Popcorn and I go way back...we have a long history. Let's start with my first memory of our relationship, circa 1974, and the automatic popcorn popper we had at the cottage. It was basically a hot-plate with a big plastic dome. You put the oil and kernels on the hot plate, replaced the dome, and put blobs of butter in the vent dish at the top. When the popping was done you sealed the top with a rubber lid and turned the whole thing awkwardly over to enjoy your treat - with all the butter at the bottom. Well I always melted more butter in the microwave (a huge beast of a machine, probably one of the first models...amazing that I was never radiated by it) which probably helped contribute to my plump childhood!
Next came the Jolly Time packets. I think that's what they were called. You got 3 sets of strips containing horrible yellow goop (I'm sure some nasty saturated fat) and a small amount of kernels. But as this was pre-measured it made making popcorn in a pan so much easier. Easier until that time when my parents were out and my sister and I were watching t.v. in the basement. I got voted to make the popcorn (even though I am 5 years younger!) and while I was watching the show from the top of the stairs as the popcorn popped unattended, it actually caught on fire! I was a kid and panicked. I covered the pot with the lid (correct), removed from heat (correct) and proceeded to put the pan in the middle of the vinyl kitchen floor (not correct). I melted a big giant ring right in the centre of my mother's flooring. This was difficult to hide. She was not pleased and that ended my Jolly Time/stove-top method.
As this was the 70s I also had a go (several times) at the Jiffy Pop system. This aluminum balloon-boy sphere was supposed to deliver fresh, hot popcorn you could eat right out of the pan. It NEVER worked for our family, NEVER. Rarely popped, always burned on the bottom and we were never to persuade our mother to buy it again. So I saw a lot of movies when I was a kid...I would drag my mother to all the Disney movies, teen love movies, and musicals and she would take me to British period-piece movies where I had no idea what was going on. To this day I don't know if I love going to the movies so much for the film or the popcorn, which is a non-negotiable treat whether it contains artery-clogging materials or not. The hardest time of movie watching? The year I had braces on my top teeth and popcorn was forbidden. I distinctly remember cheating once, trying to keep the fluffy popped kernels centred on my back nashers but realizing, as I ran into a cute boy I knew, that my silver tracks were clogged with white blobs of popcorn. Ugg!
Next up were the "diet years" and the air-popper era. This was my least favourite way to pop popcorn. I didn't like the sound of the little whirring motor and I always found that the kernels flung out of the popper before they were popped. The dry, flavourless kernels never really satisfied my craving for popcorn either and by the time I'd soaked them in melted butter, well, I think they weren't that diet-y anymore.
Now I still have an obsession with popcorn and next to waffle irons, various popping apparatus are probably my most collected gadgets. I have already shown you the simple
brown paper bag method, and every once in a while I will resort to the ubiquitous manufactured microwave popcorn. We have a tin, long-handled contraption for popping corn over the campfire (not bad, but always a little smokey!) I have even spent a ridiculous amount of money on a mini popcorn cart 
trying to achieve that theatre taste. Notice the cute popcorn buckets? I grabbed those at the dollar store and I also have some striped carnival popcorn bags but they were so expensive I haven't brought myself to actually use them! The popcorn cart looks great and it does make good popcorn but a) the kernels tend to fling out of the little heating pot thereby wasting 1/2 of them, and b) it's a real pain to clean up.
But finally, I think I have satisfied my quest and I present what I recommend to be the perfect method of making popcorn: The Whirley Pop.
My niece gave one to my brother one year for Christmas and that began my search for one for myself. I don't think there was one left in Canada, it was available only during the holidays and I had missed out. I tried to mail-order one but couldn't bring myself to spend so much - at the time the dollar was terrible and the shipping was steep. But as you know I don't give up and eventually found my very own Whirley Pop at a discount store. There was only one, plus about 6 boxes of "theatre popcorn" for use in the genuine Whirley Pop. I bought them all! Each box had 3 packets of oil + kernels (reminiscent of the old Jolly Time)...and the secret ingredient? Coconut oil. Yes, I know...really bad for you. So we only eat that once in a while and I still have 2-1/2 boxes left (there's nothing like hoarding to make stuff last!) You can of course make regular popcorn in it as well. I always buy Orville's kernels - they really deliver the best results. The Whirley Pop stirs the kernels so they never burn and they puff up so nice and fluffy. The lid is attached, yet hinged so you can just dump out all your popcorn into a bowl. It's fabulous!
Who would have thunk that a little piece of corn could miraculously blow up into a delicious (and in its natural state, quite healthy!) morsel of starch and weirder yet, how I have spent 4 decades trying to pop it!
