Whirley Pop: Trying Basic Recipes

Yesterday I bought one of these for my husband’s birthday, the stovetop Whirley Pop.  You can order them from Amazon, but I got mine at a local farming implement store, Rural King, where I’d eyed them before Christmas.

It is said to pop the freshest, most crisp corn out there.   Yes, microwave corn is easier and you don’t have the cleanup, but I just long for family pop-corn night involving the stove, and I’ve had this before and it was so crisp and fresh.

We upgraded our TV this year and are enjoying home movies this winter, so I thought some great popcorn on the stove would be a treat.  I remember my mom’s special popcorn pan with the red tin lid she always used and how we got so excited when we saw it come out…she only used it for popcorn, probably her oldest.

Last night, my girl turned the kernels, keeping any from scorching.  She is 10.  We kept an eye on her, for the pan lid gets hot, but you have a lot of wooden handles to hold.  She popped a perfect batch in three minutes.

I read today that gourmet or Orville Redenbocker corn is recommended for the best corn, and though I bought a bag of plain corn yesterday, I’ll be picking some up today.  It just didn’t have that super-crisp result I expected.  I’ll have to report back.  We did use some butterflavored oil by the same company, Wabash.  However, I wasn’t too crazy about it either.

I’ve read good results come with plain canola oil…I’m very excited about that because I love the flavor of canola oil.  In fact, their website says that any oil can be used.

I got this off their site today:

1 tsp. oil + 1 T. corn = 1 Quart popped corn

for a 6Qt. popper, use a minimum of 1 tsp. oil, and a max of 1/2 C. corn (a full batch)

Last night we used the recipe book and tried 2T. oil per 1/2 cup of kernels and I’d like to try less oil.