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. A few years later she got an electric popper. It was light beige-like a tall cylinder. The popper 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 to drip evenly over the popped corn, only it never worked like that.
I can’t remember the first time I saw or ate microwave popcorn. I do know I’ve eaten my fair share of the stuff and enjoyed every bite of it even though I’ve always heard microwave popcorn isn’t very healthy.
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. A paper lunch bag works perfectly.
When I first started making my own microwave popcorn I fiddled around with the amount of corn and the amount of time needed to cook the corn until I found what worked for my microwave. I put 1/4 cup of popcorn into the bag and fold down the top 2 or 3 times and cook it for 1:46 minutes on high. Once the corn is popped you can add melted butter, salt, or other condiments.
You can re-use the bag over and over until it finally gives out.
If you like popcorn and you use microwaves, give this method a try. You may have to adjust the amount of corn and/or 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 its healthier too!
Tipper
This post was originally published here on the Blind Pig and The Acorn in 2011.
Oh, I just found this old posting, and I can’t wait to go to the grocery store for paper lunch bags and popcorn. We love microwave popcorn and I have also heard it is definitely bad for us. And at least we can control the amount of salt and also make sure to add REAL butter. And if it’s cheaper, well that’s just the icing on the cake! Thanks. It sounds like a winner.
My family and I have been growing/raising popcorn for 30 years. We stated with Japanese hulsess seed and save the seed from year to year. The yield 2021 was 67 pound. More to plant in the spring.
We use an antique corn sheller. The grand and great grand children enjoy and love ‘feeding’ the sheller as an adult turns the wheel. Makes for a good afternoon and enjoyable popcorn all year long..
I still love popcorn, i use a $20 whirly pop pan. It has gearshaft that operates a stirring mechanism make great popcorn on the stove. I can also make kettle corn by adding a quater cup of sugar to the pan. I do not care for microwaves so this work great for me The kettle corn is a hit when I bring for snacks at music events. I use to make popcorn I was young with a heavy pan and lid shaking it over a burner. Popcorn, butter and salt is one of the best culinary treats.
I remember popping corn in a basket held over the fireplace at my grandmother’s – so good. Then we did the “butt-shaking” pot on the stove and moved on to electric poppers! I’ve been doing the paper bag in the microwave lately. I even like scorched or slightly burnt popcorn — I once embarrassed my children (hard to believe, I know) by asking for the burnt corn they were going to throw away at the drive-in.
My last comment was suppose to say drive in movie, not just drive. :-p
God bless.
RB
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I LOVE popcorn too, with extra butter. Always have. First memory I have of it was watching The Ed Sullivan Show while eating popcorn. I also remember going to the drive which cost $1 per car load (there were 6 kids and Mom) with lawn chairs, blankets, homemade popcorn, and a jug of Koolaid. It was great fun until someone had to use the rest room. Those were generally awful.
I confess I do use the prepackaged microwave kind. I use to do it in paper bags a long long time ago. Not sure why I ever stopped, but with these directions here, I’m going to try it again.
I know one friend long ago said she kept her popcorn in the freezer, that when the microwaves hit the frozen moisture in the corn, it popped bigger and fuller. Not sure if that’s true, but that’s worth a try too.
God bless.
RB
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Unlike Jeanie, paper or glass is the only thing I like to put in the microwave. Plastics emit gasses when exposed to microwaves. Many of the microwavable popcorn bags have a metal foil pad on one side. That’s why they always say “This side down”. It’s there to reflect the microwaves back into the popcorn instead of bouncing all around inside the oven. Most microwave meals have a foil lined tray. The metal is there just to make the food absorb the microwaves faster.
I have read several times that putting an ordinary brown paper bag in the microwave can be dangerous. Some of them have little meta flakes and may cause sparking!
I remember popping popcorn in a pan on the woodstove. We would sit the pan on the hottest part of the stove and let it get hot, then add a little grease. We poured in enough popcorn to almost cover the bottom of the pan. We’d shake it to cover the kernels with the grease and wait until the first one popped then put put the lid on it. We would shake it until it started popping pretty fast then move it to a cooler place on the stove and just let it sit. The corn would continue to pop. I remember many times watching the lid rise off the pan as the popcorn expanded underneath.
I remember parched corn, too! But I like parched punkin seeds better!
I remember putting boxwood leaves on top of the woodstove. They would puff up like tiny balloon and sometimes pop. Sometimes the hot air inside would break through one end and make them spin and make a little whistling sound. You don’t eat them! You just watch them dance around on the stove. Ain’t it strange what kids will do to entertain themselves? I’ll bet nobody else has done that!
Tipper,
Me and my oldest girl, Laura was about 12, use to put Pops Right
Popcorn in a pot and lid. It had oil and butter already in it and my daughter would snigger at my butt shaking as the corn popped. We’d eat popcorn and it was fun, trying to watch TV that had more snow than picture. It was a bounce too!
My oldest daughter was born in ’68, and she called the other day to ask if we could pop some popcorn the old fashioned way, when they came out. I bet she wants her girls to see PawPaw’s butt a shakin…Ken
Tipper,
So ironic is this post today. We usually buy popcorn at he big box stores and it is cheaper and lasts us a long time, about all winter.
Since there was a chill in the air last night we were craving popcorn…Went to the cupboard and found a empty box…I told the better half that I remembered seeing a bag on the top shelf in the kitchen. I guess it was put there before we started buying big boxes.
