you goto Target’s food court and buy their freshly made popcorn.
Rzrshrp, you could try using a different brand of popcorn. If you’re getting the cheapest stuff you can, try a gourmet variety. There’s definitely a difference.
I do know that popcorn loses its crispness pretty fast, especially if it’s at all humid, but if you seal it in a container it lasts well–but if the very first kernels you eat aren’t as crisp as you’d like, then humidity is not the problem.
It is much quicker to make microwave popcorn,time is a cost.
although it sounds like you really enjoy making it the old fashion way.
Try using coconut oil. It gives it that movie theatre taste. Yum!
@Danny – I figured Alton Brown might have done something similar, but I actually never caught that episode. I always remember his tip “salt doesn’t burn, it’s a rock!”
@Andy – I add the sugar the same time I add the bulk of the kernels.
@rzrshrp – I read somewhere that it might have to do with either the kernels like Debbie, or letting some steam escape during popping (let the lid loose) since keeping it too moist makes it chewy. Some experimentation might be in order.
@Alexandria – Sounds tasty, I’ll have to look into that.
@Tom – True, but the time difference is on the order of the time it takes to heat the oil, or a couple of minutes. Cleanup takes me 30 seconds, you just have a nonstick pan with a light coating of oil.
@Russ – I’ve never heard that. I don’t think I’ve ever used coconut oil for anything. I’ll have to try that as well.
I’ve been considering getting this, pretty good reviews and I’ve read that the replacement power cups can be made out of cheap paper plates if you just trace them:
http://amzn.com/B00005IBXK
I bought Wal-Mart’s brand of popcorn because the local grocery store was out of non-microwave popcorn and the Wal-Mart popcorn was better than the Redenbacher one I previously used. The Wal-Mart popcorn popped up bigger & the difference was pretty noticeable.
This was an unexpected article, but I’m intrigued to try it!
We love making our own popcorn with oil and butter. I use a lot of oil because it adds flavor. Can wait to try these other sweeter versions. (I like the burnt kernels as well.) Thanks for the new ideas.
I LOVE my hot air popper. you CAN NOT burn popcorn with a hot air popper because it blows the popcorn out of the machine as the kernels pop. The only time you can’t use hot air is if you want to do a kettle corn type flavor where you need to have the flavoring in with the popcorn. We usually just melt a table spoon of butter in the microwave and drizzle over the bowl then add a pinch or two of popcorn salt for the classic taste.
You can buy GOYA Yellow Popcorn for about $.89 a pound at many supermarkets in the GOYA section. It comes in a plastic bag, just put the leftovers in an empty peanut butter jar. Makes the cost of this snack about 20 cents.
http://www.shoprite.com/pd/Goya/Yellow-Popcorn/16-oz/041331024921/
Did you know you can buy a microwave popcorn popper? The Catamount glass popper for about $20 works great. You can use less oil, regular popcorn, and cleanup is minimal.
We make our popcorn in the microwave, but using the same popcorn you describe above. We bought an inexpensive microwave bowl that was made for the purpose, and we put the kernals in with no oil or anything. Great popcorn, no hassle! Just as good as air-popped…
-BVE
Thanks for sharing, I love homemade popcorn!
These are helpful tips
You don’t need to shake it, nor do you have to wait till the oil is hot. Just put it on high, put in a little oil, toss in kernels and put on the lid (you may want the lid ever so slightly off so steam can escape.. When the popping slows down considerably, remove from heat. Wait until all popping as stopped before removing the lid. And done! Tastes 100xs better than microwave popcorn, cheaper and you know exactly what is in it.
I put 1/4 cup popcorn in a bag and microwave it for about 2minutes. tastes great plain and its about 77 calories/bag. I haven’t tried air popping yet, but I heard it tastes even better than microwave.