Grex Kitchen Conference

Item 5: The Air popper item

  
  Since entering the last item on the making of popcorn, (that is,
the food, not our illustrious and brilliant fw), I have discoved that
there is a definite difference between popcorn popped in oil and 
popcorn that is air-popped. (yes you could call this the Air-popper
item). I have become a big fan of air popped corn due to the lack
of oil taste. (noticed this watrue when I last attended a movie
at the Michigan).

  What do you prefer: Air popped or oil popped popcorn?

 I agree, she definately blow-dries her hair.

Very rarely, except when visiting customers.  Usually i air dry my
hair, and lately that's been taking *forever*!  Wash the hair
some time between 7 and 8, and it's not dry yet by *noon*!

Oh, popcorn the food, yeah.  Hm.  I used to infinitely prefer the
oil popped kind to the air popped kind.  Nowadays i'm kinda burned
out on the stuff (isn't that sad?) so i don't do much of either kind.

Hey, what happened to microwaved popcorn?  We seem to do quite well 
with our MW popper...and, no oil.

and what about that "sweet corn" over at showcase cinemas? who likes that,
and exactly what is it that they're putting on it?

  I generally prefer oil popped to air popped..

I also generally prefer "white" popcorn to "yellow" popcorn.
(Go ahead, Tim, have a field day..)

Come to think of it, her hair did appear to be rather oily the last time I
saw her...

That's odd.  I need to use the kind of shampoo and conditioner
that says on the bottle "for dry hair".

 hahahahahaha

Anyway, what kinds of toppings do you like on your popped corn?
Butter?  Parmesan cheese?  Nutritional yeast?  Mystery orange goop
that they use in some movie theaters?

I'm an old fashioned popcorn eater, I stick with butter (and a bit of salt)
on my popcorn.  I've gotten a hot air popper, though.  When I'm trying to 
watch caloric intake, hot air popped corn is a great snack in the evening
while vegging out in front of the tube.  (W/o butter at that point, of 
course.)

On a related topic, one of my neighbors works at the U, as a geneticist, I
think.  At heart (and by appearance) he's a farmer.  He has a couple of
"farms" near here, where comes up with his own hybreds of popcorn.  We just
were given a couple of his "Amazin' Pop" this last week, but haven't gotten
around to trying it yet.

  I use butter, but sparingly. I really should try parmesan cheese on of these
days...

  "Would you like butter on that?"

  "No, just give me the same greasy yellow shit
   you put on everyone else's popcorn.."

[someone I know actually said that to the person working 
 the theater concession stand..  I was a taken aback a bit
 until I found out that he knew the person he was addressing]

hah!

Some of the microwave popcorn is "ok" and some isn't, but I've had so
little experience with micro-pop thatouldn't name brands.
  
I prefer (and remember) oil-popped corn (corn oil) as performed
in a large stainless steel skillet, some butter sprinkled over it, and
then tossed with a slight amount of salt.
  
I do have, btw, some of that yellow-junk-powder from a popcorn
company. It's a salt-butter-flavor powder, and in fact, it's a pretty
fair seasoning accompnaying the peppercorns, ground pepper and regular
salt on my table, as well as Mrs. Dash ...
  
I've tried the air-popped popcorn and it is "alright" but somewhat
tasteless, imo, (given what I'm used to anyway). And as for putting
grated cheeze - someone gave some parmesan cheeze one day and I got
rather turned off, real fast. Maybe some other topping, but not parmesan
cheeze for this palette.

I prefer oil popped to air popped...  But these days I just use the
microwave packages anyway.  

Ts, we don't buy commercial microwave popcorn.  We buy the regular
popcorn in a big plastic bag and pop it in our microwave corn popper.
I think it turns out great, considering how bad I think microwave
popcorn generally is.  It's close enough to oil-popped that I'm not
willing to spend the time popping with oil any more.

 I buy the Meijer's yellow popcorn, the popper manufacterer suggests that
you should use the cheapest stuff you can get your paws on.

the popcorn god who lived next door to me in the dorm sophomore year
said he always kept his unpopped popcorn in the fridge.  he said it
popped better that way.

I keep mine in the freezer.  We use an air popper, though I think that I
prefer oil popped and add plenty of margarine and salt (if I'm making it
just for me, less if STeve is eating some).

  Hmmm..  I would've thought that frozen popcorn wouldn't pop very well..

The trick is to keep the moisture level of the corn up...hence putting
it in the fridge.  If you leave it sit on the shelf, it dries out and
since the steam pressure of the moisture in the kernel is what makes it
pop, it thus pops very poorly.  Don't know about frozen popcorn; I guess
it'd make a difference on the type of freezer (frost-free or not).

Pops just fine.  My mom kept hers in the freezer (non frost-free and frost
free).  I have noticed that with the air popper we have more non pops with
different brands/types of popcorn and a few more than I got with an oil
popper, but not enough to really complain about.

the popcorn god said that if the kernels are cold there's a bigger
temperature contrast between them and the hot oil, so the explosions
as the corn pops are more forceful, so the popped corn is fluffier.

my rationale (apparently incorrect) for not freezing was that it seemed
the moisture in the kernel could freeze, expand, and perhaps crack, causing
the kernel to not pop (or only partly pop later on..)

To revive a very old item...  I definiely prefer popcorn made in an
oil popper but sometimes I use my air popper instead.  If I still want
that buttery flavor [most of the time!!] when using the air  pooper,
I have some of that supposedly 0 calorie butter 'spray' and I zap the
popcorn with it as its coming out of the air popper--it provides for a more
even

even buuter "coverage" then if ya wait til after  its done popping to spray it
with the

with the butter.

I like oil popped popcorn better than air popped, and I don't put anything
on it if it's oil cooked.  With air popped popcorn, I like a tiny bit of
butter, or just plain.

