Popcorn machines (1 Viewer)

brianb10

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The hot dog roller pron thread got me thinking about a popcorn machine for my room. Any recommendations beyond the junk that'd you find in places like Kohl's or the other big box stores? Amazon has quite a few but reviews are mixed and I trust the folks here more than strangers on Amazon.
 
Just an FYI we used to rent a popcorn for our annual poker tournament. They require a lot more work during the game than a hot dog machine and we stopped renting them a couple years ago.

Grant
 
I used to own one and popped corn at our games. People didn't eat very much of it, especially when there was other food available. In addition, it was very messy. I wound up selling it.
 
I have a popcorn machine from Bed Bath & Beyond. Probably same one as other places. It works great. Easy to use and clean. Mainly use it for movie nights.

But as @links_slayer said, do you really want buttered up fingers all over your cards & chips?

I made some a few times for the poker game with NO butter, only seasoning.
They have all kinds of seasoning, most popular chip flavours for example.

That was alright as it was not greasy and not worse than guys eating chips. I also did not notice any "seasoning" on the cards or chips.

But I am still weary of doing it again. And the guys were not super excited to have butterless popcorn.
 
I understand the concerns raised about butter and salt, but that wasn't my experience. I have a machine like this, and I was using :

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Northern-Popcorn-Matinee-Movie/dp/B002Z9GDYG

and I was using these little cool kits:

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Northern-Popcorn-Premium-Portion/dp/B000PDY3HI

and that wasn't my experience at all. Those bags are easy to use, just cut and pour contents into the kettle. The resulting popcorn is buttery like you'd get at the movie theater if you asked for butter. It's more like what you'd get WITHOUT adding the extra butter. Dry and butter tasting, but not buttery. Hope that makes sense.

The guys loved it, and it was no more greasy than a normal bag of chips or whatever. Plus, assuming your crew aren't total neanderthals, they should be using one hand for eating, and the other for handling non-food items.

It wasn't a problem for me.

Edited to add - Someone mentioned work during the game. I used to just pop two bags right before the game started, which made a lot. Once that was gone, it was gone. I also would set these cartons out, which were handy because players could use them to scoop out their portion.

https://www.amazon.com/Bekith-Open-Top-Popcorn-Box-Case/dp/B013E1RJ3M
 
I understand the concerns raised about butter and salt, but that wasn't my experience. I have a machine like this, and I was using :

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Northern-Popcorn-Matinee-Movie/dp/B002Z9GDYG

and I was using these little cool kits:

https://www.amazon.com/Great-Northern-Popcorn-Premium-Portion/dp/B000PDY3HI

and that wasn't my experience at all. Those bags are easy to use, just cut and pour contents into the kettle. The resulting popcorn is buttery like you'd get at the movie theater if you asked for butter. It's more like what you'd get WITHOUT adding the extra butter. Dry and butter tasting, but not buttery. Hope that makes sense.

The guys loved it, and it was no more greasy than a normal bag of chips or whatever. Plus, assuming your crew aren't total neanderthals, they should be using one hand for eating, and the other for handling non-food items.

It wasn't a problem for me.

Edited to add - Someone mentioned work during the game. I used to just pop two bags right before the game started, which made a lot. Once that was gone, it was gone. I also would set these cartons out, which were handy because players could use them to scoop out their portion.

https://www.amazon.com/Bekith-Open-Top-Popcorn-Box-Case/dp/B013E1RJ3M

Thanks! That was one of the machines I was looking at so good to know you had a good experience with it. I have one of the little ones that you get at places like target and while it worked good there was no warming lamp and it was a little small for a group.

I appreciate the concerns from others on the mess but my group is pretty casual and we take lots of breaks so there is not a lot of eating at the table. Also this will serve movie nights and football parties as well not just poker night.
 
I have one I bought from costco. Good thing to have generally. I buy the popcorn, oil, salt in self contained packets by the case and keep on hand at all times. People eat it when I host and I haven’t tun into any unusual issues. I put out chips too, and I understand other hosts get rid of all the oily foods.
 
I have a great northern machine with stand and use the packets brains showed above. Great corn and easy to use, @Jeff has a similar one and it’s in use during WCB (Tree has one as well but not sure if he fires it up during S@P).

Tip if you want to make the final product twice as good... dump the oil mix and salt in, once it’s melted dump the corn. Let it stir a couple times around to coat all the kernels, then adds hefty dose of Flavacol to the mixture before it pops ;)
 
Lol, my daughter uses the flavacol packets from two of the packets with the popcorn from one of the packets. Gonna start calling it “Ronoh recipe”
 
Lol, my daughter uses the flavacol packets from two of the packets with the popcorn from one of the packets. Gonna start calling it “Ronoh recipe”
Just... no. First of all you don’t need to fuck up a second packet to get the additional salt and more importantly one additional packet is not enough :D

682A4312-5181-4262-A269-7F6E61D08939.jpeg
 
Believe me, next time I order popcorn, that’s happening. I’ve gone through this with my daughter because she was throwing away the extra popcorn. I found out about it because I noticed a full packet of popcorn in the trash with the flavacol side gone. I had to admit it tasted even better when the orange goop was on every kernel. At least she’s not throwing away the popcorn any more.
 
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No need to wait for the next popcorn order, it’s like seven bucks on amazon for two pounds of the good stuff with free shipping ;)
 
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Felknor’s Theater Popper. I’ve used ones like these for 30 years and never looked back.

With good peanut (or other flavorful) oil, it doesn’t even really need butter, but that is a subjective call I guess.

Amish Country Popcorn has been my go-to supplier for a decade or so. They offer a number of corn and oil combinations that will fill a USPS flat rate box, and may also sell on Amazon now for all I know.
 
Just... no. First of all you don’t need to fuck up a second packet to get the additional salt and more importantly one additional packet is not enough :D

View attachment 151970

I have a few of these containers at home. I've used it for years. I pop my corn in a stock pot on the cooktop. That pot is now for popcorn only due to the yellow coating that is caking the bottom. I have probably popped about 300 pots of popcorn in that pot in that last 5 years.
 

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