I lOVED my Whirly pop but it doesn't work on my induction cooktop.

So I tried a few different ones from Amazon and ended up with an electric version of the Whirlypop called Stir Crazy. Don't buy it! It's a piece of @#$% from China with Orville Redenbachers name on it. It works fine and pops the corn great but the teflon coating scraped off with the paddle putting all the poisons right there on your pop corn with the butter and salt LOL. We also did not like the air popped corn. It just didn't taste right.

I'll be watching this thread for suggestions. I did speak to the makers of the whirly pop and was assured they had plans for an induction capable model but who knows when that will be.

I have a friend who LOVES her Whirlypop too. I have always preferred air popped over microwave, but mine is o-l-d - I just looked, it's a West Bend Poppery II.

I use a more expensive canola oil and stove top pop..the kids think they are in heaven now..I won't buy micro pop anymore..The only thing my littlest one misses, is that he can't make his own popcorn.

Here is a link that might be useful: scroll down for even more choices

Big old heavy pan...crusty and greasy....and the shake over the burner method.
I also use the air popper for the stuff for caramel corn...and corn that I will season and then put in the oven to toast.

Here's the one I've got my eyes on at Williams Sonoma. I haven't quite managed to buy it since it is $60.00. Would love to hear from anyone else who has it. But doesn't it sound good? And Williams Sonoma usually has quality products:
William Sonoma Popcorn Popper

We love popcorn and my husband chooses to have it for his supper on many nights.

Here is a link that might be useful: Williams Sonoma Popcorn Popper

Wow, that one from WS is sharp looking! The lid doubling as a bowl must be a handy feature as well.

I also just use the stove with some oil, but always scorch the pop corn. I think I can get just a few more kernels to pop and end up burning what has already popped or scorching the oil.

I've used the microwave poppers before, but I think it took disposable discs and I hated having to buy those. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Another Whirley pop Lover here, I use it all the time, so easy and you can make your own kettle corn as easy too, (YUM)

Am I missing something? I have a bag of "POP-SECRET" (brand) every night practically, zapped in the micro-wave!

Is this a health issue or what, confused.

Depends on what you believe. There is supposedly something about the "vapors" released by the chemicals in things.
There was a thread around here a few weeks back.

Here is a link that might be useful: Make your own decision

Well, I use my wok and it makes a perfect popcorn popper. (I'm all about the dual purpose pot here.) The trick is to start hot and turn the heat to medium high to finish popping so it doesn't burn. I also measure to make it consistent every time. My dog knows from the sounds I'm making when it's popcorn time!

Here is a link that might be useful: Perfect Movie Popcorn

Another Whirly Pop lover here! I don't like microwave popcorn at all, so used to make popcorn in a lge stockpot on the stove 'til I got my Whirly Pop!

They had it at a cooking store a number of years ago for about $40 but I saw the same one in L&T around the holidays for $19.99 or so. The following holiday season, sure enough, L&T had them again on sale, and then I used my 20% off coupon!

Did I mention I love it?!?!

terri...are you air popping with canola oil or did I misunderstand your post? If you are using oil, how are you doing it?

No, I use a heavy bottom sauce pan.
Sorry for the confusion.

I was just reading some comments on the Cuisinart popcorn machine and several people complained that the popcorn wasn't crisp and they had tried several different of popcorn.

Love, love, love my Whirly Pop. Got it from QVC ages ago. It's all I've used since. I'm a kettle corn freak!

Another vote for Whirly Pop here.
Lisa

Thanks so much,everyone! I'll check out Whirly Pop and I haven't ruled out a microwave air popper. I'll see what I can find locally.

Pam

I'm another one who pops the stuff in a saucepan on the stove. Not much too it. Coat the bottom of the saucepan with a THIN layer of oil (any kind you like), Pour in the kernels to almost cover the bottom of the pot. Medium-High heat, and there they go.

Now, a couple of hints.
1. the corn releases steam as it pops so tilting the lid slightly open while it's popping helps some of that steam escape, as opposed to collecting in the lid only to drip back down if it's allowed to cool off at all. I do this manually while it's popping.

2. don't try to pop too much at once. A medium saucepan will make a nice bowl full.

3. If adding butter, melt the butter while the corn is popping and drizzle it on to the corn immediately after the corn gets into the bowl. I only use butter occasionally and then only sparingly. It only needs a little for flavor and too much makes the popcorn greazy and gross.

