Save money and make this healthy snack yourself.
When people talk about the high cost of food, I can’t disagree. No one wants to waste money, but prepared foods at the store will start to add up fast if you are not careful.
I’m not always in touch with grocery store trends, but after seeing the large selection of popped and bagged popcorn at the store, I wondered what the excitement was about.
Popcorn is one of the favorite treats at my house. The fact that I can make it myself and eat if fresh out of the pot, why would I buy it at the store?
But recently, I noticed the actual cost difference and felt the desperate need to share.
When I speak about saving money, I’m not talking about saving a few cents, buying smaller-sized, slightly-bruised, bagged apples, instead of selecting the pretty ones in the display.
Or finding the time to cook and buying a sack of potatoes instead of frozen hash browns from the freezer.
Or my personal favorite, making your own beans from scratch.
These purchases will all save you money.
But, snack food is marked up more than any other product at the store. When you make popcorn from scratch, you can save more money than you can imagine.
And you can make popcorn yourself. You don’t need any special appliances or kitchen equipment.
But this, not a secret anymore trick, might be the most significant cost savings at the supermarket. Once you learn to make popcorn from scratch and know how much money you can save, you won’t ever buy those bags of popped popcorn again.
Let’s do the math.
The Jolly Time popcorn at the store cost $2.85 for a two-pound bag of kernels.
A bag of popped popcorn is about 4.4 ounces.
This two-pound bag of kernels is the equivalent of 7 bags of popped popcorn, so divide by 7, and the popcorn costs 40 cents.
A generous estimate of the cost of the oil needed for the recipe is $2.50 for a 24-ounce container, you will need 2 ounces, so this is 21 cents for oil.
If you pop it yourself, each popped bag would only cost 61 cents.
If you use butter at $4 per pound, we could estimate another 25 cents of cost.
The value of the one bag of popcorn, if you make it yourself, is $0.87
Now for the fun part, a bag of popped popcorn is about $3.50.
Quality
When purchasing popcorn kernels at the store, the most significant quality factor to consider is the age of the popcorn. Look for an expiration date and buy the one that is the furthest in the future.
Because popcorn kernels are not flying off the shelves, yet, you will often find old kernels. The fact that it doesn’t spoil or rot keeps old products hanging around.
I’m leaving out any discussion of microwave popcorn because microwave popcorn leaves each piece coated in trans-fats. While we should all eat fewer trans-fats, for good health, I don’t eat them because of the taste. Trans-fats leave a horrible texture in your mouth. This mouth-feel has deterred me from making microwave popcorn for the past 20 years.
And my dog won’t even eat microwave popcorn. That is a sure sign of a problem.
The Recipe
You can use most any deep pot with a lid. Depending on the pot that you use, you might need to adjust the temperature of the burner. If you are using a thinner pot, try using medium heat. For a heavy-duty pot, you should be able to use high heat.
For the oil, it’s your choice. I don’t recommend anything expensive. That would defeat the purpose of this article.
Home Popped Popcorn
- ¼ cup oil
- ½ cup popcorn kernels
- Salt and melted butter to taste
Before starting, get a large mixing bowl and set it next to the stovetop, you will want to have it ready before turning on the heat. In a large pot, with a lid, heat the oil over medium-high heat with three kernels in it. When the kernels pop, add in the remaining half cup of corn kernels. Cover with a lid and shake the pot. Leave it over medium-high heat and shake every 30-45 seconds. When the popping slows down, about 2-3 minutes, turn off the heat and immediately remove the pot from the stove and pour the popped corn into the waiting mixing bowl. (This is extra important if you have an electric stove, because of the residual heat from the burner.)
You can do it.
The hardest part about making your popcorn is finding the popcorn at the store. It’s usually located on the very bottom or top shelf so that you won’t see it right away. It is sometimes near the snack food, but at my store, it was near rice and other whole grains. (Popcorn is a whole grain, too!)
Of course, I understand the convenience, and you do have to stand at the stove for 5 minutes, but if anyone wants to save a little money and have a fresh product, making your own popcorn should be a no-brainer.
The hardest part is washing the pot.
Try to regard the work of home popped popcorn as justifying the calories you get with eating it.
And, for some reason, if you are in dire need of snack food, and you don’t own both a stove and a pot, buy Cheetos, which are physically impossible for you to create on your own.