Great idea for a thread!
Huge popcorn lover here. My wife and I have Movie/Popcorn night every Friday and/or Saturday.
We switched to coconut oil a couple of years ago, and haven't looked back. After years of using LouAna, we're just finishing off a bottle of Carrington Farms that was purchased at Costco. In comparison, the LouAna has a neutral flavor while the Carrrington Farms tastes and smell slightly sweet and has a more pronounced coconut influence. For us, it was too strong, and we ended up diluting it with olive oil when used for popping. The next kind we'll be trying is Snappy brand white.
For an occasional treat, we'll use a 50/50 mixture of oil and bacon fat. The bacon fat tends to smoke pretty easily, but it also imparts a smoky flavor to the corn that's not overwhelming but still satisfactory.
As far as the corn itself, I prefer plain old yellow, and usually make Jolly Time (also from Costco) for myself. My wife prefers white or red kernels, which are purchased from Fireworks Popcorn. The red kernels have a slightly nutty flavor, but pop up smaller and crunchier. Sometimes I'll make a blend of different types for variety. Our favorite was Starshell Red, but it's been unavailable for years now. It had the best and boldest flavor of all.
One day we'll have a commercial popper, but for now it's countertop or stovetop only. I've gone from a stove top Whirly Pop to two different West Bend Stir Crazy models. The first Whirly Pop was aluminum. It worked OK, but the bottom warped after a while. The Stir Crazy was also OK, but I wanted to upgrade to the Kettle Krazy model. Had that for just over a year, and the stirring mechanism broke. The fine folks at West Bend replaced it, but shortly after I had the upgrade bug again. I came back full circle to the stovetop model.
But this time I picked the Great Northern Stainless Steel model from Amazon. So far, this is my favorite. Due to the thicker bottom, it probably won't warp from the stove's heat. I add the oil and salt once it's warmed up, which helps evenly distribute the sale throughout the entire batch of popcorn. I had done that with one of my earlier Stir Crazies, but the salt ended up scratching the non-stick surface of the popper. Also, with the Stir Crazy, the steam seemed to condense in the lid, so the outside kernels would get soggy. That isn't happening with the Great Northern popper. The only negative so far has been the handle. The short screws kept pulling out, so I replaced them with longer ones. That seems to be doing the trick.
For serving, we have some popcorn buckets that were purchased at a local store a couple of decades ago. They have an insert in the bottom with holes that are just large enough to let the old maids drop through. That's greatly reduced the risk of breaking a tooth on an unpopped kernel. I've never seen them again, but they're really solid and should last for many years to come.
For toppings, my wife demands real melted butter. We bought an electric baby bottle warmer years ago for this. the butter is sliced into a plastic bottle, and the warmer gets it to the perfect temperature for covering the popcorn.
Usually I eat mine with just salt, but occasionally, I'll add some spices. Thyme goes really well with it, as does pepper. I've also used a chili lime powder. We'll also make cheese popcorn using Cabot Cheddar Powder. It covers the popcorn nicely, although some usually drops down to the bottom, which is easily consumed with a wet finger.
Microwave popcorn is reserved for emergency use only, or if only one of us wants popcorn for some odd reason.
Eager to hear from other popcorn enthusiasts out there!
Scott
Huge popcorn lover here. My wife and I have Movie/Popcorn night every Friday and/or Saturday.
We switched to coconut oil a couple of years ago, and haven't looked back. After years of using LouAna, we're just finishing off a bottle of Carrington Farms that was purchased at Costco. In comparison, the LouAna has a neutral flavor while the Carrrington Farms tastes and smell slightly sweet and has a more pronounced coconut influence. For us, it was too strong, and we ended up diluting it with olive oil when used for popping. The next kind we'll be trying is Snappy brand white.
For an occasional treat, we'll use a 50/50 mixture of oil and bacon fat. The bacon fat tends to smoke pretty easily, but it also imparts a smoky flavor to the corn that's not overwhelming but still satisfactory.
As far as the corn itself, I prefer plain old yellow, and usually make Jolly Time (also from Costco) for myself. My wife prefers white or red kernels, which are purchased from Fireworks Popcorn. The red kernels have a slightly nutty flavor, but pop up smaller and crunchier. Sometimes I'll make a blend of different types for variety. Our favorite was Starshell Red, but it's been unavailable for years now. It had the best and boldest flavor of all.
One day we'll have a commercial popper, but for now it's countertop or stovetop only. I've gone from a stove top Whirly Pop to two different West Bend Stir Crazy models. The first Whirly Pop was aluminum. It worked OK, but the bottom warped after a while. The Stir Crazy was also OK, but I wanted to upgrade to the Kettle Krazy model. Had that for just over a year, and the stirring mechanism broke. The fine folks at West Bend replaced it, but shortly after I had the upgrade bug again. I came back full circle to the stovetop model.
But this time I picked the Great Northern Stainless Steel model from Amazon. So far, this is my favorite. Due to the thicker bottom, it probably won't warp from the stove's heat. I add the oil and salt once it's warmed up, which helps evenly distribute the sale throughout the entire batch of popcorn. I had done that with one of my earlier Stir Crazies, but the salt ended up scratching the non-stick surface of the popper. Also, with the Stir Crazy, the steam seemed to condense in the lid, so the outside kernels would get soggy. That isn't happening with the Great Northern popper. The only negative so far has been the handle. The short screws kept pulling out, so I replaced them with longer ones. That seems to be doing the trick.
For serving, we have some popcorn buckets that were purchased at a local store a couple of decades ago. They have an insert in the bottom with holes that are just large enough to let the old maids drop through. That's greatly reduced the risk of breaking a tooth on an unpopped kernel. I've never seen them again, but they're really solid and should last for many years to come.
For toppings, my wife demands real melted butter. We bought an electric baby bottle warmer years ago for this. the butter is sliced into a plastic bottle, and the warmer gets it to the perfect temperature for covering the popcorn.
Usually I eat mine with just salt, but occasionally, I'll add some spices. Thyme goes really well with it, as does pepper. I've also used a chili lime powder. We'll also make cheese popcorn using Cabot Cheddar Powder. It covers the popcorn nicely, although some usually drops down to the bottom, which is easily consumed with a wet finger.
Microwave popcorn is reserved for emergency use only, or if only one of us wants popcorn for some odd reason.
Eager to hear from other popcorn enthusiasts out there!
Scott
