Save money by making popcorn from scratch at home!

     When I was a kid, my family was given a hot air popcorn machine, and I was fascinated by it. It was loud, and hot, and hot pocorn shot out of the side into your waiting bowl. After we had played with it a few dozen times, I finally figured out that the machine was basically a hair dryer shooting hot air over the kernels until they popped. Cool engineering, but not very energy efficient. Heck, nowadays I don't own a hair dryer and I don't own a popcorn machine. 

     Later they invented microwaved bagged popcorn, and I have to admit that I used to love to eat this. As an adult, I never eat this! They are loaded with polyunsaturated fat and salt, which none of us should be eating. So I went on a quest to make the perfect home popcorn with no additives.

     I tried to cook popcorn on the stove. Several messes later I decided maybe microwaving would be better. I set no less than two hand towels on fire in the microwave until I discovered this technique.

     Find your favorite covered glass dish, whether new from the store or used from the thrift store. Cover the bottom of the dish with one layer of kernels. Add a dash of your favorite oil and spices if desired. Cover dish with its lid (not a towel) and put in the microwave on high for 4 to 5 minutes. Each dish and microwave varies, so you will want to work with your setup until you find the exact sweet time to pop about ninety percent of the kernels without burning the rest. In my 1.5 quart dish from Walmart it is exactly 5 minutes. Use towels to protect hands when removing from microwaving, take off lid and let cool, and then done! My kids like salt added, spices, honey, and other things. I like plain.

These prices are from the Walmart website.

PopSecret family pack 12 packages for $6.18, cost per serving $0.52.

Popcorn from scratch, cost of additives negligible, Great Value Yellow Popping Corn 32 ounces, serving per container approximately 13 of the 4 tablespoon size, $2.28, cost per serving $0.18.

     After mathing this up, it is clearly better to make popcorn from scratch and have no added chemicals. As a bonus, the kernels last for years whereas the popcorn bags go bad in less than one. The first time I tried to cook up old gross popsecret was probably the last time I cooked up bags of popcorn.

     I bought this dish many years ago from Walmart. Im surprised I haven't broken it, considering how often it I used and how my house is the place glassware goes to die. Thy have a similarly sized glass dishes with lids for about $30. Or better yet shop your thrift stores.

     By the way, you can't pop dent corn sold as animal feed. It's unpopable. Read all about that here.