Many popcorn lovers go to the movies just to eat great tasting popcorn, but only a few know that you can get that great movie popcorn taste at home as well.

I’ve found that the best home popcorn machine for this is the Whirley Pop Popcorn Maker, which is a stovetop popper. Its durable aluminum pan has a clip-on lid, which has a stay-cool handle attached to it. Once you fire it up, you have to rotate the handle, which rotate a rod in the pan. This rotating rod makes sure that all kernels receive the same amount of oil and heat. The Whirley Popcorn Maker has steam vents on its lid, which allows steam to escape, keeping your popcorn free of excess moisture.

First of all, you’ll need to prepare the ingredients, based on the amount of popcorn you want to have in the end:

Quarts of Popcorn | Amount of Oil | Amount of Corn

2 |1 tablespoon | 1/3 Cup

4 |2 tablespoon | 2/3 Cup

6 |2 tablespoons | 1 Cup

8 |3 tablespoons | 1 1/4 Cups

And follow the following steps:

1. There is no need to preheat the popper or the oil.

2. Mix the required oil and amount of corn in your Whirley Pop Popcorn Popper and place it onto your stove (either electric or gas) and turn the stove to medium. At this stage you don’t need to add any seasoning, just the oil and corn.

3. Slowly and consistently turn the wooden crank, and adjust the stove temperature so popping is finished in about 3 minutes.

4. Start turning the lever, and continue to do so all the way through the popping process. You may stop when these is only an occasional pop of about 1 every 2 seconds, or when the stay-cool crank becomes hard to turn.

5. You need to take the popper off the stove when the popping is finished.

6. Pour the popcorn into a serving bowl.

7. Pour some butter and sprinkle some salt or popcorn seasoning onto your popcorn and enjoy!

Whirley Pop Popcorn Popping Tips

* If you set the heat too high, you will burn your popcorn! Medium heat is the way to go!

* 1-2 tablespoons of oil is enough, drenching it in oil will ruin the popcorn.

* Use good quality corn.

With the recipe above, you will see, that it is very possible to make movie style popcorn in your own home. It will be healthier as well, since they add a lot of artificial ingredients and flavors to movie popcorn due to its almost being mass produced, so even though the Whirley pop uses oil, it will still be healthier.

If you want a virtually zero calorie popcorn treat, go for a hot air popper, as it uses revolving air to pop the kernels instead of oil. The result will be a fibre rich snack, but it won’t have the same taste. You can prepare seasoning and sprinkle it on, even add some butter at the end, but it won’t have the same movie taste.

If you love popcorn, you have to try Tom Fischer’s recipe. His website, HotPopcornPopper.com lists man more popcorn recipes, as well as a handpicked popcorn popper selection, including the Whirley Pop Popcorn Popper mentioned in the movie popcorn article.