I love popcorn. I remember when I was little Granny would pop it in one of her big stock pots on top of the stove.
Then I remember when we got our first and only electric popper. It was light beige-like a tall cylinder. It had this little impression on the top where you could put a pat of butter. The heat from the popping corn was supposed to melt the butter allowing it too drip evenly over the popped corn, only it never worked like that.
I tried to remember the first time I saw microwave popcorn, but can’t. I do know I’ve eaten my fair share of the stuff. Although I liked the taste, I always wondered how healthy all the buttery powdered preservatives were for me.
Several years ago, while blog hopping, I discovered you could make your own bag of microwave popcorn. All you need is popcorn and a paper bag.
When I first started making my own microwave popcorn I fiddled around with the amount and the time to cook it until I found what worked for my microwave. I put 1/4 cup of popcorn into the bag, fold down the top 2 or 3 times, and cook it for 1.25 minutes on high. Once it’s done I add melted butter and salt.
You can re-use the bag over and over till it finally gives out. Every once in a while the bag will come apart on the bottom and you’ll have a microwave full of popcorn, but that rarely happens to me.
I know some folks are anti-microwave, but if you’re not and you like popcorn give this method a try you’ll probably have too adjust the amount of corn and the amount of cooking time till you find what works best for you. Making your own microwave popcorn is much much cheaper than buying the pre-packaged stuff and I’m sure it’s healthier too.
Tipper
What kind of paper bag do you use? One from a purchased package of lunch bags or what?
Jeanne-yes I buy a pack of brown paper bags intended for lunch bags and use them 🙂
I’ll be trying this! Thanks for the tip! It sounds much healthier than the prepackaged stuff. And I’m all about that!
But I have to admit, I LOVE watching Jiffy Pop pop. tee hee
I’ve been thinking the same thing about all those preservatives. I saw a bag of popcorn last week – next time I’m in the store I’m going to try that. blessings, marlene
Em-I’ve never grew any popcorn myself-but would like to try it.
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Rhonda-I’ve never grown my own popcorn-but would like to try it sometime : )
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Hey Tipper, I just have to tell you our popcorn meal. We usually had popcorn for supper on sunday nights, due to a big lunch. My dad would put popcorn in a glass of milk just like corn bread. Yeah sounds gross but give it a try. I still do this from time to time.
I LOVE POPCORN !!!! When I was little we had a special pot just for popcorn. We grew our own popcorn. My granny would give my brother and me an ear of popcorn and we had to shuck the kernels off, sometimes that was a hard for little fingers. We would eat big bowls of it. Granny always put her popcorn in a big glass of buttermilk. (I did not like it that way) I’m going to try making my own microwave popcorn. I did read somewhere a while back that some man sued a popcorn maker because he had inhaled the steam that comes out of the bag so often he got some kind of lung disease from the preservatives. He won.
I love popcorn! Usually make it on the stove in a pot. I never really liked the microwave popcorn from the store it always had a strange taste to me. Going to give the brown bag in the microwave a try. Yours looked good!
Oh my gosh, I have not heard cokes called dopes since my grandmother died!! The little bottles were and still are the best.
We got a fireplace popcorn popper from an antique store it is cast iron, haven’t used it yet though. I do mine in the Microwave, although there is supposed to be something in the popcorn sold for microwaves that is not good for you. I’m going to try the brown bag version.
sheryl
I LOVE popcorn!! I would love to grow some next year, just so I can say I did! I make mine on the stovetop, just oil and kernels – the old fashioned way. Then I add my own butter and salt. I eat it several times a week! Didn’t you grow some last year?
We have a stove top popper that you turn a crank to stir while popping. Wonderful popcorn!
Oooh, I love popcorn! Whenever I’m at a fair I always look for the kettle popcorn vendors. Nothing beats kettle corn!
Great idea Tipper .. I’m going to give it a try this week end!!!
Tipper,
What a great idea to pop corn in the microwave. I love popcorn, too. I remember as a little girl we would pop corn on top of the woodstove and cover it with butter. How delicious. This posting is great and brings back many fond memories.