  Busch's has a deal on MicroPop-- $2 bux for 3 bags of Paul Newman's Newman's
Own. It is great popcorn, and less pricey, and the profits go to a good cause.
It says on the side of the box that the corn is taken from the top 20% of the
crop and is grown for Paul Newman. I like the price thing.

some observations and hearsay: popcorn stored in a closed conteiner in a 40
deg. room and poped with a hot air poper produces under sized pops and above
average amounts of unpoped kernals ( refered to as old maids by jim).
corn gleaned from the bottom 1% of the crop growen for Orval Redenbacher was
stored open for 2 months then test poped producing poffed balls slightly
larger then kicks.  I used a hot air poper and thought the taste was much
cornier then eather regular pop or kicks.  soo good that i made no further
attempt to adjust the moisture content.  we used a hand crank sheller to net
about 2 5 gal. buckets which we consumed in less then a year.  

i read in a helth fad book that a controlled stuty feed chickens earher poped
or unpoped corn and that the poped group died witheen 6 mo. and further that
weeds did not grow in that groups pen the year following the study.
bone up to eat, jimd using keesans account

Reviving an ancient item...

Anyone use a microwave popper?  Any recommendations on a popper/tips?
(Is the Presto one any good?)

We discovered that Pop Secret (Homestyle variety) works perfectly with
the 'popcorn' button on our microwave. So that's what we use. :)

I would still like to microwave pop in a container-- that way, no bag to
throw away, I can use I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray or eat it
plain-- and probably cheaper over the long haul.

I hotair pop into a grocery bag

My mom has a microwave popcorn popper but I dont know what brand it is.
It works really well though and it is cheaper than buying the kind in
the bags. I would get one too but I dont eat popcorn very often and dont
have the kitchen space to store it. 

I keep my hotair popper in the garage.  Its kinda noisy.

So does Jim (or in the basement with the door shut).

Does it moan or scream?

Its loud like a blowdryer.

hi how are you
gud
elm
chat aruba
ok: chat aruba

Hi vivek.   You need to exit bbs before issuing commands.  q

He has a resh account, so he isn't going to be issuing many
commands, just whatever the restricted shell allows.

 :)

So what's new in the popcorn world?

I ended up with a new-to-me used microwave ovn a couple years ago and 
it works ok for most reheating needs. However, it does a very poor job 
with heating up frozen pizza evenly and it always burns the microwave 
popcorn that comes in bags [no matter how much time I use]. Thus, I no 
longer use the microwave for either thing. Not that I eat pre-frozen 
pizza much anyway since it's not as good as freshly made. And most of 
the microwave bagged popcorn isn't as good, either, but I did eat it 
from time to time before getting this microwave.

I did end up getting an air popper again at some point but haven't used 
it a whole lot in the past year just because I have such little counter 
space in the kitchen, making it hard to be able to keep the popcorn in 
the bowl and not having it ending up on the floor [yes, a bigger bowl 
would be ideal--if I had the space on the counter for the popper and 
the bigger bowl [so the next best thing I guess is to make less at a 
time]. Or start experimenting with oil-based popcorn using a lidded pot 
on the stove.

I used to have a popcorn cookbook that I think I got for Christmas in 
late HS or early college. I should go see if I still have it...

The reason microwave popcorn pops is that it keeps cooking after it is popped.
An air popper expels the cooked kernels.  Have you considered putting  the
popper on your table while using it, or on the floor?  

Do not try to pop into a bag - it overheats the machine.

We looked insidee a bag of microwave popcorn.  The kernels are embedded in
a flat greasy layer of hydrogenated fat.  Bad for your arteries.  Also very
salty.  You can microwave in a bowl with a loose fitting cover (glass with
glass or paper on top) or a loosely sealed PAPER bag.  It will still burn.

The birds even refused to eat this glop, despite eating suet cakes.

How do pizza and oily popcorn affect your digestion?

I was given an antique popcorn popper hot air popper and it was horrible
and didn't heat up enough.  Half the kernels popped.  It motivated me
to fix my old one which I thought had burned out.  It works like a
champ now.  I'm using organic but not non-GMO.  I'm planning to try
some Arrowhead Mills and Great Northern to compare them.
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Northern-Organic-Gourmet-Popcorn--5/dp/B0052XRM
J2
http://www.amazon.com/Arrowhead-Mills-Organic-28-Ounce-Packages/dp/B0036Z3ULM
My original hot air popper is an old school Presto brand.

We also have Presto.  organic I think is by definition non-GMO.
In 43 I meant the reason microwave popcorn BURNS not pops.

re #45
 organic I think is by definition non-GMO.

Good to know! Thanks
Yes, the pesticides scare me.  Organic only makes sense.

Safest way is to grow your own.  We buy 50 lb bags of grains and flours, 95%
organic.

On 12/20/14, Keesan asked me: 'How do pizza and oily popcorn affect 
your digestion?'

Sorry for taking so long in getting back here. Late December and into 
this month, things were not going so well.

Pizza doesn't seem to bother my digestion but I don't eat as much of it 
as before my surgery [in how often I have it as well as how much I eat 
at a time]. However, things that are greasy does causes problems and 
many things I ate before now tastes greasy. So with pizza, I don't eat 
it with pepperoni or sausage. With popcorn, as I said in my previous 
post, my microwave  burns the popcorn so I haven't eaten anydince the 
surgery. It's not at all greasy when using the air popper even with 
using the butter spray or melted butter.

I had also commented that I have next to no counter space so using it 
on the counter doesn't work so well. I don't use my table because much 
of the time I have one or more art projects spread out. I do 
occasionally clear off the table [for the most part] and put my stuff 
away. So I need to remember to use the popper on the table when the 
table is cleared.

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