HOMEMADE POPCORN:
Popcorn has been a favorite snack since who knows when (too lazy to look up the answer). Anyways, who really cares? All that matters is it’s good, it keeps the kids quiet, and the best part is… the shelf-life is INDEFINITE!!! If you haven’t added anything to your home storage yet, go get yourself a 50lb bag now or order popcorn online!
Some of the benefits are it’s:
1- HEALTHIER
Much better than the store-bought junk, look at all those crazy ingredients on the back of a box and just try to pronounce them. Plus, after reading “Salt, Sugar, Fat” I’ve been convinced all the food giants are out to kill us ;)
If you need a little more convincing check-out this from Prevention:
Chemicals, including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), in the lining of the bag, are part of a class of compounds that may be linked to infertility in humans, according to a recent study from UCLA. In animal testing, the chemicals cause liver, testicular, and pancreatic cancer. Studies show that microwaving causes the chemicals to vaporize—and migrate into your popcorn. “They stay in your body for years and accumulate there,” says Naidenko, which is why researchers worry that levels in humans could approach the amounts causing cancers in laboratory animals. DuPont and other manufacturers have promised to phase out PFOA by 2015 under a voluntary EPA plan, but millions of bags of popcorn will be sold between now and then.
2- TASTES BETTER!
Anything homemade just tastes better! Enough said!
3- LONGER SHELF-LIFE
For the most part, food stored in its original form (beans, wheat, popcorn, etc.) lasts much longer, than when it has been altered. So learning to cook with the basics gives you the freedom to be able to cook, add to, and alter foods when, and how YOU want!!
- Whole Popcorn – INDEFINITE (if stored properly)
- Microwave Popcorn – Lasts for about 7-9 months
- Popped Popcorn – Lasts for about 2 weeks
- Cornmeal – Lasts for about 6-18 months
GRINDING POPCORN INTO CORNMEAL
I’m a little embarrassed to actually admit this, but I didn’t realize you could grind popcorn into cornmeal. I thought I had to get cornmeal from the store and vacuum-seal it into jars, or freeze it to keep fresh. Since discovering this trick, I haven’t picked up a bag of cornmeal since!
Put Popcorn into the Grinder,
Turn the Grinder On…
You Now Have Cornmeal!
Yes, it’s that Easy, unless you choose to hand-grind it (that takes a little more strength :). Now go impress your friends, and make them some cornbread!
FYI – Popcorn to Cornmeal Conversion:
Grains increase about 25% in volume when ground into FLOUR:
- 1 c popcorn = about 1 1/4 c of cornmeal
- 2 c popcorn = about 2 1/2 c cornmeal
- 4 c popcorn = about 5 c cornmeal
HOMEMADE POPCORN
Ditch the overloaded preservative stuff, all you need for homemade popcorn is:
1/2 c popcorn
3 T oil
- Put the oil and popcorn into a pot.
- Cover and turn the heat to medium .
- Leave the lid slightly ajar to allow for steam to escape.
- When the popping slows, remove from the heat.
- Spice it up with whatever flavors, salt, & butter you want.
- DIG IN!
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 c popcorn
- 3 T oil
- Grains increase about 25% in volume when ground into FLOUR:
- •1 c popcorn = about 1 1/4 c of cornmeal
- •2 c popcorn = about 2 1/2 c cornmeal
- •4 c popcorn = about 5 c cornmeal
INSTRUCTIONS:
- Put the oil and popcorn into a pot.
- Cover and turn the heat to medium .
- Leave the lid slightly ajar to allow for steam to escape.
- When the popping slows, remove from the heat.
- Spice it up with whatever flavors, salt, & butter you want.
I love corn bread made with fresh cornmeal ground from popcorn, it’s so much better than cornmeal from the store!! Ditto for polenta, delicious! One thing, be sure to sift your cornmeal after grinding it since there are always left over seed parts.
Good to know, what type grinder do you use? It seemed to grind it very fine, but I never checked for any leftover seed parts. Glad no one chocked on my cornbread :)
Normally I just use my Vitamix blender with the dry blade but my back up is a Wondermill Junior Deluxe grinder using the stone burr. Here’s a link about it: http://www.everythingkitchens.com/wonder-junior-hand-grain-mill.html
I’ve used my blendtec blender to grind things before, and it works, but it doesn’t get it as fine as the grinder does. I think if you use a blender you definitley have to sift it, but I think a grinder does a good enough job, I think the setting I did it on was probably too fine.
I’ve heard those hand grinders are the best. I have a smaller and cheaper one, but I’ll have to try that out sometime and compare them.
I have a friend in Ft Worth that tried to grow pop corn last year. He said it was doing great right up until the time to harvest it, and in that normal Texas heat, the pop corn started popping on the stalk.
I’m glad it doesn’t get that hot in Ky. Sorry Texas.
I’m impressed he grew his own corn, but you have to if you don’t the GMO stuff. That’s sad, but my kids would have thought that would have been the coolest thing ever! Darn the Texas heat!
