Originally posted by Sarah – October 30, 2015
And Jess – November 1, 2015 (part 2, see below)
And Jess again – November 3, 2015 (part 3, see below)
PART ONE (Sarah) –
I’ve noticed a good amount of talk this week about the popcorn on the cob. I felt determined to try this microwave method myself. After such micro-success with Jess’ popcorn from the farm stand in February (albeit from Hadley, MA so from a different batch), I just thought it had to work again! Just to recap photos from Jess’ February post:
Stubborn me, I’ll be honest here and let you now that I didn’t have the same success with this batch in the microwave. Of course not, I have one cob of burnt popcorn in my woods for the animals to have and the other one we got about a cup of popcorn. But, it’s all about trying new things, right? We will try again this week with the stovetop method and let you know how it goes.
This is my brown butter and citrus popcorn:
Before you begin the popcorn you want to start the butter. Brown butter is just that, butter that has been cooked long enough to evaporate the water and brown the solids. It gives an awesome nutty flavor to the popcorn. Take 8 Tablespoons of butter and a small pot.
Melt the butter, Stirring constantly. It will start to bubble, this is the water evaporating.
You will start to see the butter turn golden and smell like hazelnuts. When the butter is just a shade lighter than what you want, remove the butter from the heat and pour it into a bowl.
Zest half of a lime and half of an orange into the butter, stir together.
Now to pop the corn (or how I tried anyways). I put one ear of corn into a paper lunch bag and use a second bag to seal the other.
I put the bag into the microwave for two and a half minutes.
Pour the popcorn into a bowl and drizzle with the citrus brown butter. The brown butter is pretty amazing. You can also cool this and use it as a spread. Yum! Please note that we popped some corn in our air popper to add to our mix, I had my heart set on popcorn tonight! If you have luck with the pop corn let me know!
PART TWO (Jess) –
Hi everyone, Jess here.
The boys had their heart set on watching Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin this evening, so we skipped dessert and went straight for the popcorn.
After some difficulty removing the kernels from the cob (thanks to Sarah, who did this while I tended to the boys and the dinner table) I tested a few in my pan heated with coconut oil.
As you may have read, my counterpart Sarah attempted the microwave method yesterday to no avail. An alternative method that some of you are not having success with is the pan method, heating some oil in a heavy-bottomed pan, removing the kernels from the cob, and going to town.
As had happened to a couple of you, I ended up with burnt and not popped kernels. We, like some of you, had wondered about moisture. Are these kernels dried out enough yet?
Sarah’s husband commandeered an ear to experiment. He put half a cob in the microwave with some rice to perhaps absorb some of the excess moisture. You can see here that after microwaving for a few minutes, the bottom of the paper bag was moist.
We had minimal poppage.
The other half of the cob went into the oven, which was still warm from the recent dinner use. It sat to dry out on the rack for a bit.
By this point, it was clear popcorn was not meant to be tonight and we’d be heading back to the drawing board for a bit. I said goodnight to the Bucks, tucked the boys in and began to clean up the kitchen a bit. Then, a wonderful thing happened!
I remembered this corn drying out in the oven and tried to pull about 12 kernels off the end. They came off with ease! The coconut oil was still on the stove so I fired it back up and when it was hot I threw these newly dried kernels in. They ALL POPPED!
I am kicking myself that I did not get a picture before eating my proof. All I have is a picture of these 3 kernels which were the last not-totally-popped pieces that were left when I said to myself whilst munching “oh shoot- did I snap a photo?” I will say it was delicious.
I am now totally convinced it’s a drying out thing with these cobs and kernels. You’ll have to take my word for it until I try to pop the rest. I will most definitely keep you posted!
If you have success with popping from this batch of cobs, please share with us, we’d love to hear about it! If not, please hold on to your cobs until further notice, we’re gonna get through this!
PART THREE (Jess) –
Hello everyone, Jess here (again)…
I wanted to continue the epic saga of the popcorn. Last we left off, Sarah had a cob in the woods after the microwave attempt and I had finally gotten a couple of kernels to pop after drying half of a cob out in the oven (not before burning up about 1/2 a cob during experimentation myself- the squirrels love me today!)
I had let this cob sit in the oven overnight with the door open. The oven was off but still hot from making dinner. I also added a second cob to the rack after taking this photo (and testing to find that the dried out kernels were in fact popping).
The next morning, here was the cob-and-a-half worth of corn kernels, which were much more easily removable from the cob than were the undried cobs.
I heated about 1/3 cup of coconut oil (canola would work too- something with a high smoke point) and tossed in a few kernels while shaking the pan over medium heat. When those kernels popped successfully, I quickly and carefully whipped them out of the pan and added a few more kernels before covering and shaking. Within a couple of minutes, I got this (and it was still popping as I snapped the photo).
This was the best popcorn. The texture was… really nice. As a CSA blogger, I must apologize that the right word is escaping me. The popcorn was lacking that styrofoam quality of conventional popcorn. The crunch was more substantial in a totally good way. It was “fresh” popcorn like I’ve never had. I ate the whole bowl with nothing on it. It was true comfort food worth waiting for.
As with any popcorn, there were a few that half-popped, but these junior poppers were the best! With conventional popcorn, half-popped kernels usually are way too hard to eat. These kernels were not only edible but scrumptious and with a really good texture, much less crunchy than you’d think. They are a snack all their own!
Another Update: Wait a month or two, leaving your cobs in a dry pantry, these kernels pop up right off the cob. Place them in a loosely folded paper lunch bag. Place in the microwave and cook for about 2-3 minutes. Listen for pops, when they slow down, you’re done! Open the bag carefully after cooling a bit, then enjoy!