Have you ever tried making buttered popcorn at home? I don't mean that microwave stuff, either... it doesn't really taste like butter. You know, real, subtle, finger-licking good butter. I wish that I could be satisfied eating plain popcorn, I really do. But I can't. I've come to terms with it, and I've found a way to make it work.Air poppers are a great tool for popping corn. They're cheap and quick, but they won't apply the butter for you. I used to melt a little butter in a bowl and then pour it over the popped corn in as thin a stream as I could. I would then grab a spoon as quickly as possible to toss things around. It never worked. Invariably, I always ended up with kernels that were so coated in butter they were soggy and some that were naked as the day they were born. I knew there had to be a better way.
And there is. All you have to do is brush the stuff on. I use a pastry brush to apply it. For a half cup of unpopped kernels, I only need to use about 1 tablespoons of butter and I am completely satisfied with the flavor.
Just blot the popped kernels with the brush, tossing them in the bowl as you go to get all sides covered. You'll end up with a perfectly even coat every time. At this point, you can add a sprinkling of popcorn salt and curl up on the couch with your favorite movie while happily crunching away. Yum!
First of all, I have to tell you that I absolutely love your blog. I love that you're making foods that I would ACTUALLY eat, and doing it in a way that's just so much healthier than all the convienience foods we have nowadays.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, I have to say that popcorn is my all-time favorite food. And I don't do microwave popcorn (yuck!). A few years ago, I threw out my air popper because the amount of butter I was putting on the corn to hide the card-board like taste of it was pretty much canceling out any benefits of it. So I got myself a whirly-pop and I use real, unprocessed coconut oil (not the stuff in the popcorn aisle). It's gotten to the point where I don't even bother to get popcorn at the movies anymore because I just prefer mine so much more.
Anyway, I'm STILL struggling to reduce the amount of butter I use on my popcorn. I'm trying to lose weight (see my blog at www.rationization.wordpress.com if you're curious about my journey) and I can't afford to keep using an entire stick of butter per batch of popcorn (particularly since I already use about a tablespoon of the coconut oil to cook the popcorn in). So I was SO excited to see your suggestion about brushing the butter on with a pastry brush. Out of curiosity, how much butter would you estimate that you end up using by this method? How much did you USED to use?
Thrilled with this suggestion, and I will definitely give it a try next time I have a hankering for my favorite food!
Thanks for the generous praise! I'm always glad to hear when folks enjoy my site. As for the amount of butter, I usually use a shy tablespoon per 1/3 cup of unpopped kernels. This makes a pretty decent bowl of popcorn (I'd guess the equivalent to a "medium" at the theater). You also have to take into account that a fair amount of the butter gets held up in the brush itself, so I actually end up eating less than the whole tablespoon. You could certainly use less but with this amount, I really get a buttery feeling, and that's what it's all about to me. Why consume the calories if you're not going to have enough of them to actually enjoy, right? If you figure about 100 calories per tablespoon of butter, I figure it's not too bad a treat! Good luck with your rationing plan! A very interesting idea, indeed!
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