PERFECT POPCORN and Clarified Butter

I love popcorn.  Not the kind that is air popped and dry.  Not the kind that has all the greasy movie-theater-butter chemicals and powders on it.  I love the kind that is popped in a pan and has a REAL butter taste.  (I know what you are thinking... real butter is bad for you.. but I am here to tell you it is not).  Some fats are natural fats and as a result your body needs them for healthy hair, skin, and proper absorption of nutrients.  These fats are a staple of my family's diet:  Olive Oil, Grapeseed Oil, Palm Shortening, and Butter.  If one won't do in a recipe, another will.  So we eat butter.  We do buy it carefully, either organic or at a minimum we buy the kind that has no added rBGH hormones.  That makes me feel a little better about the potential  contaminants.

So in my search for the perfect popcorn I bought a Whirlypop at a garage sale for $1.00.  Well worth it!!  I put some oil in the bottom and make my popcorn the old fashioned way.  LOVE it!!  Whenever there is a good show on tv on the weekends we have popcorn.  I have noticed that when I make the popcorn in a flavored oil, it takes on the flavor of the oil.  So as a result I tried popping my popcorn in butter.  That was a pretty dismal failure, as the butter burned before the popping was complete...  so I had burned butter popcorn.  Not the flavor I was looking for.

Then I discovered clarified butter.  It is also called ghee or rendered butter.  I, again, wonder what rock I have been under for the last 50 years.  It amazes me all that I don't know!!  This clarified butter process is easy and it is so interesting.  Who knew you could separate butter?  Ok, probably all of you did.  I have not seen you under this rock with me ... you must have known.  Let me know if you knew this trick before reading it here. 

Clarified butter is a stick or tub of real butter that has been melted and lightly boiled to provide separation.  Did you know there are 3 parts to butter?  The butterfat (that is what you want for your popcorn), whey, and milk solids.  Here is how to make clarified butter:

Melt the butter in a thick-bottom pan on the stove.  Bring it to a gentle boil and watch all the white foam come to the top.

This is the whey.. it is a liquid and has a low boiling point.. causes butter to burn.  While it is bubbling it's whey up to the top, skim it off with a flat spoon and put it in a separate container.  Get as much as you can from the top of the butter.

You will then find a rich yellow oil under that white foam.  That is the butterfat.  That is what you want to preserve for your popcorn.

At the bottom of the pan, you will find heavier white foam-looking globs.  These are actually the milk solids.  So.. when you have all the foamy whey spooned from the top, pour the layer of butterfat into another container and pour the last bit that has the milk solids into the whey container.  Now you have separated or clarified butter!!

You can use the foamy stuff... it still tastes like butter and I use it in recipes or on toast or for butter flavor.. just not for frying.  Now here is the great part.  How to make butter popcorn in your whirlypop pan with the butterfat.

Pour some oil in the whirlypop.  I use grapeseed or palm oil as the initial oil.  Pour in the popcorn and put on medium heat until the first few popcorn kernels pop.  Remove from the heat for a moment to add a healthy supply of butterfat and return to heat to finish popping.

What I have found with this method is that my popcorn does not taste like burned butter but each kernel seems to be coated with a real butter flavor!  I don't have to pour butter over the top of the finished popcorn and it seems much less greasy.   I try to keep rendered butter in the refrigerator all the time so I can have my delicious popcorn when the mood strikes!

I will tell you, when you remove the processed foods from your diet, and get yourself fairly clean, you can eat lots of delicious REAL foods!  I don't count calories or fat grams.  I eat when I am hungry.  I make delicious foods.  We don't gain our weight back because we are not slowly poisoning ourselves with things like twinkies (RIP Hostess), artificial sweeteners, "diet foods", tons of processed sugar, preservatives, dyes and "flavorings".  If you want to know more about how to cleanse yourself of years of accumulated toxins that are making you sick and heavy, send me a message...  then eat to your heart's content (but only good food!)