I have been cooking a fair amount of popcorn--especially since learning that doing so is good for helping seasoning on cast iron. I had mixed success in terms of popped kernels, burning the popcorn, etc. I experimented with different fats (olive oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil--been using grapeseed lately). I had my best success with a #8 Wagner dutch oven, but did not have good results with larger skillets until recently. I read about the bella copper heat diffuser and thought it might be helpful in heating the bottom of larger pans more evenly and, even though I have good star shaped gas burners (that heat a bit more evenly than ring burners from what I can gather), I thought it also might be helpful in avoiding flame damage to the underside of my pans. Therefore, i bought a 10# copper square heat diffuser from bella copper. It takes longer to heat up the pans, however, the heat seems much more evently distributed and my success with popcorn has increased dramatically. It has made my #11 Erie Skillet into a wonderful popcorn maker and due to the decrease in unpopped kernels, my wife is complaining that I am making too much (despite using a bit less quantity of kernels). Anyway, this may be old hat to others here, or perhaps I would be even better off preheating skillets in the oven for this purpose, but I thought I would share my experience in the event it is helpful. I know the Bella Copper plates are a bit pricey, but it is hard to beat copper for fast and even heat distribution so I thought it would be worth the experiment.
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Popcorn success
- Thread starter Steve O.
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