How to Pop Pop-Corn the Frugal Way

by Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger

08 Feb 2007 08:01 AM

If you buy microwave popcorn, you are paying anywhere from five to ten times the amount of money that you should be paying for pop corn.

I am part of the jiffy pop generation. I remember evenings, as a kid, standing on a stool by the gas stove, shaking the aluminum twist of foil on a pan back and forth, back and forth, while waiting for Bowling for Dollars to come on the television.

By the time I made it to college, hot air poppers were big news, and I had to have one. My popper even had a tiny cup for butter to melt as the corn popped. I burned my hand on that thing more times than I can count.

As an adult and a parent, I fell into the microwave popcorn trap. Microwave popcorn is amazingly convenient. Even my five-year-old can place the bag in the microwave and press the "popcorn" button. But microwave popcorn is much too expensive to make part of our regular habit, even with the massive warehouse boxes of individual plastic-wrapped paper bags.

Beside the expense, microwave popcorn doesn't offer that much of a variety. Sure there is butter, light butter and super clog your arteries movie theater butter (artificially flavored of course), but what about cheddar cheese, cinnamon sugar or cayenne pepper?

You can have all of those flavors plus your own custom creations at a fraction of the cost when you pop your own popcorn kernels on the stove.

For me, it took a little research to figure out exactly how to do this, but it is actually pretty easy.

Just get a large saucepan (about four quarts or larger) and coat it with some vegetable oil. Add 1/2 cup of popcorn kernels and cover the pan. Heat the corn on medium to medium-high heat. Shaking the pan every so often will help distribute the heat and pop the corn. Just as in microwave popcorn, be alert for when the popping slows down to a few seconds between pops. remove the pan from the stove, add your butter or seasoning and enjoy!

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Learn more about Mary Ann Romans

Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat.

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