Make Popcorn in a Pan
Making popcorn at home with a large saucepan is easy and cheap, will save you a bundle on a popcorn maker or microwave popcorn, and is also a lot of fun!
Ingredients
- A pack of maize/corn kernels
- Oil or butter
Steps
- Buy a bag of dry maize kernels. You can get this from most supermarkets nowadays, and it's easy to find at ethnic stores too. The bigger bag you buy, the more money you'll save in the long term.
- Select your biggest saucepan with a lid (a see - through one makes all the difference!), put it on the stove and drizzle a small amount of oil on the bottom. If you have an oil spray pump, spray the sides too.
- Work out how many kernels you'll need. Remember how big your average piece of popcorn is and use that to work out how many will comfortably fit in your pan.
- Add your kernels to the pan (about 2 small handfuls is usually about right) and turn the stove to medium heat.
- Put the lid on quickly.
- You will soon begin to hear the kernels popping and hitting the sides and lid of the pan. DO NOT TAKE OFF THE LID WHILST THE HEAT IS ON AND POPCORN IS POPPING. When the noise dies down to only 1 or 2 pops every few seconds, turn the heat off and remove the pan from the stove.
- Carefully take a peek under the lid. Your popcorn should be good and done, so take off the lid. You will smell the buttery aroma.
- If you want sweet popcorn, take sugar or Splenda and sprinkle it over the popcorn (still in the pan). Put the lid back on and give it a gentle shake. The oil should allow the sugar to stick well to the kernels.
- If you prefer cheddar flavoring, do the same thing as you did with the sugar!
- Serve.
- Finished.
Tips
- If a lot of the corn didn't pop, chances are you didn't put enough oil in, used too low a heat, or put too much corn in.
- If you want butter, melt the butter in the pan first instead of using oil.
- Popping in stainless steel cookware can be tricky to get the heating right without burning, so its best to test a small sample in the pan first, or use a heat diffuser.
- If you want salty popcorn, do the same as you would for sweet or cheddar popcorn, but use salt instead.
Warnings
- If you take the lid off whilst the pan is on the hob, hot, oil - covered popcorn will fly all over the place.
- Hot oil and hot pans and cooker hobs are hot. Be especially careful if you're making the popcorn for children.
- Don't try to make toffee popcorn at home. Chances are you will not succeed in anything but setting the kitchen on fire.
- Don't make a second batch in the pan if you put sugar or salt in there.
Things You'll Need
- A big pan
- A big pan lid
