Cookaholics Bulletin Board

I have used Corn, Vegetable, Canola and ACT II popping oil. They all seemed to work well if you keep the pan moving.
After this weekend, I will be down to my last 15 lb's. I am thinking I might have to take a ride and pick up another 50 lb bag.

And here you were wondering how you would use it all.

I suspect you're using this as an excuse to take a ride. Lord knows Andy does the same thing.

Amy

There is a member of Egullet (Jaymes) who regularly shares this recipe for caramel corn. I'm not normally a fan of sweet things, but this recipe is definitely in the "Marilyn's Toffee" category of recipes. In other words, once you try it even if you normally don't like such things, you won't be able to stop eating it.


JAYMES' CARAMEL CORN RECIPE
6 qts popped corn
1 C butter
2 T molasses [or 100% maple syrup, but I like molasses better]
1/2 C light corn syrup
2 C light brown sugar
1/2-1 t salt (see above)
1/2 t baking soda
1 1/2 t vanilla
1 large pkg pecan halves [or cashews, or peanuts or any nut you like - sometimes I use mixed nuts and it's wonderful]


Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Put popcorn in a very large roasting pan.

In a heavy saucepan place the butter, molasses, corn syrup, brown sugar and salt. Over low heat, stirring often, bring to a boil. Allow to boil for five minutes and remove from heat. Add the baking soda, vanilla and nuts. Stir well and pour over the popcorn, stirring as much as you can. Jaymes says, "Don't worry about covering every bit of corn perfectly because you're going to have lots more opportunities."

Place in the oven and bake for one hour or so, until the popcorn is evenly coated and golden brown. Toss the popcorn every 10 minutes the first half hour and then once more at the 45 minute mark.

Pour out onto waxed paper or Release foil and allow to cool. Break up and store tightly covered.

I am one of those weird people that only likes plain stove popped salted popcorn (no butter, sugar, cheese, spices, etc.). So I was curious, would mushroom popcorn work for popcorn popped on the stove with sunflower oil and then salted? TIA

I popped a batch of this popcorn and then buttered it and it became tough for some reason. The kernels that didn't get any butter on them were fine.

I packaged up some popcorn tonight for safekeeping. Some of it went into quart jars - I foodsavered the air out of the jars but now I'm thinking that might be exactly what I don't want to do - maybe this could cause the kernels to "outgas" and lose moisture vs. storing at ambient pressure.

Thoughts?

Pete,
I am thinking you don't want to remove the air from the jars. I am not a science guy, but wouldn't the moisture from the kernels leech out to balance the lack of moisture in the jar.

I've made this a few times and it's delicious. I've had some trouble with it since I moved to Minnesota in that the caramel is not glossy and hard, but instead dull and grainy. Any ideas on what is the problem?

I save popcorn in a glass jar, with a small sponge I've glued to the inside of the lid. Occasionally, I wet the sponge lightly. Popcorn loses it's ability to pop when it looses its moisture.