As for air poppers, I had one a looooooonggggg time ago. Hated it. The "no oil" idea sounded healthy but salt doesn't stick to the corn without SOME oil, so I always ended up adding butter!

Someone gave me a Whirly Pop as a gift. It languished in a back corner of a closet for 2 years. Then one day we wanted popcorn and there were no more micro-bags so we broke it out and haven't made popcorn any other way since.

I started experimenting with flavoring a while back. My favorites are;
Olive oil, garlic powder, and black pepper.
Sesame oil and yellow curry powder.
Chili oil, or chili flavored oil, ceyenne pepper, and salt.
Of course butter and salt is still popular.

aug

I'm another who uses a small sauce pan on the stove. About a tablespoon of shortening in the pan, along with 3 kernals. When those 3 kernals pop, it's time to add just enough kernals to almost cover the bottom. When the popping slows, count five seconds. If another kernal hasn't popped in 5 seconds, you're gonna burn it! Get it off the stove and into a bowl. Melt your butter, salt it, pour on the butter and enjoy!

Tami

I am another who loves the Whirly Pop. I use olive oil for cooking the popcorn in the pot. My son's friends always request my popcorn. We never had butter as a seasoning. Garlic powder, and parmesan is a favorite. Also mixed spices etc.

Shelley

Learned that I have a Whirly Pop. Had to google to find out what a Whirly Pop was and then discovered that's what I have been using but had no idea what it was called. It's a great popcorn popper. I quit using Microwave popcorn a long time ago. Really didn't like it. Too salty for me.
Lois

I love my Whirly Pop also. I bought it at my local hardware store over a year ago. I paid about 40.00 for it and consider it the best money I spent.

Moe likes popcorn more than I do so I use to buy him the microwaveable stuff. But I couldn't stand the smell of it.

We have had a couple of different electric air poppers and was never impressed. The one that we like the best is a cheapy one I bought about 8 or 9 years ago. Nordic Ware. Moe will make himself popcorn a couple of times a week using this one.

Ann

Good grief the things you learn on this site! I have been eating a bag POP-Secret every night for a long time, I just plain love popcorn which I thought was good since I don't eat candy very much, even as a kid! But pop corn and peanuts, that is a whole different story!

The one thing I really liked about the pop secret is there is very little of the rough stuff in there that manages to stick in your teeth so badly!!

That's something ladies you didn't discuss. What is the best brand of pop corn to get that has the littlest amount of the chaff?

Air Popper here... Presto Pop Lite.

It's not just the fumes from the fake butter in microwave popcorn that's a potential problem, it's also microwave popcorn IN microwaves that's a problem.

I believe the people who manufactured the popcorn in Missouri and inhaled the powdered "butter" flavoring stuff had damaged lungs, but it's not a huge risk for people who occasionally use microwave popcorn with butter flavoring in it - unless you've been "sniffing" the stuff each time you open the bag. Something of an urban myth.

Back to the damage to the microwave.... Even though they have popcorn settings on most microwave ovens, the oily moisture can cause microwave oven problems/damage.

-Grainlady

Changeling, whoever figures that one out, will make a fortune! I have tried many brands of popcorn, and home grown, and still can't get any without the hulls getting stuck in our teeth.

Tami

I ended up with the Presto Power Pop microwave popper. I decided I wanted the option of air pop or with oil. The only drawback is the little proprietary cardboard "concentrator" that has to go in the bottom, but with air popping, I understand they can be used many, many (20-30) times without replacement. You buy 8 in a package for $1.97. One package comes with the popper and I picked up 3 more packages. Again, thanks for all the input!
Pam

Pam, did you get a chance to use the Power Pop? We are interested in a new popcorn popper also. I googled it -it looks like a nice alternative to the microwave bag popcorn and easy to store. I am curious how you like it.
Thanks!

I have the presto popper and like it a lot. Although the 20-30 uses for the concentrator is a bit much. I get maybe 8 uses before I throw it out. I also stocked up on them and bought ten packages because the stores here seem to be out of them all the time. And I don't use oil either!

Guys I researched the "Whirly POP" and there seems to be a lot of problems with the "Gears" falling apart, Does it have it's own pan (storage problem) What gives?

Also, is it easy/quick to clean this product or a PITA?, I would really like some feed back on this.

