Cooking with Kids: Real Corny
Iris and I were walking home from school the other day and I suggested we watch a movie in the afternoon. "We should get some popcorn," Iris said. I agreed. We stopped at the drugstore, where I looked for the familiar bag of Jolly Time. No dice—it was all microwave bags. I managed to find one "natural" brand containing no artificial butter flavor, and it was good enough to get me through Duck Tales: The Movie.
But the next day, I bought a bag of the old-fashioned stuff and popped it on the stove. Iris hung out by the edge of the kitchen, afraid of flying kernels and the clatter of the pot lid. When it was ready, I poured it into a bowl and salted it liberally. The improvement over microwave popcorn was obvious, and while we crunched it, I speculated about why oil-popped corn is superior and came up with three ideas.
- While the microwave popcorn box sits on the shelf, the oil starts going rancid.
- On the stove top, already-popped kernels have little contact with the oil, whereas the microwave continues to pump energy into the whole bag, resulting in a slightly burned batch at best. I also wonder whether the microwave does bad things to the texture of the white, fluffy part of the kernel. More investigation is needed.
- The comparison was unfair to start with, because the microwave popcorn was made with industrial palm oil, while I popped my stove-top corn in sweet, golden lard.
Would an enterprising Harold McGee type like to weigh in?
Now that I'm convinced of the superiority of stove-top corn, I'm going to try some of these recipes, not to mention this one.
About the author: Matthew Amster-Burton lives in Seattle. His work appears frequently in the Seattle Times and Seattle magazine. He also maintains the blog Roots and Grubs. His favorite food is pad Thai.
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9 Comments:
I have never bought into the microwaved popcorn phase. I have always popped it on the stove or used a hot air popper. The corn is always bigger, more fluffy and crunchier...not to mention that I cannot stand that awful smell that microwaved popcorn gives out for hours. Yuck. I mostly use the hot air popper, just for health reasons, but I use the stove method when I want to salt my popcorn. It just doesn't stay on to hot air popped corn.
radley24 at 10:35AM on 03/10/08
microwave popcorn smells so bad when it's being nuked that i've never been able to bring myself to taste it. only stove popped for me, thanks!
cybercita at 11:17AM on 03/10/08
I don't believe that microwaving alone makes popcorn bad, but there's no doubt that mass-produced "Microwave Popcorn" smells bad, tastes funny, and is no doubt unhealthy (because of the fats and preservatives used).
I have popped plain old popcorn in a microwave, both in a specially designed microwave "popper" bowl with vented lid, and in just a plain brown lunch sack with the top folded over and stapled. In each case the results were basically indistinguishable from an air popper if care was taken not to let the corn burn.
rheogs at 11:27AM on 03/10/08
Wow. Never ever thought to pop corn in lard... that just has to be fantastic! I've never heard of "golden" lard. Were you just waxing poetic? Or is this a particular variety?
LoCo at 11:28AM on 03/10/08
I love the smell of microwaved popcorn. I don't eat it but I love walking into a space that has a bag in it. Maybe that's becuase my step-father eats a bag each and every night. I'll have to make sure his bags are diacetyl free.
bearsilber at 12:55PM on 03/10/08
I totally agree with Matthew- popcorn made in pig renderings is heavenly.
When I was young my neighbor used to pop us kids (me, my sister and the neighbor kids, a boy and a girl) a shizzload of popcorn, toss it in a brown paper grocery bag and send us on our way with big glasses of kool aid and the instructions to "go play!" whilst she and my mom gabbed for hours. It was always made on the stove top and always, ALWAYS in bacon grease. Bacon grease! I haven't had the guts to replicate it. I think I'll just wait for Jean to invite us to her house again and request it in advance.
AuntJone at 1:25PM on 03/10/08
Yes, I was just being poetic--it's ordinary lard, if you can call organic leaf lard ordinary.
rheogs, the microwave popcorn I made was (according to the package, at least) preservative and diacetyl-free. I think the ingredients were just corn, palm oil, and salt. And it still smelled awful!
mamster at 7:35PM on 03/10/08
If your're cooking with kids, you gotta try home-made Kettle Corn - on the stove (Google a recipe). We love it! Piles of the stuff!
okmosa at 1:48AM on 03/11/08
LARD! Whoa....yeah...ohmigod. I don't keep lard in the house because, well, I'd cook with it all the damn time, but I do save my bacon grease for when I need to add...umm...a shot of bacon grease to my food, which is often. I can't wait to pop in it tonight!
I've recent;y gone back to stove popping. I'm a popcorn fanatic and ate microwave corn for years out of convenience. Totally got used to the styrofoamy taste and texture.
Never again.
Lard? genius.
missbhavens at 11:32AM on 03/11/08