He dug thru the packaged stuff and found it. Saved, we thought! He popped it and we were settling in to watch a show and munch…I thought it smelled weird, even though the taste wasn’t great the off taste wasn’t too bad until those next couple of bites!…I looked on the side of the bag…..ewwwww it was way out of date..The oil had gone rancid I guess…shewwweeee we kept noticing the lingering smell in the air even after turning on the stove vent….Of course we tossed it and sprayed orange oil in the air to kill the rancid smell that had been hidden by the smell of the popping corn. ha
Thanks Tipper,
PS…Popcorn is a Fall/Winter treat here…Tell Bill that I remember my Dad telling stories of parching corn from the corncrib and how good it was…I don’t remember ever eating any of it! We have put older fresh ears under the broiler with butter, watch close and let them brown…they were good and don’t notice that the corn was picked as it was getting dry and older..ha
We sometimes grew popcorn when I was a child & we all loved popcorn. We popped it in a long handled skillet on the stove, shaking it till it all popped. Poured popping after popping into the big metal dishpan and had a feast. At the time we got government commodities they gave out wonderful butter so we had melted butter on it and if it was bought popcorn we used the seasoning in the little packets that used to come in the bag of popcorn.
I still love popcorn but usually use my air popper & butter flavored cooking spray & cheat at the end by adding melted butter. My popper has the cup supposed to melt the butter but it doesn’t work either. We do keep microwave popcorn on hand but don’t use it much–it just doesn’t seem like the “real thing”.
I’m a popcorn fan too! In fact, I had a big ol’ bag of microwave popcorn almost all to myself for supper last night! (- and, yes – I added a bit of butter and salt too.)
I also grew up popping it in a skillet on the stove; but, Grandma had a stove popper that had a lid with a handle you turned causing an L shape skinny paddle contraption to scrap the bottom of the pot to keep the popcorn from scorching and to keep it tumbling so it stayed evenly hot top to bottom. I thought I was quite the cook when I got to turn the handle ;-).
Dad loved popcorn too until he got his dentures – such a bummer. He loves to tell about, as an 8 year old boy being given a small plot of land down by the crik so he could grow his own popcorn. He kept that plot going until the farm was sold and they moved to Texas. Whenever we went to Kansas, the old popcorn field was on the reminiscence tour; and, over the years, we watched as succession turned it back into a woods. Even so, Dad always saw and savored his old popcorn field.
As for parched corn – hadn’t heard of it until today; but I thoroughly enjoyed my corn nuts until my teeth started complaining too much. Throughout High School my daily lunch was half a tuna salad sandwich, a can of grapefruit juice and a bag of Corn Nuts – I do love that crunch! If my teeth were in better shape (genetics, you know) I’d give it a go trying to make some!
When I was a child we popped popcorn in a wire basket held over a fire in the fireplace. Boy! Was I good.
I still love popcorn, but now it prepackaged, measured and buttered and stuck in a microwave. Too easy – Not something to look forward too on a cold snowy night. Not many fireplaces anymore.
I love popcorn, but haven’t been able to find organic popcorn in a long while now. So guess what…this year I am planting organic popcorn from Sow True Seeds! 🙂
Never thought of DIY microwave popcorn. I’ve gotta try that. The reduction in cost will probably lead to an increase in my popcorn consumption…. From my youth, I do remember popping corn and parching (roasting lightly) peanuts and pecans for night time snacks.
Mom would pop our corn in a big cooker on the potbelly stove then dump it in a dish pan for us to enjoy. The home churned butter tasted so good, but made the popcorn wet and chewy. Someone in the area raised the corn in their garden. It was small with red kernels that popped snow white.
When I used to go to Weight Watcher, someone told me about the lunch bag popcorn. She said I needed to spray it with butter flavored Pam after it had popped. Sounded awful, but some things that sound bad are pretty tasty when you are hungry.
I too love Popcorn and as a youngster growing up on Needmore it was a real treat since we seldom grew Popcorn. We more often had Parched Corn, we would go to the Crib pick out a few ears of field corn, shell it and clean the silks and the pieces of the cob which stuck to the grains. We would then heat a cast iron frying pan, melt butter and fry the corn until it cracked and browned, salt to taste and chow down. I loved parched corn and when I grew up some entrepeneur came out with Corn Nuts which mimicked our Parched Corn. We often felt somewhat deprived since we didn’t have popcorn but then discovered we were ahead of the time with our “Country Corn Nuts”. Has anyone else enjoyed Parched Corn?
Whyte I do not eat popcorn my husband loves it. Thanks for the great tip.
Whyte I do not eat popcorn my husband loves it. Thanks for the great tip.
Whyte I do not eat popcorn my husband loves it. Thanks for the great tip.
Whyte I do not eat popcorn my husband loves it. Thanks for the great tip.
I like popcorn too. I’m of an age that most of my popcorn cooking was done in a pot on the stove. Put a little popcorn in the pot add a little oil and a lid. when the corn begins to pop put one hand on the handle and one on the lid and shake till the popping stops. This prevents scorching. Add a little salt and melted butter and your ready to feast.
This may sound silly but cooking the popcorn that way made me a participant in the preparation of my food that popping a bag in the microwave doesn’t. I guess that’s just an old timey notion.
My mother loved popcorn she considered it healthy because it is a whole grain food….guess she had some old timey notions too!
Tipper,
When you mention popcorn it brings
back memories of many stories I
remember many years ago,
POPCORN AND A STORY
When I was growing up in the
mountains Of Western Carolina many
of the cold wintery nights were told
over a big pan of popcorn and a story
with a start like——
The following story was told to my sisters, my brother, and
me on more occasions than I can remember. For entertainment
in the winter months, all of our family would gather around the
big rock fireplaces to keep warm and pop corn over a blazing
fire of big logs. We enjoyed this, but the best part of the evening
before retiring for the night was the stories that Dad or Mom
would tell. They would start by saying, “Now what I’m about to
tell you is———,