I agree about the importance of making sure the corn(or anything else you are storing) is non – GMO or organic. If you read about that subject on Pinterest or the Internet you will be horrified at what is happening to our food supply by Monsanto and other companies.
Especially corn. It is modified to withstand the spraying of chemicals by putting the toxins inside the corn. How about that for a tasty tre As t you can’t wash off. No wonder that our children are having so many health issues associated with the foods they are being fed.
PLEASE MOM S AND DAD’S, read the ingredients on the packages and online to see what is happening to our foods.
Thanks for the advice Mimi, it is scary what is happening to our food and we don’t even realize it.
Jamie! Love, love, LOVE your website! I’ve been copying you word for word–thanks for making it easy for me to improve (actually start) my food storage! So following word for word, you left out some words…how should I store this wonderful popcorn for best shelf life? Bucket? Jars? I must read it!!! :-):-):-) thanks for your inspiration! One day I hope to be just like you! :-)
This is probably be the top question I get, and I keep getting distracted and not getting my bucket post up! I will try and get that up soon just for you! In the meantime though, for popcorn I store in #10 cans with oxygen absorbers, but my favorite method for bulk storing is 5 gallon buckets with mylar bags & oxygen absorbers. I’ll get a how-to post up soon :) Thanks for getting me focused again :)
It took forever, but my bucket post is up :) I dedicate it to you – http://prepared-housewives.com/2013/06/04/supersizing-food-storage-with-buckets/
If you want to store lots of popcorn you can store it in the 5 gallon buckets, or you can buy in the #10 cans from beprepared.com and other places.
I made the popcorn from you blog and now I can’t go back to microwave popcorn! Thank you for all of these wonderful ideas and great recipes! =)
It’s the best! Someone really awesome taught me this secret and I can’t go back to microwave popcorn either ;)
Love your website and your food storage ideas. Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. As empty nesters we still have a food storage. If you want to taste some great popcorn try Crown Jewel. It’s all I’ve ordered for years and love it. It definitely is a food storage item at our house.
Thanks for the heads up Deena! I’m going to have to get some Crown Jewel! Do you know if it comes in bulk?
Thanks to a nieces science fair project you will be happy to know that the Walmart brand popcorn tastes the best. Some times cheaper is better.
Thank your niece for me! Right now i buy all my bulk popcorn from Sams so close enough. What a great science project!
I finally started using my Whirley Pop (stove-top popcorn maker that I purchased a couple years ago) a couple days ago and we’re hooked! Homemade popcorn is the best!!! I tried coconut oil one day and sunflower oil the next. There was a slight coconut flavor with the coconut oil, but still very tasty with salt and butter. The sunflower oil had no flavor, so you could taste the butter and salt more. Make sure to melt the butter before adding to the popped popcorn. Otherwise, the popcorn will be stuck together with unmelted butter… Also, add salt after the butter, so your popcorn isn’t too salty. =)
Thanks for the cornmeal tip; I didn’t know you could use popcorn for anything besides snacking. =)
Homemade popcorn is so addicting! I’m going to have to try it with the coconut oil, I just bought some! Thanks for your popcorn tips!
The coconut flavor will vary depending on the brand you use. If you use a high quality organic oil, there is no coconutty flavor (or I don’t taste it). But it is much healthier.
Also, I have heard this is the way the movie theater popcorn was made in the good-ole-days when it tasted so good. ;)
does it have to be popcorn groundup for cornmeal…can it be dry corn?
Good question Teresa, not sure. You could always try it out. I’m sure it would work, just might be a different texture?
Yep, none of that nukeuwave stuff for me. The bags always burn up before the corn even starts poppin over a campfire. Jiffy pop all the way.
I did not know you could make corn meal out of popcorn. That is awesome to know, thank you! We eat a lot of popcorn and I only use 1 tbsp of MCT oil when I pop it and it turns out great.
Great and informative blog, thank you!
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one ;) Thanks for stopping by Kelly!
Thanks for this post. Really great info.
Where do you buy non gmo popcorn in bulk?
Thanks
On Homestead Survival they claimed this popcorn was non-gmo, but I’m not sure. That’s a great question, I don’t know if non-gmo corn exists or at least much of it.
I didn’t know you could grind popcorn into cornmeal, either! That’s a great tip.
A few years ago I saw on the internet about popping corn in a brown bag in the microwave without any oil at all, and haven’t bought any microwave popcorn since. It’s easy to do, no dishes to wash, and much healthier.
I must know more about how to microwave popcorn in a brown bag! Please tell…
The dishes never seemed to get cleaned when I make it!
I bought some regular popcorn at Walgreens. The little guy at the register asked if I had a machine to pop it. And I said sure a stove and a pot. He just stared.
If you’re going to make your own cornmeal, use popcorn as there is no GMO popcorn.
Look it up before you comnent if you don’t believe me :)