The Minneapolis Tribune had a fun article in the Taste section this morning on popcorn.  Lee Svitak Dean told a story of how his mom used to pop popcorn on the stove and how sometimes his mom and dad would treat themselves to a bowl after the kids had gone to bed.  I’m sure I wasn’t alone in thinking that I could have written the same story.  About the only difference is that my mom used to pop popcorn in a covered Revere Ware frying pan instead of a Revere Ware pot that Lee’s mom used.  That Revere Ware was the cornerstone of my mom’s kitchen, and she took such good care of it that I inherited it along with the house more than 50 years since.  The copper bottoms are tarnished now because I rarely polish them, but I’ve taken a scouring pad to them occasionally just to see that copper glow.   Children being easily amused, I considered it a special treat to be allowed to shake the pan as the corn was popping.  I bet your kids would love it, too.

But Lee had a great point when he mentions how much better fresh popcorn is than the microwave packaged product.  Cheapskate that I am, I mostly prefer it because it’s cheaper, but I don’t think the cost makes a difference for most people – it’s the perceived convenience.  Oh, to be sure, microwave popcorn is easier to make and there’s no clean-up with it, but it’s so easy to make the fresh stuff that the usual time benefit of microwave cooking isn’t a factor.  Before the microwave version became such an American staple, there was a brief spate of popularity in hot air popcorn poppers in the 1970’s, as I recall.  They were table-top electric appliances that made popcorn, as the name implies, with hot air and so no oil was required, which appealed to those on a diet.  The downside was that the popcorn they made tasted like cardboard.  Of course, the manufacturer’s soon added a small reservoir for butter which would slowly melt over the popcorn – totally obliterating the caloric advantage.

My point here, and I do have one (as Ellen DeGeneres used to say), is to pass on a suggestion that Lee overlooked.  I was feeling adventurous a couple of years ago and decided to try to make my own kettle corn.  First, some background: I’ve always loved caramel corn since my first box of Cracker Jack.   And when I was still in grade school, my sister and I would sometimes go downtown to see a movie at the old State Theater on Hennepin Avenue or just to go shopping.  Yes, I’m that old. And around the corner on 7th Street there was a place called Karmel Korn where they made some wonderful stuff.  The obvious, of course, along with other flavored popcorn and bars of pure caramel wrapped in wax paper.  It was a toss-up for me whether their caramel bars or the bars of taffy at the concession stand at Lake Harriet were a better treat.  Also during my wayward youth, I worked at the Montgomery Ward’s store at Southtown in the Camera Department, which was located right next to the Candy Department where they made fresh caramel corn every night.  It was torture having the fragrance of fresh caramel corn waft over me every evening, and I would occasionally succumb to temptation and buy a bag only to be severely disappointed.  The reality of the wicked stuff they concocted never lived up to the promise of the perfume.  Anyway, always in need of a good treat, and having failed a few times in making my own caramel, I was inspired to give kettle corn a whirl.

It turns out to be dirt simple to make.  Take your favorite 3 quart pot, splash in a couple of tablespoons of an appropriate cooking oil (most books recommend canola, and that’s what I use regularly anyway), and 1/3 cup of fresh popcorn.  Put the cover on the pot, put it on the stove, and wait for the first kernel to pop.  When it does, take the cover off and toss in 1/3 cup of sugar.  Continue cooking until there’s ten seconds between pops, and then remove the pot from the heat.  Viola!  Sweet and savory popcorn!  And clean-up is much easier than you might expect.  I grew up with the threat that burned sugar would ruin those precious Revere Ware pots and pans, but I’ve never burned this stuff.  A nice soak in warm water takes care of the residual sugar that you’ll find in the pot.

Full disclosure requires me to mention that I’ve also made kettle corn in the microwave.  I have a plastic microwave popper that I got through Amazon.  It’s nothing more than a plastic pot.  You toss in the fresh popcorn, stuff it in the microwave for just under 4 minutes and poof!  Of course, unless you add oil it’s like the stuff you got from those old hot air poppers, so do as I do and add oil.  And much as I’ve touted the stove top method here, I use the microwave almost exclusively.  The beauty part is that you can use the same method to make kettle corn in the microwave by tossing in 1/3 cup of sugar once the popping starts.  Who knew?

So the next time you’re looking for a way to make movie night at home a little special, try making popcorn as a family.  Try other flavors like adding a touch of cinnamon or cheese.  It takes so little time that you could make a couple of different batches.  Enjoy!