When you are running on one kind of pop-corn as a specialty so that you want to get out one batch after another as fast as possible, it is well to use two fires and two kettles. One kettle with syrup may be warming up while you are boiling the other.
You will find it well to use a cover on your kettle, part of the time, one of Stock No. [2005-1], or one that you can make yourself out of thin wood. The object is to let the condensing steam run down and thus clean the sides of the kettle.
Copper or wood covers are best, an iron cover rusts out quickly.
- Stock No. 2005-1 Copper Steaming Cover for kettle
- Stock No. 2005-2 Nickeled Copper Steaming Cover for kettle
These covers will last you a long time because they are of heavy material and handle riveted with copper rivets.
STIRRING STAND
Take the kettle off of the fire and set it in your stirring stand. The stirring stand may be made of a band of iron supported on three or four angle iron legs, or you can cut off a barrel to fit your height and use that as a stirring stand. Put some stones or sand in the bottom to steady it.
Stirring pop-corn is not as easy as it looks. A beginner’s courage is tested sometimes by giving him a batch to stir in which there is no grease. He makes no start at all. Again he may be tried on a wintergreen-flavored batch with an extra dose of flavor. His eyes run so with water that usually he does not finish the batch.
Try this plan: Put the corn in the kettle, then with your left hand on the middle of the paddle (Stock No. [2006-1]) and your right hand over the end, make strokes down against the side of the kettle and up through the middle of the batch, at the same time walking around the kettle. Efficient stirring will come with practice.
Stir the pop-corn quickly, but have the batch light, not soggy.