carli wrote:
> As far as I know...if you pop it on the stove it does need oil.
i used to make it w/out oil on top of the stove all the time: you have
to hang onto the pot w/ both hands and shake it relentlessly. if you
catch the faintest whiff of burning, don't wait for all the kernels to
pop; take it off the burner. i used to keep an old, battered, cheap pot
just for this purpose, so it didn't matter if a few kernels burned on
the bottom--don't use a good pot for fatfree corn-popping! although
it's something of a pain, i can testify that stove-top popcorn does NOT
need oil.
I have an air
> popper made by Orvile Redenbocker (sp?) that you can use either with oil or
> with out and it goes in the microwave. I just love it. Makes great popcorn.
i used to have one i got at walmart: like a squarish bowl w/ a tapered
foot, and a vented lid to go on top. no oil needed and worked like a
charm. about $5, as i recall. i think they still sell them.
> You can also put some in a small lunch sized paper bag, fold over the top of
> the bag and microwave it that way but Ive never had much luck w. that method.
i lost my microwave popper in a move and since then have relied on this
paper bag method, which works very well for me. i use about 1/3-1/2 c.
of popcorn inside a lunch-sized paper bag, fold over the top once (just
as carli describes), and nuke on high for 3 minutes, though often i pull
it out before then if i get the tiniest whiff of burning. once the bag
is cool and dry, i reuse it. this method has worked very well for me
and the friends i've shown it to. oh: it might make a difference that
my microwave has a carousel, so if yours doesn't, you'd want to turn the
bag halfway through.
whichever method you choose, when you pop corn w/out any fat, you really
need to stop the popping earlier than you would w/ fat-popped corn. if
you wait til the popping slows to every 2 seconds (as most of the
microwave corn tells you), you're going to have burned corn.
jane