NOSTALGIA: A Peek At Pre-Microwave Popcorn

pOPcoRn......
all AMERICAN!!!

air popped - 31 calories per cup
oil popped - 55 calories per cup
popcorn kernels can pop
up to 3 feet in the air
Americans today consume
17 billion quarts of popped
popcorn each year. The
average American eats
about 58 quarts.













For anyone born after the mid-1970’s, the iron skillet full of freshly
popped corn, pictured above, is undoubtedly puzzling. I can hear
what today’s average college student might be thinking: “What’d
they do? Tear open the microwave bag and pour the contents into
a skillet?”

When I was growing up, popping popcorn was an event unto itself.
I didn’t live in the south back then. I grew up in Orange County,
California (about a mile from Disneyland), in a brand new tract
home in a neighborhood bursting with young baby-boomer families.
(Yep, I’m an O.C. girl, California born and bred!)

tract housing; also known as
Cookie-Cutter Houses, a style of housing
development in which multiple identical,
or nearly identical, homes are built to
create a community

Mom only used Jolly Time, the kind in the red foil can (yellow corn)
as opposed to the prettier blue foil can (white corn). She popped it
an iron skillet, using a lid from her Revere Ware to contain the pop
pop popping of the fluffy kernels.

We didn’t have popcorn daily or even weekly. For us, it was a treat,
an event nearly equivalent to a birthday party. Sunday night was,
in my earliest years, the most likely time Mom would get out the
skillet and the lid; the oil, the butter, and the popcorn, and a huge
Tupperware bowl. She’d sit me down in front of the television, tune
it in to NBC so that my brother and I could watch Bonanza, and for
a solid hour she’d roll my freshly washed hair onto 3 dozen or more
plastic or metal curlers.

The rarest, but most looked forward to popcorn experience was
going to the drive-in theater. Mom sent us to put on our pajamas and
to fetch our pillows. She would fire up the cast iron skillet, which,
according to her, was the only way to pop popcorn. Out came the big
Tupperware bowl. Once the salt had been shaken and the butter
drizzled, aluminum foil was squished into place, protecting it from
the twenty greedy little fingers of myself and my younger brother,
Mike. (Pam was still floating around the universe, shaking her
lead-based plastic rattle at other babies-to-be who were doing
40 m.p.h. in the fast lane.)

Once the bowl was empty, well, we usually fell asleep. At that age,
the novelty of the speakers you hung on your car windows and
sleeping in the backseat in our pajamas was excitement enough!

Microwave popcorn has made popping corn on the stovetop almost
obsolete, but about three years ago, I reverted to the iron skillet
method and haven’t looked back since. My girls and their husbands,
even our 8 yr old grandsons, agree that there is no comparison. Skillet
popped corn is simply better. It’s lighter and has a much better taste.

So, give it a try. Some might call it old-fashioned, but I call it better
tasting, less expensive, and non-toxic. It takes 5 minutes from start

to finish once you’ve done it a few times!

~ SKILLET POPPED POPCORN ~

Pour 1/4 c. oil into a skillet and heat.

Place 3 or 4 popcorn kernals into skillet.

When the kernals begin to sizzle, add

1/2 cup popcorn and cover with lid.

As the corn pops, shake the skillet;

once the popping slows to only an

occasional pop, remove from heat.

Pour into a large Tupperware bowl.

Salt to taste, drizzle with melted

butter if desired.

Makes approximately 4 quarts.

NOTE: Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet

Popping Corn is my personal favorite.