A Kettle Corn Recipe That Works..at last!

After having kettle corn for the first time a couple of years ago, finding it as irresistible as the White Witch's Turkish Delight, I came home and started trying to make it. The carnival guys wear protective gear, stand over a pot big enough for a witch's brew and stir the oil, corn, and sugar over an open flame. My first attempts sent me looking in the garage for the face mask my husband has for welding and some armpit length rubber gloves for...birthing cows or horses maybe? Both the popcorn and myself got burned. Anyway, I failed to make anything like kettlecorn. I tried some tamed-down version where you shake confectioner's sugar over freshly popped corn, but it strangely tasted like confection's sugar shaken over popcorn. And no, microwave popcorn of any variety won't do. I hadn't tried again until the other day when my several attempts produced a flesh wound and more burnt popcorn, but...hidden like treasure were just a few pieces that tasted right: crispy, salty, sweet. Just enough to ignite the craving again, to search the internet for one more recipe.

I did it! Here's how:

First, I halved the typical recipe because I've never been able to keep the stuff from burning and reasoned that I could control the process with less. I measured everything ahead of time because timing is key. I set out the bowl the hot kettlecorn would go into to keep it from burning in the pan after it's popped.

3 tablespoons oil
1/4 cup popcorn (I used Orville's, a new jar claiming to be fresh)
4 teaspoons sugar

Then I mixed the popcorn and sugar together into one measuring cup.

I have a tall, fairly-heavy-bottomed stock pot with a glass lid that has a hole for steam to escape. I think being able to see what's going on helps a lot. If you have only a heavy pot, you will need to vent it slightly because steam does need to escape to prevent tough popcorn, but be careful, the only thing hotter than popping oil is sugared popping oil!

I put the oil in the pot on medium high heat, added 3 kernels of corn, put the lid on and waited for those kernels to pop. When they popped, I quickly threw in the popcorn and sugar mixture, returned the lid and shook the pot a few times while on the burner. The popping started immediately. This is when you take the pot off the heat and shake it. Every 3-4 seconds. Whether you think you should or not. I shook it back and forth. I shook it up and down. The steam prevented me from really seeing all that was going on, so I wasn't sure it wasn't burning, but at least I could see lots of white.

When the popping slowed, just before I was pretty sure all the kernels had popped, I removed it one last time, carefully took the top off and poured the popcorn into my bowl as fast as possible. Added salt to taste.

It was delicious. As good as the kind at the fair? No, but just about.