How do you like your popcorn cooked?

I’ve been watching a lot of videos lately and I’ve been going through a lot of popcorn.

I personally hate the air popped. Yeah, it might be healthier... but tasteless.

My favourite regular recipe;
- Fill the bottom of the pot on stove with 75-85% coverage popcorn seeds.
- Fill the bottom of the pot with peanut oil to the point the seeds are 75–85%
- Give 75–85% heat
- Drizzle 1 to 2 heaping tablespoons of Saltted butter
- A light sprinkle of garlic powder


This week the wife encouraged me to try the vegetable oil, to be more healthy.

That went wrong. The pop corn tasted like dead fish.

 

I was going to suggest rice bran oil but the properties seem identical, I've been using for stir frying vegies and rice with bacon and eggs.

 

My wife use to cool that stuff all the time, and I would eat it by the ton.
She used corn oil.
I quit eating it because it gets grease all over the keyboard and mouse, and I don't have time to stop working to eat it.

Great stuff though.
I have a Cretors peanut roaster and popcorn maker.
I think it is 1907, and was the first electric model.

I was looking for the steam engine model, but those have been impossible to find, and if I did find one, I probably could not afford it.
I did buy the castings for the steam engine that went on the same model from the year before that ran on steam, and so I may convert it, or may leave it original.

It runs on white gas, and has a fuel tank with a pump, like a Coleman stove.
There is a small flame that heats a vaporizer, and the vaporized fuel runs up to the peanut roaster burner, the popcorn popper burner, and a heater that heats water under the product storage in the bottom, so the product stays hot.

I bought it to roast peanuts, but have not used it yet.
The peanut drum is at the top, and it has a burner under it.
The finished peanuts go down the chute in the back to the storage bin below.

Everything pretty much seems to be in place.
The fuel pump still works, and will begin to pressurize the tank.
It needs a lot of TLC, but the motor runs, and everything goes round and round.

For a 113 year old machine, it is incredibly complete and semi-functional.

 

Here is the brochure for the electric "Earnmore".

 

This was the steam powered model from the year before.
It had a boiler below, and the vertical oscillator on top ran everything.
These were designed for use either before there was electricity, or in areas that did not have electricity, such as fairground, street corners, etc.

Fuel tank is on the upper right (looks like a fry pan).
Gravity feed fuel.
Copper boiler.

 

I friggen HATE popcorn. Our FBO had a professional style popper in the lobby and my passengers would get a bag before going on a flight. I would find that stuff EVERYWHERE!
I get it, it's practically impossible to eat popcorn without dropping some. Fortunately, they got tired of buying the expensive bulb that kept it hot and got rid of the popper.
Now I have a clean airplane! I do love to eat the stuff, just not cleaning it up! One of my clients had a thing for crackerjax.... I would hide it from him and then tuck it in his bag when he left. It takes a pair of scissors to get that out of carpet!

Garlic powder... I'll have to try that sometime!

 

A restored wagon.
Many of the wagons had a torch for lighting, which is in the last two photos.
Not sure why the last photo rotated 90 degrees CCW.

 

This is the Earmore steam engine.

 

Here is a photo of an original Cretors boiler, which was copper, and a reproduction boiler in a wagon under restoration.
The Cretors boilers were said to be tested to 1,000 psi, but I would not want to be near one during the test.
It had a substantial stay down the center, and was a flueless design.
Normal working pressure was I think 50 psi.

 

Cool stuff. Lot's of technology back in the day!

 

deleted message

 

I veered off topic a bit there.

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I'd like to see that steam popper run. Got a video?

 

I’d like to see that too! Old is new again.

 

This guy talks a bit about the peanut roaster.
I think this engine is not running on steam because the governor is not spinning.

There is a great deal of ignorance out there about steam engines, and it seems invariably someone puts 100 psi to one, and spins it at 10,000 rpm, damaging the bearings and such.
Steam engines were generally designed back in the day to run anywhere from 70 rpm to perhaps 150 rpm.
Later more modern engines ran at perhaps 300 rpm.

Steam engines are high torque, low rpm, and produce 100% torque at zero rpm.
The Stanley steam car manual warns the owner against opening the throttle fully when the car is not moving, because the engine will bend the crankshaft, since it produces so much torque.

I also notice a lot of old steam engines with worn bearings, and so they knock when the run.
The Cretors engines had poured babbitt bearings, and a correctly adjusted Cretors or other steam engine does not knock when it runs.

 

The is the No.06 Cretors engine that was on top of the steam powered Earnmore unit.
This is a realistic speed for a small steam engine.

 

This is a Cretors No.01 knocking like a diesel.
It has one or more worn bearings.

And running a steam engine from a pressure cooker is a very bad idea.
My wife's mother was using one of those, and the safety got clogged, and the lid blew off and blew hot water and chicken all over the kitchen and ceiling.
She was very lucky to have not been seriously injured.

Most people run these engines on compressed air, since you have to know how to operate a boiler, and know how to maintain the water level, burner, etc.
If you don't oil the bearings, they they will wear out quickly.
And generally the Cretor's either had an automatic oiler, or a manual method of oiling the engine, and the oil is introduced into the steam line, and goes into the cylinder, lubricating it from the inside.

The whistles that you see on many of these wagons served a dual purpose.
It could attract attention and customers, but it also had a spring-loaded valve, and if the whistle started blowing itself, that meant that your boiler pressure was too high.
Cretors boilers and engines typically operated at 50 psi.

The base of several of the Cretors engines served as a catch pan for condensate coming out of the engine, and there were holes at low points in the base to let the water drain out.

 

This is close to the Earnmore I have, but this unit is set up for natural gas, and my machine has a pressurized fuel tank that uses white gas, and has a vaporizor in it.

The device he slides out at 2:20 is a sampler, and when you rotate the slot upwards, it catches a few peanuts, and you can sample then to see if they are done.
When you are not using the sampler, you turn the slot downwards so it does not trap peanuts.

I hope to buy some raw peanuts and roast them in my machine.
I found an online source for raw peanuts.

And when you drop the lid down on the popcorn popper, the lid should not rotate like his is doing.
His lid is binding.
The only thing that rotates is the stirring arms inside the popcorn popper.

I don't think you will find a video online of a functional steam Earnmore.
Those are rare as snow in hell.
I have only seen one, and it was under restoration, and not operational.

 

You can see an oiler on the right side of the Cretors replica.

 

The Wyandot Popcorn museum is located in Marion, Ohio has a lot of old popcorn wagons.
Bob Pearson has a large shop in Kansas City, and he restores and builds Cretors popcorn wagons.

You can see an electric Earnmore on the right at 1:41.