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Popping with Possibilities - Infused Popcorn · Bite Me The Show About Edibles

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome, friends, to episode 293.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Today we are exploring infused popcorn.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Bite Me, the show about edibles, where I help you take control of your high life.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I'm your host and certified gonger, margaret, and I love helping cooks make safe and effective edibles at home.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad you're here and welcome, friends, to the podcast that explores the intersection of food culture and cannabis.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: I'm helping cooks make great edibles at home and I'm very glad that you're here with me today Because we are talking about something that I absolutely adore but haven't actually eaten in a while, and that's popcorn.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: But we'll get into that in a minute.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: If you're just joining me for the first time, I'm so glad that you found me.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I would love to hear how you found the show and if you've been here for a while, I so appreciate those listeners who have been following along for quite some time.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've been doing this podcast now for five and a half years, so I've gone to know a few of you out there and I'm able to connect with a number of you over at the Bite Me Cannabis Club, and if you're curious about that, you can always head to joinbitemecom to learn more.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Because I've changed some things up a little bit.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I'll leave it at that, except let me just say it has to do with an unsubscription.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I wrestle with this quite a bit.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: I'm doing a buy nothing year and I don't know if I've mentioned this on the show or not.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Maybe I have.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: If I have forgive me my memory maybe too many edibles.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: That could be what it is, and in large part it's not necessarily because I feel like I spend too much, but it's just so easy to spend money on things that I personally don't feel I often really need, and a lot of the times we live in a culture where the solution to all of our problems is going out and buying something new and I just really want to jump off of that hamster wheel.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: A big part of what I'm doing is also canceling unnecessary subscriptions, because it seems to be death by a thousand subscriptions these days.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I know the saying is death by a thousand paper cuts, but now it feels like subscriptions and subscription models is sort of the way that things are really going.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: I have so many subscriptions on my personal side there's a number also on the podcast side some of which I've been able to cancel, others which I cannot, of course, because they're necessary to run the show.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: But on the personal side is a bit of a different matter, like do I really need to be subscribed to like three or four different streaming services online?
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I'm sure we all feel that same way.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: I changed some things up with the Bite Me Cannabis Club because I just didn't want to be another subscription.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Go check it out at joinbitemecom Over the weekend at the time of this recording admittedly I'm a little bit behind we just had a huge ice storm here where I am and it's been pretty brutal.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: There's been people who've been without power for three days.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Going on four days now the hydro trucks have been working overtime.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: I am very fortunate that I have not lost power for longer than a couple of hours during this particular time, but the photos from it are pretty eerie.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: There was so much ice buildup on all the trees.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: The first night of the storm I spent the entire night awake because all I could hear was the crash of tree branches falling to the ground, and it was also partly the ice that was coming off the trees when they fell.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: But the ice was so heavy that it just downed trees and huge branches, and now the front lawn at my dad's house looks like a wasteland of broken tree branches.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: It was kind of scary, I have to admit, when I was lying there awake at night maybe a little bit high as well, because I had, you know, consumed my evening edible and when I went to go to sleep I thought, oh, you know, it's just another night.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: And then I never actually did sleep.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: I kept thinking is one of these tree branches going to fall on the house?
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Is it going to come through a window and kill me?
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Some kind of final destination shit?
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I wasn't really sure, but it was a pretty scary night and then it lasted all through the next day as well, and just the carnage is really tragic, because there's certain trees on this property that, I guess, brings some memories, if you will.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: There's an ironwood tree that my mom adored and she had planted many years ago.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: They used to have beautiful gardens here.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: They've been mostly taken out over the years because they just became too much for my parents to handle as they got older.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: They used to have beautiful gardens, even had one of those garden tours come to their house once, like many moons ago, and that was when the gardens were definitely at their peak.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: This ironwood tree, my mom adored it and it cracked.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: I think the tree will survive, but the huge branch off the tree that came up from the trunk cracked, branch off the tree that came up from the trunk cracked, which is stunning in and of itself because ironwood, unsurprisingly, is a very hard wood.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: So this was kind of shocking.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: And then another tree that fell.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: My dad had planted a willow tree at the one corner of the property.
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Must be 30 years ago, 35 years ago, it's hard to say now.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I'd have to really sit and think for a second because, god, I'm getting old.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: But that tree, the entire tree, fell, just cracked somewhere along the trunk and fell over.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: And that's kind of tragic because anytime, like my girls would come out or my sister was here or people would come to visit, photos often got taken under that tree because it just had a vibe and the light went on a beautiful summer day.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: It was so lovely, it's such a special tree and that one's gone completely as well.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: So I'm very fortunate and grateful, of course, that we didn't have to go without power.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure how my dad would have handled it in his nineties.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: I do know, actually, because when the power did go out a couple of times for an hour or two.
