The Great Homemade Kettle Corn Project

[Marswolf]

OK, I got up this morning and turned on the TV. Not much on but politics and Kennedy not dieing from his seizure. Darn. So, I turned on some show and this woman was making some sort of Kettle Corn with a lot of extra yucky garbage mixed in destroying it. She started with Microwave Kettle Corn.I've tried that. It is edible but so are turnip greens if you are starving. This got me to thinking about a past attempt to make kettle corn at home.

For those who have not tried it, kettle corn is popcorn with some sugar and salt on it. Gives a really good sweet and salty taste. You generally see it at festivals with some guy with a huge pot, like you see in cartoons with someone in it as cannibals dance around. Basically, he takes 25 cents worth of ingredients and sells it for $5-10, But it is good.

I have a bunch of popcorn poppers. The first one I owned was a gift from my aunt back before I was in my teens. Very heavy and with a glass dome cover. It takes forever to heat up and the glass lid condenses the steam and the water drips back down on the popped corn making it wet. Not a good design.

I also have an air popper. Truly an abomination. Even that fine butter flavored salt won't stick to the corn unless you spray it with cooking spray first, adding back all the calories from the oil you didn't use to start with. Popcorn without salt sucks, BTW.

The best popper is a West Bend Stir Crazy. It has a wire that stirs the popcorn as it heats and pops.

Only real problem is that it is a bugger to clean.

My previous attempt at kettle corn was in the Stir Crazy. I put in the oil, popcorn, sugar and salt. I ended up with burned sugar on popcorn and a half-hour job to clean it up. There are only two ways to clean up melted and cooled sugar - soaking and dynamite. The Stir Crazy is not submersible. Not having dynamite, I had to apply wet sponges and soak it in sections to dissolve the sugar. Even if it had worked instead of making charcoal flavored popcorn, it was way too much trouble to clean up.

So this morning instead of going to hear how sinful I am (I already know that), I decided to see if I could come up with a workable way to make homemade kettle corn.

Googling recipes, I found all the workable ones were stove top recipes that involve leaving a pot on the heat for 3 seconds and then removing the pot and shaking for 3 seconds. Repeat as many times as necessary.

Then I remembered the camping popcorn popper my brother gave to me many years ago. Called a High Temperature Theater II Popcorn Popper. I never got around to even trying it. Basically, it's sort of a manual Stir Crazy. You put it on a stove or over a fire, add ingredients, and turn a crank in the handle to make a wire in the bottom of the pan rotate.

This sounded workable. So I went out to my storage building, and found the thing. Had to do some scrubbing to get out the mouse nest....

So, I finally settled on a recipe. In the pot goes 1/4 cup oil (in the wine bottle with the self measuring spout) and 1 teaspoon of salt. Add three kernels of corn and set on medium-high heat. When the three kernels pop, add 1/2 cup of popcorn and 1/4 cup of sugar. Turn the stirring handle until the corn pops. Remove from heat and continue stirring and shaking until it cools a bit. Then turn out into a bowl.

At this point you have a bowl of kettle corn that is partially caramelized and is stuck together like a giant popcorn ball. But it is very tasty. When it cools, it can be easily broken into individual puffs, often called "fluffies."

I'd say the cook and shake method should work fine.

That was breakfast. Think I'll make another batch for lunch.

[Fallguy]

There has a been a guy set up at the local minor leauge baseball games I've been going to, selling kettle corn. Very good indeed.

This does appear to be a suitable home subsititue to try.

+1 on the West Bend Stir Crazy for normal popping. I wanted the 8qt, but there was such a back order after two months and back ordered again, I just went with the 6qt.

[Marswolf]

I finally came up with a good blond brownie recipe yesterday while I was stuck at home watching the dogs vomit. I think the flea medicine got them. I should have been out at the shoot....

Anyway, I may post that in the recipe topic.

[Okey]

Another popcorn lover here. I have been using the same style popper since I was 13. It is a Presto. Makes perfect popcorn every time.

Another item I have is a HotTopper made by Presto. It is more trouble than it is worth but anything that squirts butter is a must have in my opinion.

[Guest Boomhower]

Were we bored today Mars?

[strickj]

Were we bored today Mars?

At least he didnt mow the lawn

[Guest Boomhower]

At least he didnt mow the lawn

If not, he'll have to do that tomorrow.

[Marswolf]

At least he didnt mow the lawn

I was going to mow the back yard yesterday, but that would required chasing the vomiting beagle indoors (probably NOT a good idea) and the idea of mowing vomit just didn't appeal to me.

It's raining today, so I'm heavily into Indy qualifying, and cooking shows with a golf chaser.

Yeah, it's a slow day.

[Guest GUTTERbOY]

I was watching qualifying earlier, but it just doesn't seem like motorsports without DW.

BOOGEDY BOOGEDY BOOGEDY

[strickj]

I was going to mow the back yard yesterday, but that would required chasing the vomiting beagle indoors (probably NOT a good idea) and the idea of mowing vomit just didn't appeal to me.

It's raining today, so I'm heavily into Indy qualifying, and cooking shows with a golf chaser.

Yeah, it's a slow day.

Sounds like Rabbi