| Home | “The thing that makes popcorn really delicious is to have freshly melted butter poured over it right after it’s been popped.” |
Recipe: World’s Best Popcorn
By Howard Best, January 7, 2001
Microwave popcorn is fast and easy. The nicest thing about it is
that it doesn’t result in any “dirty dishes.” But is it as good
tasting as it should be? Not even close!
The thing that makes popcorn really delicious is to have freshly
melted butter poured over it right after it’s been popped. This is
much more important than buying expensive microwave popcorn with
“natural and artificial flavor.” Here is my recipe:
1. Start 2 tablespoons (¼ stick) of butter melting. (See NOTES below.)
2. Pop the cheapest “natural” microwave popcorn
(containing only popcorn, oil & salt) that you can find
(Example: “Act II® Natural 8 Pack” - US$2 at
Wal-Mart®).
3. Add the melted butter.
4. Shake the bag in order to distribute the butter evenly.
5. Serve with powdered turmeric¹ and popcorn (extra
fine) salt² as condiments. (optional).
¹ Turmeric, in addition to adding a great flavor, adds a pleasing yellow color and is purported to have excellent health benefits.
² It is especially important to serve with popcorn salt if you used unsalted butter.
NOTES
-
I use two General Electric® “Sensor®”
microwave ovens, a large one to pop the popcorn, and a smaller
one to simultaneously melt the butter. (If you do use two
microwave ovens, you may have to plug them into two separate electrical
circuits in order to avoid popping a circuit breaker instead of the popcorn!)
-
Using the larger microwave oven, all that I have to do to
pop the popcorn is to push the “Popcorn” button. The timing is
done automatically.
-
One obvious disadvantage of the above
recipe is that it creates “dirty dishes.” A knife is required to
cut the butter, and a container is required to melt the butter. I
manage to minimize this problem as follows:
- I keep a wide mouth (5 ½") “coffee cup” in the freezer
for melting the butter. Inside the cup, I keep a paring knife for
cutting the butter. I also keep the butter in the freezer. The
purpose for using a wide mouthed cup is that it minimizes the
possibility of the butter “boiling over,” but as an added
precaution I keep the cup inside of a Ziploc®
brand plastic microwavable bowl.
-
I microwave the frozen butter on high for 2 minutes in the
smaller size microwave oven. This is accomplished by simply pushing the
“2” button. When melting butter, the heat
should be as uniform as possible. Otherwise part of the butter
which is already melted may become “scorched” before all of the
butter is melted. Therefore, it is important to use a microwave
such as the General Electric “Sensor,” which has a rotating turntable.
-
There’s no need to wash the cup, the bowl, or the knife every
time that you use them. Simply put them back in the freezer.
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