How to Pop Perfect Popcorn at Home

I don’t use the word “perfect” often. First because, over the years, I’ve found the pursuit of perfection to be joy-robbing (whether it’s in the kitchen, at work, as a parent — really, in any role). Second, perfection is boring. Perfect things just aren’t that interesting! But, you know what, I recently had a popcorn experience and it wasn’t joy-robbing or boring. It was life-changing. It was PERFECT POPCORN. And it is 4,000 times better than how I had been making popcorn at home.
Tell you about how I found the perfect popcorn recipe? Well, I thought you’d never ask! It all started on a typical Tuesday night. My husband and I made big ass salads for an early dinner, put the baby down for bed, listened to a few records and then found ourselves feeling snacky (this is the downside to eating at 5 p.m.). I suggested making popcorn on the stovetop.
My husband responded with: “Only if you don’t burn it this time.”
Ahem.
Needless to say, he was in charge of making the popcorn that night. And instead of making/burning it like I usually do (hot oil, medium heat until kernels are mostly done popping — takes 10 or so minutes), he followed the advice of blogger Baked Brie, which Google led him to.
And, dude. Her perfect popcorn advice was spot on (and took waaay less time than my old way). So spot on that I forgave him for the earlier comment — partially because he did find a much better way, but also because I was too busy chowing down on DELICIOUS PERFECT POPCORN to care.
We changed her recipe a bit — used a different kind of oil and sea salt . Read on for our sweet and savory twist (because sometimes it’s too hard to choose just one flavor, right?)!