So Who Likes Popcorn ?

[JEBar]

we like popcorn and if Fedex delivers as promised, our latest venture into the wonderful world of popping corn will begin .... over the years we've purchased many different types of poppers, who knows how many different brands/types of popping corn, various popping oils and a wide range of seasonings .... they've all worked to various degrees but none have ever replicated the the taste of movie theater popcorn .... for the last few months I've been researching it and YouTube has multitudes of videos on how to make popcorn that duplicates that taste .... according to what I've learned, the ingredients used are critical, much more critical than the type of popper used .... freely acknowledging that, I've gone off the deep end and ordered a fairly expensive theater style popper with a stock of highly acclaimed popping corns and other items needed .... even to a stock of red stripped bags to hold the popped corn .... yep, jumped in with both feet .

[Ernie]

As a pre-teen it was my job to run the popcorn popper and sell the product at my grandparents resort on weekends. I would get a fresh batch going and seemed life half the beach would be at my window buying bags. I of course had to sample for quality control purposes. The microwave brands are off putting so I don't eat much any more.

[RetiredSeabee]

I like it! That is going to look great in your bedroom…..Your wife has agreed to it right.

[BigAl52]

When the corn pops at our house the dogs are on full alert. I think they like it more than we do

[Mags]

Not a fan of popcorn myself. Wife likes it though. The best popcorn popper we've owned was a stove top WhirlyPop. Every single kernal would get popped in that thing.

[markiver54]

I love popcorn. So much that when I start eating it, I have trouble stopping. I don't eat it anymore though. Gotta watch the diet these days.

[JEBar]

popper delivered late yesterday by FedEx .... very concerned when I saw them taking it out of the truck .... the shipping box was in bad (make that really bad)nshape .... it clearly showed rough handling .... I did get it out of the box .... at a glance the pieces of both the cooking box and cart appeared to be OK .... the cooking box came pretty much assembled .... the cart is a very different story .... much assembly required .... I hope start on it shortly

[daytime dave]

Good luck on the assembly Jim.
I like mine on the stove in my whirly pop. I use coconut oil and good quality popcorn. The dog and I love it.

[flat_topp]

I make popcorn every Sunday night for me and my wife. Mostly Orville Redenbacher’s original in olive oil in a saucepan over a gas stovetop. Also, putting a lid on the pan helps reduce the possibility of making a mess. After popping I add some melted butter and seasoning salt.

[Mags]

We use avocado oil.

[The Wiz]

I worked at a concession stand at a minor league baseball field in Sioux Falls one summer. After a summer of making it and smelling it I was done with popcorn. Only thing worse was making cotton candy.

[JEBar]

well, it took me all morning to assemble the cart and mount the popping area on top of it .... in retrospect while the directions were accurate, their clarity left much to be desired .... the first popping turned out good, really good .... that said, its very clear that I have plenty of room for improvement

[dave77]

We had a similar full-size popcorn machine at the grade school I worked at. Used decent popcorn but not expensive premium popcorn which was still much better than any microwave popcorn. Teacher's used it quite often to reward their students with popcorn parties when they met certain goals. Of course they were required to make enough extra for the staff so we usually had it at least once or twice a week.

[daytime dave]

It looks great Jim. Keep us posted on your continuing improvement.

[JEBar]

UPDATE :

we've now used our new popper a half dozen times ..... biggest thing to surface so far ===> no telling how many poppers we've used in the last 50 some years .... this is the first that pops corn that I don't have to add anything to after it comes out of .... today I cleaned it for the first time .... after considerable research I found a way to clean the main popping unit that uses hot water/steam and doesn't require the use of any chemicals .... went that route .... happy to say, doing so was easy and worked well

[JEBar]

I found this info to be interesting :

History of Popcorn.

Popcorn has a storied history. Here are some important dates.

4700 BC - Fossil evidence from Peru suggests that corn was popped as early at 4700 BC.

16th Century - Aztec Indian ceremonies incorporated popcorn

1519 - Cortes first saw popcorn when he invaded Mexico

1848 - The term popped corn first appeared in John Russell Bartlett’s 1848 Dictionary of Americanisms

1885 - Charles Cretors invents the first popcorn machine in Chicago Illinois

1893 - Charles Cretors introduced the worlds first mobile popcorn machine at the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

1896 - The first popcorn stand was opened by Louis Rueckheim. He sold a sweetened version of popcorn which he called “Cracker Jack”. The name and slogan “The More You Eat The More You Want” were registered in 1896.

