craftgun40's Full Review: West Bend 82306 Stir Crazy® Popcorn Maker
I have to start out by saying that I adore good popcorn and I am not a fan of microwave popcorn and would just as soon not have popcorn at all as to have microwave popped corn in bags.
Now having said that, I will tell you about the Stir Crazy. I have had Stir Crazy poppers for as long as I can remember. They are the closest popper you will find that will give you the old fashioned oily buttery popped corn taste, unless that is that you want to get a pan and lid and shake and pop your own corn over your stove burner.
Using the Stir Crazy is a snap, you simply remove the plastic dome lid (which becomes the bowl after popping the corn), add your cooking oil (I use olive oil), measure out the amount of popcorn you want to pop. Place the clear plastic domed lid back over it, and plug it in.
If you want butter to drizzle on your popcorn as it pops, then remove the plastic lid on the top of the domed lid, where you will find little holes that you can put lobs of butter on. Replace the cover and in just a few minutes the cooking area heats up and you will hear the kernels popping. They will continue to pop non-stop until all the kernels are popped.The heat from the popping corn will also melt the butter which will drip down on the popping corn. When the popping sounds stop...your popcorn is done.
Now the fun part, flip the Stir Crazy upside down, remove the motorized part which was the bottom and is now the top...and your popcorn is popped, oiled and buttered and sitting in its own bowl (which was the domed cover while it was popping).
Technical stuff: The Stir Crazys big feature is that it has a motorized stirring rod that rotates around the heated cooking area, which prevents the popcorn from sticking and burning while it is popping.
Clean up is very easy, good soap and water is all that is needed.
Special Note: Since I consider myself some what of a gourmet of popcorn, I suggest using olive oil to cook the corn in, and using REAL butter, not margarine. If you use margarine, it contains water and it will simply make your popcorn shrivel up and become tough.
And I just can't resist adding this..my true preferrance is to use white popcorn, not yellow. Yellow popcorn pops larger but is often full of hulls unless you are fortunate enough to find hull less yellow. I think white popcorn, though smaller, tastes better and does not have the amount of hulls that yellow has. I use white popcorn exclusively and when it is popped in the Stir Crazy, I find it pops every single kernel, and I have never once burned my popcorn using the Stir Crazy.
Word of Caution: When flipping the Stir Crazy over after popping, be careful that the lid that is over the top of the domed lid, is on securely. Once you flip it over, it easily comes off, and any oils or butter left in the bowl, can then drip out onto your counter or furniture if you set the bowl down. I usually take a hand towel and lay over the dome and lid area before I flip it over.
Comparison to microwave pop corn. There is NO comparison,
once you have used a Stir Crazy ..it blows microwaved popcorn out of existence. However if I were to be forced to use microwaved popcorn, the only one I would remotely consider, is a popcorn popper called Presto pop, which works similar as the stir crazy and pops in its own bowl like Stir Crazy.
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