This another post under the category of "things that work". My recent post about food, reminded me of the evolution of popcorn in our home. We are BIG popcorn eaters, partly because it is cheap, and also because it isn't all that bad for you if you limit your oil and salt to reasonable amounts. You can make tons of the stuff, and let the children munch away, and at the end of the night there is minimal mess and no sugar high either. Through the years we have used different methods of popcorn popping, including an excellent microwave popcorn popping bowl***, and your standard stove top method.
Beloved husband grew up shaking the big pot over the hot burner, but I was never happy with the mess, or wear and tear to my stove and pans. The microwave method was a good solution for several years, using a ventilated bowl, a little oil, and popcorn seeds. It was quick and mess free, and the popcorn had a nice light flavor. Rarely did we use the little microwave bags, which were expensive, prone to burning, and very salty and greasy. But the popcorn bowl has its drawbacks. You have to have a larger microwave to accommodate the height of the bowl, and allow it to turn on the carousel. These days we have limited counter space, and don't use the micro a great deal, so we opted for one that was definitely not large enough or powerful enough to keep up with our popping needs.
It seemed we were back to the stove top method, whether I liked it or not. This was when Queen B presented us with (cue dramatic music) The Whirly Pop. She had considered our popping dilemma, and when she saw this contraption in a store that sold goods to the Amish, she figured they were sensible thrifty folk who might be onto something. Yet, I am not exaggerating when I call it a contraption. The pot is light weight which seems counter intuitive to stove top popping, and the top is vented, with clips, trap doors, and a crank that turns gears and a wire stirring mechanism. I was willing to accept the Amish theory, but Beloved actually scoffed at Queen B's offering. He thought the thing was silly, and he was free with his teasing of the foolish woman who actually spent money on such a toy.
To his credit, he was willing to take it home and try it, and to his even greater credit, unlike some men I know, he read and followed the directions carefully. Several minutes later he was a believer. The popcorn was the best and lightest of the stove top sort, and the gadget made an impressive amount as well. Most evenings he turns out two to three batches with ease. Most of the criticism of the Whirly Pop that I have heard, tends to make me suspect that folks are not following the directions properly, especially regarding heat. This popper works best over medium heat, NOT high. Don't be impatient, it will work fast enough. One problem we noted, was the instruction not to scrub the thing, but to rinse and let it "season". This resulted in a sticky, oily mess which I was not comfortable having hanging around my kitchen. So I broke the rules and scrubbed my Whirly Pop shiny clean, and I do so after every use. I don't worry about the inevitable buildup in all the crevices on the top/mechanism, but I scrub the pot in and out, and do my best with the top in hot soapy water. We have never found this to comprimise taste or function. This is my least favorite thing about the WP since it is awkward to scrub and takes over my entire dish drain area. But it is a small price to pay for perfect snack food.
The end of the story is this; Queen B never bought herself a WP, deciding to use me as the guinea pig in her experiment, and although my beloved has eaten his humble pie, and we sing its praises regularly, she STILL does not own one. Gotta wonder about that.
***An interesting footnote; the Amish apparently lay claim to all things popcorn, including the simple and effective microwave popcorn bowl. Since the Amish don't use microwaves, one has to assume the are just selling them to us "English" folk.
Beloved husband grew up shaking the big pot over the hot burner, but I was never happy with the mess, or wear and tear to my stove and pans. The microwave method was a good solution for several years, using a ventilated bowl, a little oil, and popcorn seeds. It was quick and mess free, and the popcorn had a nice light flavor. Rarely did we use the little microwave bags, which were expensive, prone to burning, and very salty and greasy. But the popcorn bowl has its drawbacks. You have to have a larger microwave to accommodate the height of the bowl, and allow it to turn on the carousel. These days we have limited counter space, and don't use the micro a great deal, so we opted for one that was definitely not large enough or powerful enough to keep up with our popping needs.
It seemed we were back to the stove top method, whether I liked it or not. This was when Queen B presented us with (cue dramatic music) The Whirly Pop. She had considered our popping dilemma, and when she saw this contraption in a store that sold goods to the Amish, she figured they were sensible thrifty folk who might be onto something. Yet, I am not exaggerating when I call it a contraption. The pot is light weight which seems counter intuitive to stove top popping, and the top is vented, with clips, trap doors, and a crank that turns gears and a wire stirring mechanism. I was willing to accept the Amish theory, but Beloved actually scoffed at Queen B's offering. He thought the thing was silly, and he was free with his teasing of the foolish woman who actually spent money on such a toy.
To his credit, he was willing to take it home and try it, and to his even greater credit, unlike some men I know, he read and followed the directions carefully. Several minutes later he was a believer. The popcorn was the best and lightest of the stove top sort, and the gadget made an impressive amount as well. Most evenings he turns out two to three batches with ease. Most of the criticism of the Whirly Pop that I have heard, tends to make me suspect that folks are not following the directions properly, especially regarding heat. This popper works best over medium heat, NOT high. Don't be impatient, it will work fast enough. One problem we noted, was the instruction not to scrub the thing, but to rinse and let it "season". This resulted in a sticky, oily mess which I was not comfortable having hanging around my kitchen. So I broke the rules and scrubbed my Whirly Pop shiny clean, and I do so after every use. I don't worry about the inevitable buildup in all the crevices on the top/mechanism, but I scrub the pot in and out, and do my best with the top in hot soapy water. We have never found this to comprimise taste or function. This is my least favorite thing about the WP since it is awkward to scrub and takes over my entire dish drain area. But it is a small price to pay for perfect snack food.
The end of the story is this; Queen B never bought herself a WP, deciding to use me as the guinea pig in her experiment, and although my beloved has eaten his humble pie, and we sing its praises regularly, she STILL does not own one. Gotta wonder about that.
***An interesting footnote; the Amish apparently lay claim to all things popcorn, including the simple and effective microwave popcorn bowl. Since the Amish don't use microwaves, one has to assume the are just selling them to us "English" folk.
Did you know that the Amish have the most puppy mills in the US? There are whole organizations that exist simply to rescue these poor dogs from Amish communities. The Amish excuse this by quoting some Biblical stuff about animals being lesser than humans. The conditions in their puppy mills is as horrible as they can be - such a shock to me. I hope they don't think their popcorn makes up for this!!
ReplyDeleteBrenda (your lives in your computer friend)
http://www.theadoptioncounselor.com
While it is true that there are unscrupulous and cruel puppy breeders among the Amish, there are an even greater number who breed and sell with compassion, quoting some other Biblical stuff, such as "the righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel". It's like lumping foster families into the category of abusers because of the cruel actions of some. Having witnessed a large community of the Amish and their puppy raising practices, and knowing the tendencies of the media, I would say that the facts are rather skewed towards sensationalism to promote an agenda.
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