1907 - The song Take Me Out to the Ball game came out and with it’s line of “Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack!” solidified the Cracker Jack’s place in history

1920’s - Movie theaters stopped movie goers from bringing in their own popcorn snacks

1938 - Movie theaters began selling popcorn to help bring in additional revenue

1940’s - During WWII, sugar was sent overseas for US troops which left a minimal amount of candy snacks. Popcorn took it’s place and Americans ate 3 times the amount of popcorn than they did before. In addition popcorn became an important food source due to its long shelf life and high nutritional value. In fact, the U.S. government encouraged farmers to grow popcorn as a way to help with the war effort. This led to a significant increase in popcorn consumption, as it was included in military rations and became a staple snack for troops overseas.

1945 - Percy Spencer, an engineer at the Raytheon Corporation, discovered that microwaves could be used to heat food. Percy used popcorn for many of his experiements.

1970’s - Orville Redenbacher’s brand of popcorn was launched

1980’s-1990’s - popcorn began to be marketed as a healthy snack.

1981 - General Mills received the first patent for microwave oven popcorn bags.

1999 - Orville Redenbacher’s, one of the most popular brands of popcorn, introduced its first line of “smart” popcorn. The popcorn was made with a special kind of corn that popped up to 40% larger than regular popcorn, making it a more satisfying snack.

January 19 - National Popcorn Day

March 12 - National Popcorn Lover’s Day

[Sir Henry]

I found this info to be interesting :

History of Popcorn.

Popcorn has a storied history. Here are some important dates.

4700 BC - Fossil evidence from Peru suggests that corn was popped as early at 4700 BC.

16th Century - Aztec Indian ceremonies incorporated popcorn

1519 - Cortes first saw popcorn when he invaded Mexico

1848 - The term popped corn first appeared in John Russell Bartlett’s 1848 Dictionary of Americanisms

1885 - Charles Cretors invents the first popcorn machine in Chicago Illinois

1893 - Charles Cretors introduced the worlds first mobile popcorn machine at the Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

1896 - The first popcorn stand was opened by Louis Rueckheim. He sold a sweetened version of popcorn which he called “Cracker Jack”. The name and slogan “The More You Eat The More You Want” were registered in 1896.

1907 - The song Take Me Out to the Ball game came out and with it’s line of “Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack!” solidified the Cracker Jack’s place in history

1920’s - Movie theaters stopped movie goers from bringing in their own popcorn snacks

1938 - Movie theaters began selling popcorn to help bring in additional revenue

1940’s - During WWII, sugar was sent overseas for US troops which left a minimal amount of candy snacks. Popcorn took it’s place and Americans ate 3 times the amount of popcorn than they did before. In addition popcorn became an important food source due to its long shelf life and high nutritional value. In fact, the U.S. government encouraged farmers to grow popcorn as a way to help with the war effort. This led to a significant increase in popcorn consumption, as it was included in military rations and became a staple snack for troops overseas.

1945 - Percy Spencer, an engineer at the Raytheon Corporation, discovered that microwaves could be used to heat food. Percy used popcorn for many of his experiements.

1970’s - Orville Redenbacher’s brand of popcorn was launched

1980’s-1990’s - popcorn began to be marketed as a healthy snack.

1981 - General Mills received the first patent for microwave oven popcorn bags.

1999 - Orville Redenbacher’s, one of the most popular brands of popcorn, introduced its first line of “smart” popcorn. The popcorn was made with a special kind of corn that popped up to 40% larger than regular popcorn, making it a more satisfying snack.

January 19 - National Popcorn Day

March 12 - National Popcorn Lover’s Day

Thanks for the info.

[Hatchdog]

That history of popcorn is a fun read. I remember all those Orville Redenbacher TV commercials from the 80’s. I seem to remember one commercial with some Russian influence changing the name to Redenbasckoff or something like that. I looked a bit but couldn’t find a video like that so it’s probably just in my mind.

Charles Cretors…….Cretors seems to be a big brand name in popcorn these days.

As a kid when we visited our grandparents on our dad’s side grandma always had boxes of Cracker Jacks for us. Hey, there’s a prize inside.

[daytime dave]

Jim, how's your machine working out?

I've been making kettle corn in my Whirly pop lately. It's easier than I thought.

[JEBar]

ours is really doing well .... a good bit of the improvement has come from me learning more and more about using it .... in addition learning the types of oil, seasonings and popping corn to use has made a big difference ....cleaning it has proven to be less of a chore than I anticipated .... all in all, we are well pleased with it