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Perfect Popcorn
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Ingredients

    1/3rd cup popcorn kernels
    3 tbsp cooking oil
    3 tbsp butter (unsalted or salted)
    pinch salt

Directions

    This recipe works in 3's and 1/3rds so it's easy to remember.

    - Add 3 tbsp cooking oil to a saucepan with a lid. Then place
      3 individual popcorn kernels in the oil.

    - Heat the saucepan over med-high heat until one of the three
      kernels pops, then immediately remove the saucepan from heat

    - Add the remaining kernels to the pan and toss in the oil to
      coat everything evenly. DO NOT RETURN TO HEAT.

    - Wait for 30 seconds for the oil in the pan to bring the
      kernels evenly up to a temperature just shy of popping. This
      avoids problems with unpopped kernels and burnt kernels that
      so often plague popcorn efforts.

    - Return the pan to the heat. Make sure the lid is on properly
      to avoid a popcorn mess.

    - Once the popcorn begins popping in earnest, give it the
      occassional shake to drop any unpopped kernels to the bottom
      of the pan. Continue this until you can make a slow count to
      10 without any popping.

    - Remove from heat and dump the popped corn into a big bowl.

    - Add the 3 tbsps of butter to the pan. There will be small
      popcorn remnants still in it and that is fine. Don't let the
      pan cool down first. You want to swirl the butter around to
      gather up the popcorn bits and melt. If needed, place the
      pan briefly back on the burner until the butter is fully
      melted.

    - Toss in a generous pinch of salt into the butter, swirl it
      around, then dump it all over the popcorn in the bowl.

    Enjoy!
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