Skillet Popcorn

When I was a little bitty boy, my dad loved to make popcorn. It probably started when we got our first TV followed shortly by watching televised sports. In those days, the one and only method was to heat oil in a skillet and dump in the raw kernels. The exact procedure required some skill and training (see below). Air poppers and microwave ovens were not available yet in the 60's. Gradually my dad converted to air poppers (with lots of complaining about the clean-up) and when my parents got their first microwave oven in the 90s, popcorn was the first thing to try. I still remember the skillet popcorn as the best of all.

This whole mini-website is about eating well for less. Popcorn is claimed to be a light healthy snack, if you do it right by making it with minimum oil and salt. The problem with microwave popcorn is that it is expensive and you have no control over the salt and oil content (or dairy content it turns out). A box of Pop Secret microwave popcorn containing six bags of 3.5 oz of popcorn is ~$4 online at K-Mart. I'm going to change the portion to 2.4 oz so that works out to $0.46 for a big bowl that serves two.

You can buy an air popper for about $20 online at Amazon. Presto and West Bend are the two main manufacturers. Personally, I have way too many dedicated appliances already so I chose to go with the skillet, remembering my dad's issue with extra clean-up. Everyone has a skillet. A non-stick one is ideal, of course, and if you have a glass lid instead of a metal one, it is easier to see what is going on while popping corn.

I bought a 64 oz bag of HyTop popcorn kernels at WinCo for $2.65. That works out to $0.10 each for the corn (120 calories) which makes a hugh bowl that serves two. You were planning on sharing weren't you?

The oil required is 3 tablespoons or 1/4 cup. I used Hytop Canola oil which is high temperature oil for frying or popcorn making. The 1/4 cup oil costs $0.07 and is 372 calories. Salt is optional, but practically free in cost for the little that you will use. The total cost is $0.17 or almost 1/3 the cost of the popular microwave popcorn. Calories for half that large bowl is 266, making popcorn a pretty healthy and inexpensive snack.

If you use an air popper, you probably will be inclined to pour melted margarine on the popcorn to make it tasty. With the skillet method, the cooking oil becomes part of the end product. So with the skillet method you have one skillet and lid to clean. With the air popper you have the popper itself, it's lid, the saucepan for the margarine and the mixing spoon to clean. Yep, I see what dad meant about extra clean up with air poppers.

Instructions for the Skillet Method:

1. Add 1/4 cup oil to skillet and heat on medium high (same temperature as you fry and sautee).

2. Add three kernels in the oil immediately and put the glass lid on the pan.

3. As soon as those three kernels pop, remove the pan from that burner but do not turn the burner off.

4. Add 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels (2.4 oz) to the pan by pouring evenly across the bottom.

5. Let the pan sit off the burner for 30 seconds for the kernels to pre-heat.

6. Move the pan back on to the hot burner.

7. Within 20-30 seconds popping should commence. Sliding the pan around the burner is optional. My dad did but it seems to work OK without the extra scraping motion.

8. When the popping slows down to 1-2 pops per second, the popcorn will just start to smell burnt. Remove from the burner.

9. The tricky part is guessing when it is safe to dump the contents into the serving bowl. If one pops when you take the lid off, it blows chunks on the floor. Consider those the cat's portion and - yes - cats love popcorn!

While you are enjoying your large bowl of $0.17 popcorn, remember those $5 buckets of popcorn at the movies that are soggy and oversalted. Mmmm - home cooking wins again!