Popcorn is still my go-to snack. I love it! Do you remember raising your own and then “eating” up your hands getting the dried kernels off of the cob?
I have not thought of making pop corn like that in ages. Thanks for the thought.
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Tipper,
What a great idea! I’m going to
brown bag some popcorn tonight. I
love popcorn…
B. Ruth reminded me of those good
times at the drive-in with lots of
popcorn and those little dopes that were so good. One time I got
to take daddy’s ’56 Chevrolet and
me and another guy drove through
and paid our way in. But the ticket guy noticed a couple of blankets all humped up behind the
front seats and just let us go on
by and park. What he didn’t know
was soon as we got parked and settled, we took out the back seat
and had four more boys come crawling out of the trunk. My goodness, if we had wrecked or something…but that was way before them seat-belt laws…Ken
this is a great idea, never thought about using a bag. even if it gets in the microwave, it would be easy clean up. i like the old way best but have not done it in years, we always took a big pot with a handle and lid, and stood there and shook it back and forth to keep it from burning. it is a lot cheaper and healthier to pop it on the stove. now i want some
Tipper, I eat most of my popcorn at your house now. In the evenings when you say “who wants popcorn?” I can’t help but say “I do!”
As a kid we frequently had popcorn as a late night snack. We cooked it in a big pot on the stove with some oil in it. We’d shake the pot while it cooked to keep it from scorching. With melted butter on top and salt that is one fine snack!
My mother, in her later years, still ate a lot of popcorn. she still cooked it in a pot. She never got used to a microwave. She was health conscious so there was no more butter on it. She always pointed out to me that popcorn was a whole grain food….meaning it’s good for you!
Here’s another Bonnie story. As I said, she was always health conscious and tried to keep me from eating things that she didn’t think were good for me. It was a struggle because I was a willful child. Once at Halloween I got a big popcorn ball in my bag. The ball was stuck together with some sweet sticky syrup and wrapped in wax paper. I was looking forward to eating it.
Well, when I got home with my sweet treasures Bonnie went through the bag and confiscated everything that was not commercially packaged and threw it away. She even took some of the packaged things that she considered too unhealthy to eat. I was so disappointed, I particularly wanted that popcorn ball.
Well, I bet you can guess what I did. From then on when I went out on Halloween if I got something in my bag that I wanted to eat I ate it before I got home!!lol
Don’t tell Chitter and Chatter. They don’t need to know how willful there grandmother was!
We have an electric pop corn popper, and we love it. However, I usually buy those microwave bags for work…NO MORE! 🙂 This is a great idea, and I’m so glad that I won’t be buying that preservative-filled stuff anymore!
That is a great idea! My husband loves to have popcorn in the evenings & he makes such a mess with the oil, the pan & what he spills on the floor, shhesh! I’m going to start doing it this way effective immediately!
Thanks!
Stacey
How clever! I know the pre-packaged popcorn can’t be good for you. I will have to try this, as I love my popcorn!
Tipper,
Thanks for the idea…I can’t say that I ever thought about making my own popcorn bags…but I do remember thinking how rich someone got when they made the little disposable stove tins of popcorn long ago…My Dad brought in the first one, and we couldn’t wait until after supper to watch it pop…it was the ‘Atomic Age genius”, we thought….
I like my popcorn plain with just a sprinkle of salt..
Husband likes his drenched in butter…so back in the dating days we had to buy two bags of popcorn instead of the sweetheart sharing bag, when the hands touched..Ohh, how sweet it was…LOL
We used to pop our own corn and take to the Drive-in to save money, when growing up. Until the vintage Drive-in closed here, a few years ago, we still took our popcorn…but we couldn’t find those tasty little green bottles of Coke-a-Cola and peanuts..like in the olden days…LOL We did find Goobers though…
Thanks Tipper,
I have a plastic microwave popcorn popper. I use if about four times a week. Cliff works nights, and I often have popcorn for supper. Indeed, it’s many times cheaper than pre-packaged microwave popcorn.