Picture the big bucket of popcorn at the theater with extra butter and lots of salt. You can probably smell that fresh popcorn and hear the ping, ping, ping of the kernels flying around in the glass popcorn house.
I hate to break this to you, but Presto PopLite Popcorn Popper 4820 does not make THAT kind of popcorn. In fact, you will think this is another puffed vegetable altogether.
Everyone knows that fat clogs up arteries and also runs up the calories. This is really bad news for those of us who live on the East Coast lard belt. If something sits still long enough, we throw it in a vat of oil and deep fry it, and we think of gravy as a beverage. We get a bit out of shape (in more ways than one) if you don t have a shaker of salt on the table (with good sized shaker holes if possible).
Now, the doctors are riding us pretty hard about all those smoked pork butts and red eye gravy and ham bits over buttery grits. Even the die hards mostly don t want to pass early and leave behind a heavy body and the cast iron skillets.
Some of the new cooking items and tools have really helped as far as lightening up on the grease. The boys and I love the Turbo Cooker which pan frys without oil and in just a few minutes too. The Turbo also steams fish and such on the top rack. We can handle that.
The Presto PopLite is another story though . . .
The Basics on the PopLite The PopLite is an air blower popper. Basically, you have hot air which makes the corn kernels pop up and make popcorn. You really just need heat to pop corn, but the air keeps the kernels circulating so that they don t scorch.
The popper has a base unit which is white plastic and has the air motor inside. Then you have the clear yellow cover with a cup on top. The cup serves as the measuring cup to measure out corn kernels and also for melting butter to go over the corn after it is popped.
To use the unit, you just plug in. It does not have a switch. On is plugged in and off is plug pulled out. When it heats up a little bit (about a minute), then you pour one measure cup of corn into the top of the unit. Put the yellow plastic top back on and set the cup in the hole for the cup. The corn then blows up and hits the yellow guide and falls into your bowl. This all happens really fast.
The Taste Test If you ve ever eaten plain rice cakes, then the popcorn has that sort of taste (or non taste). Since you don t use oil, even salt will not stick. It just falls off and into the bottom of the bowl. Even if you rub the corn in the salt, you can t get the salt to stay on long enough to get the popcorn up to your mouth.
Of course, you can melt the butter in the little cup and pour that over. Then the salt will stick. You have better tasting popcorn, but it sure is not movie popcorn or even microwave butter taste popcorn. I would also note that the butter doesn t have enough time to melt very much, so it is lumpy when it is time to put it on the popped corn.
My brother, bless his southern soul, can make good popcorn with this popper. He takes the squirt butter and douses the corn as it enters the bowl. Then he has buttery popcorn which will hold the season salt and regular salt. The problem here, of course, is that he has defeated the purpose of buying the low fat popper.
Yes. There are some plus sides. It is much cheaper to buy bag corn and pop in the air blower than to buy ready made or microwave bagged popcorn. A kernel bag will last a really long time maybe forever--since you will not want to make bland popcorn all that often.
The unit is easy to use and also easy to clean. Since you don t have oil in the unit, you can just use water to clean the base. The plastic parts can go in the sink or in the dish washer.
You can pick up one of these poppers for just a few dollars. They are often on sale for under $10 at Wal Mart and other super stores. Ebay carries these on a pretty regular basis. They show up in yard sales too (wonder why?).
I am sure that the corn is healthy cooked this way. But, I would rather have one good bucket of popcorn per year than cardboard corn every week.
Let s compromise. If you want healthy popcorn (or healthier at least), then I would suggest that you get an old style popper and use vegetable oil. A pan will work OK, but it is hard to go light on the oil on top of the stove. Then sprinkle with butter flavor salt. You can find that in the spice section of the grocery. It really does taste good, and I am willing to skip butter if I have a jar of this to sprinkle on.
If you are really set on getting an air popper, then ask around. You can probably find a friend or relative who will loan or give you an old one. If you get one and don t like the taste of the air corn, then you can always put kernels in the popper base and leave the top off. Popcorn will shoot out all over the room. Kids think this is the max. Since you don t use oil on the corn, it is not messy. You can sweep it up and feed it to the birds. Actually the kids will probably clean up if you let them pop corn all over the kitchen.
*NOTE: The popcorn is not very hot coming out of the blower. I tell the kids to stand back 3 or 4 feet from the base unit which I set up high. By the time the corn pops up and falls down, it is not hot when if hits us.
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If you want to make really tasty popcorn without a whole bunch of oil, then check out the Whirley Pop. Review at:
http://www.epinions.com/content_77408145028 
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