I don't use mine very often, and I don't know if the gears falling apart or not would be the result of am't of use, but no problems here (hope I didn't just jinx myself!). I don't find it a PITA to clean after use--just hot soapy water and a blue scrubby sponge and it's good to go.

I did see a small sign posted near the register (at a cooking supply store) stating that customers should call Whirly Pop directly re: problems/repairs (?). I might have the # written down somewhere if you can't find it.

Thanks Cat, I am going to have to investigate this some more, I am just so short on space now it is nuts! However I eat pop corn every night so this subject is very important to me, POP Freak,LOL!

The one thing that has been surprising is there has been absolutely no input on "Brands" of the actual pop corn to use if you have your own machine! Everyone seems to say basically the same things about the same machines.

It seems there is a "Big" flush of responses and then the subject you posted about just dies! I just don't understand this, confusing and puzzling, it seems like a bunch of "canned answers", but I am probably reading more into it than exists because I have received some good answers to problems/situations.

Thank you very much "Cat" for your response, it's nice to know that cleaning is not a problem.

I have not had a problem with the gears on mine and we use it alot. Although I also bought mine brand new at a garage sale for $2.00 so I'm not to worried about it, the good thing about whirly pops is people get them as gifts and think they won't like them, so we see lots of them still in the boxes at garage sales. The whole lid pops off for easy cleaning.

Whirley Pop is the best and we ordered the coconut oil through the Whirley Pop website. Nothing is better than the taste of old time movie popcorn and you just have to have coconut oil.

Also good made with good old bacon drippings - 1 tbs. to 1/3 cup corn.

King Arthur has has the Whirley Pop on sale for $16.99.

Michelle

Here is a link that might be useful: Whirley Pop

Oh--the Wabash Farms site (and probably the manual/booklet that came with the WhirlEy Pop) says to "season" the popper, but I don't know if I ever did that, and it certainly isn't "seasoned" now. I wash it out w/soap and water after I use it, and don't oil/season it before putting it away.

magothyrivergirl,
I did try it last night with plain Orville Redenbacher's popcorn (no oil) and the flavor was very good...it was super crisp and I liked it alot. I am very pleased with it. The only thing about "air pop" is that salt or seasoning won't stick to it, but the flavor of the corn itself it terrific.

Forgot to add, I've been using the "White Cat" brand popping corn--not because of the name (though that might have had some influence!). I had, had good results with Newman's Own in a jar when I was making popcorn in a large pot, but they stopped selling it around here. The other brands of loose pop corn in the local supermarkets were eh--either left a lot un-popped, or made less-than-crispy popcorn, or went "stale" too quickly.

I saw White Cat in the cooking supply store and gave it a try (I like that it comes in a glass jar--seems to be fresher, and keeps longer, too). It left few if any un-popped kernels, and the popcorn popped up nicely. I think we're on our second jar (?). It's probably on the pricier side, but like I said above, we don't make it that often, and it seems to "keep" a long time, so it works out well for us when we decide to have a movie and popcorn night at home.

Above pfmastin said the air poppers don't let salt/oil stick why? Actually I don't know what air air popper is!
Is the Whirly POP an air popper?

This an exercise in futility! there is absolutely no way that anyone can see/taste/agree with any one on the above "POPPERS" .
The only way I can determine is to go with the majority, and on this web site I believe it is a GREAT idea to do just that.

Therefore I just purchased the "Whirley pop" (on line) that "msafirstein" recommended, and as the majority of the replys think this is a great product!

I think you'll like it changeling. It's not much different from using a regular pot with a lid on the stove, except the crank helps to move the kernels around so they heat up more evenly rather than needing to shake the whole pot/pan. Less chance of burning (unless you crank the flame or heat too high!), and more likely that all the kernels will pop I guess.

It makes a good am't of popcorn, too which is good for sharing!

changeling,
The salt/seasoning doesn't stick to dry popcorn...popcorn popped without oil....it won't cling. I'm thinking that with the Whirly Pops, you have to use oil? Then the seasoning will adhere to it. :)

The smell of microwave popcorn has made me sick, since I was pregnant, many moons ago. I have a inexpensive Presto Poplite (do they even make these anymore?), that I've used frequently since I bought it (can't remember when, but probably at least 10 years ago)-the cap can be used for melting butter, but I usually do that in the microwave-love it!

Here is my popcorn popper. It is in my concession room of my theater at home.
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