How I pop

Since beginning this blog, I was given a semi professional quality popcorn machine. It's a bit large for our small apartment, but it does work very nicely.

It pops most kinds of popcorn well. The only kind it doesn't seem to do a good job on is the red hull-less popcorn. A lot of kernels remain unpopped no matter what I do (dumping out as much of the popped corn as I can being one method I've tried). And the ones that do pop tend to be a bit on the dense side for my taste. If that's what hull-less means, I guess I'm not a fan.

The directions are printed right on the door, which is a truly inspired idea so that one doesn't need to remember measurements or where the manual is.

One tablespoon of oil plus a half cup of average sized kernels makes a big bowl of popcorn suitable for one. It's easy enough to do a second batch as well. Obviously, this big popcorn popper is ideal for doing larger batches.

When I first got it, I was put off by how difficult it was probably going to be to keep clean. But it's a breeze, definitely even easier than cleaning the whirly-pop, a popper I had a while back. The popping bowl doesn't get greasy at all. Don't ask me how this is possible, but it's true. The only area that gets a little bit of grease build-up is the bottom of the machine, where the popped popcorn lands. But that's the easiest area to reach and wipe down.

The most ingenious aspect of this machine are the holes in the bottom. When scopping up popcorn, just run the scoop back and forth across the bottom before scooping to push the unpopped kernels through the holes. They land in a drawer that allows for easy disposal.

The only drawback to this machine (besides its substantial size) is that unless you want to make a mess of your machine, you can't add any toppings to your corn during the popping process.