How To Pop Perfect Popcorn Every Time…Without Ruining Your Kitchen Floor

Let’s start by recognizing that putting a linoleum floor in an updated kitchen is a poor choice, even if it was the 1970s. Besides the fact that aesthetically you can do much better, linoleum melts. But more on that later.

We went to the movies a lot as kids, but we were allowed nowhere near the concession stand. If we wanted popcorn – and of course we did – we had to make it at home and sneak it into the theater. I didn’t mind bringing popcorn from home. Cooked in a heavy pot on the stove, it was probably better than what I could buy in the movie theater, even though we were not allowed to add melted butter. I minded the receptacle in which we brought it. I was completely embarrassed by the grease-stained brown paper grocery bag in which we transported our popcorn.

When we watched a movie at home, we could make a big bowl and settle down without embarrassment, but that’s more today than in my youth. Back then, virtually the only way you could view a movie at home was when it came around on TV. There was no Netflix, YouTube, streaming, or DVR. Cable didn’t yet exist. This was even before DVDs and VHS tapes. If you wanted to see a classic that had long since passed from the movie theaters, you’d have one opportunity a year when it was shown as an event on one of the big three networks. The Wizard of Oz was one such movie. The only problem in my house was that we had not yet advanced to a color TV; we were stuck in the black and white age. I had no idea until I was in my 20s that part of the magic of The Wizard of Oz is that it starts and ends in black and white, but the entire dream sequence is in full Technicolor glory.

My parents discovered, however, that there was another way we could view movies at home. The Philadelphia Public Library rented out films. Yes, films, in big metal canisters that had to be wound through a projector and shown on a screen, both of which my father would borrow from the university where he worked. You couldn’t just pick up the film at your local neighborhood branch of the library, so my father had to trudge to the main branch in Center City. Because of the effort, when the Striebs were showing a movie, it became a community event.

We borrowed lots of movies from the library, but the most memorable among them was “The Beatles: Yellow Submarine.” In anticipation of the showing, we invited all the neighborhood kids. There must have been 20 of us, after dark, on the porch, watching the film, and of course, we wanted popcorn. While the movie was playing my eldest brother, Lee, went in the kitchen to make more, the only way we knew how, in a pot on the stove. He put vegetable oil in the pot, turned on the heat to high, added three kernels of popcorn, and covered it. When the test kernels popped, we knew the oil was hot enough to add more.

But the movie was enticing, and he didn’t want to miss any of it. He came back out to the porch as oil and kernels heated, and he forgot. By the time he remembered and returned to the kitchen, the oil was searing. He picked up the pot, realized how hot it was, and dropped it, in the exact center of the new linoleum floor. While fortunately he did not burn himself, and it did not combust and burn the house down, it did melt a permanent, perfectly circular, 10-inch ring in the center of the kitchen floor. I’m not sure 1) why my parents weren’t home at the time with 20 kids over, and 2) why they never fixed the floor. Perhaps it was frustration with having recently updated the kitchen. More likely it was a visual reminder to my brothers and me about culinary safety.

The popcorn tradition continued when I had kids. Well, part of it, at least. When it was movie time, we’d pop a big pot of it on the stove, no using microwaves or air-poppers. While butter was encouraged, the only other part of the tradition from which I deviated was when we went to the movies; we allowed our children to buy popcorn at the concession stand.

When my daughter Ariana was in high school, she became obsessed with popping perfect popcorn as an afternoon snack. She studied the timing and measured ratios of oil to kernels. Every Sunday evening as we were running around doing all those Sunday evening things that you were supposed to get done earlier in the weekend, Ariana would pop an enormous pot of popcorn. It would fill a big silver bowl that I swear was big enough to bathe her when she was a baby. She’d cover it in salt and pepper, sometimes a lot of pepper. At some point she became fanatical about nutritional yeast as a topping. She would pack it into plastic bags, one for each day of the week as a snack at school. Her friends must have thought she was odd, and I thought it would get soggy, but at least she didn’t bring it to school in a grease-stained brown paper grocery bag.

Perfectly Popped Popcorn

Growing up we never had a microwave (microwave popcorn, while convenient, is not particularly good), and air-popped popcorn has no flavor. So our parents taught us the proper way to make popcorn on the stove. In addition to movies, popcorn was a common after-school snack for my brothers and me – once we learned to never leave the pot alone heating on the stove. The only requirement is high heat and a large, heavy-bottomed pot with tall sides and a lid. My favorite popcorn pot is an old-style pressure cooker. While you need a lid or covering to protect yourself from flying popcorn projectiles, you do not want to use the pressure cooker for its intended purpose; no actual pressure is applied. (If you ever see an old pressure cooker at a yard sale, seriously consider purchasing it. They’re great, sturdy, heavy pots, even if not used to cook under pressure.)

It’s best if you add salt and other toppings as soon as the kernels are popped. They stick better while the oil coating the popcorn is still warm. Use whatever toppings you like. Melted butter is always delicious but not always necessary with this method. I like the zip of fresh ground black pepper. Parmesan cheese or cinnamon sugar would be tasty. Truffle oil would be a luxury. And you could always try Ariana’s nutritional yeast.

5 minutes, serving size will depend on the diameter and depth of your pot

Vegetable, sunflower, corn, or canola oil

Popcorn

Salt

Other topping as desired

1. Add enough vegetable oil to a good popcorn pot (see above) to generously cover the bottom. It should have about 1/16^th of an inch of oil. Place the pot on the hottest burner on the stove over high heat. Add three kernels of popcorn, cover, and wait, without leaving the room.
2. When the three kernels have popped, add enough popcorn to mostly cover the bottom of the pot. (If you have a short-sided pot, add less popcorn.) Cover the pot with the lid.
3. As the popcorn pops, shake the pot occasionally to dislodge any stuck kernels and to prevent burning. Allow to sit until you no longer hear popping, indicating that all kernels have popped.
4. Remove from the stove and discharge half of the popped popcorn into a large bowl. Sprinkle on salt and other toppings and toss. Add the remainder of the popcorn to the bowl and add additional salt and other toppings, tossing to evenly spread them.

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