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: Of course, we weren't sure how long the power would be out for, and so his response was always I'm just going to go to bed, because even my father in his 90s is now pretty reliant on Having electricity.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Entertain yourself, I mean, he watches a lot of YouTube and he likes his satellite TV.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: And fortunately nobody seemed to get hurt during this storm, because in town I'm sort of on the outskirts of town in town so many trees were down, which, of course, is why all the power, a lot of the power lines, were out.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: Nobody got hurt, thankfully.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: It's made me feel grateful for friends and family, people who've been reaching out and saying hey, I have power if you need to come out.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: And you know, I had my kids here as well because they needed to charge phones and wanted a hot meal, which they didn't have at their place because they had no electricity.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: It's just nice to see people coming together and supporting each other in a time of great difficulty, because the number of downed trees was just wild.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: That's created a lot of problems for a lot of people, but thankfully nobody got hurt.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: So that is the one good thing I guess you can take away from that and just that sort of renewed sense of community.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: You never know when a freak ice storm is going to pop up and create all kinds of problems for people.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Just be grateful for your electricity, for your trees that aren't going to fall on your head, and thank your neighbor next time you see them, just for being a good neighbor.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: Hopefully you have good neighbors.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: So, anyway, this was sort of a bit of a longer introduction than I was intending.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: One thing I wanted to ask you folks listening what should I make next?
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Sweet Savory, what would you love to see?
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Send me your suggestions and I'll try them out.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: What would you love to see?
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: Send me your suggestions and I'll try them out.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: The reason I wanted to do popcorn is because it's such a great snack food and why not infuse it?
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: I love popcorn.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: I used to eat quite a bit, I have to admit, with my ex.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: He was called the popcorn master and I think it was really just.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: He had a really good ratio of butter to salt on his popcorn and that was a snack that we enjoyed quite a bit.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: I've been having a craving for popcorn recently, so that's one of the reasons why I wanted to do this one today because I was doing the episodes on ghee and I was like what can I infuse popcorn with?
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: I was trying to think of things that I could use the infused ghee for.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: This will work with any infused fat, pretty much what you need for this particular recipe.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: One of the reasons why I liked it so much is it is so easy, so so easy.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: You do not need a popcorn maker to make this.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: So I used to have an air pop popper, which worked great.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: I love air popped popcorn.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I am not a fan of microwave popcorn.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: I've eaten a lot of it in the past but I really don't like it.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: It's good but it has sort of that chemically taste of whatever it is they put in that bag and it's just not the same.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: And I also find a lot of the kernels don't pop.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: At the bottom of the bags you have a lot of unpopped kernels and they're often wrapped in plastic, so there's actually a lot of waste with microwave popcorn.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: So for a few different reasons I don't like it, but the big one being is I'm not really.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: I don't really like the flavor of microwave popcorn nearly as much.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Even the ones that have are like flavored.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: They just can't really mask that.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Whatever the fat is, whatever it is the chemically stuff that they're using in the popcorn to make it work.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: But the good thing is, you don't need an air popper to make this, and it's actually more fun if you don't.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: That's the other fun thing.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: So for this recipe you're going to need your popcorn kernels, salt, fat and infused fat.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: That's it, it's pretty easy and a pot.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: So if you don't have an air popper which I would suggest you try without, because it's kind of fun to make it without the air popper, and I don't have one anymore anyway, so I made it in a pot you can also apparently do it in a paper bag in the microwave as well, but I was just like I didn't have any paper bags to use, so I was like I'm going to try it on the stove.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: I've never done it this way before.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: So, yes, you're going to need your popcorn kernels, salt, your fat and your uninfused fat.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: You don't necessarily need to use the infused fat for the actual popping of the corn, and it also makes it easier to dose and dose individually.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: So that's another reason why I like to do it this way.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: So, essentially, what you're going to do to make this popcorn.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Are you ready for it?
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: Because it's fun and it's easy to make this popcorn.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Are you ready for it Because it's fun and it's easy?
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: And maybe I'm, maybe I'm behind, maybe people are like, yeah, of course you can make popcorn in a pot, but I've just never really tried it before because I always had an air popper.
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: But sometimes I know there's folks out there listening that don't necessarily have big kitchens and I'm kind of in the same spot.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I used to have a much bigger kitchen that had room for all the stuff.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: When I moved from that house I sold a bunch of things because they just took up space, like a vacuum sealer Kind of wish I still had that.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Actually the dehydrator also sometimes wish I still had that.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: The air popper not necessarily missing that now that I know I can just do it in a pot on the stove.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: You know I just don't have the space for that kind of stuff anymore and I know a lot of you also probably don't have the space for like a single use appliance, which is what an air popper is.
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: You're going to need some popcorn kernels.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: I used a half cup because I just wanted to try it out.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: And of course you can get creative too.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: You can use other toppings besides salt on your popcorn as well.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: I haven't really experimented with anything like that, but I think I'm going to be experimenting more because I definitely see more popcorn in my future.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: So basically, over medium high heat you're going to take three popcorn kernels and your ghee and you're going to add them to your pot and your pot needs a lid and you're going to put the lid on it and you shake the pan a few times and when the popcorn kernels pop, that tells you that there's enough moisture in the kettle for the kernels to be popping.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: It's going to be hot enough.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: So then you're going to add the remaining popcorn and you're going to cover and reduce the heat to medium and shake the pan with little breaks.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: You don't have to do it constantly like that.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: If any of you know that old school Jiffy Pop, I remember doing that a few times on the stove, which is interesting because that's essentially like doing it in a pot.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: I felt like with the Jiffy Pop you had to constantly shake the pan and this one, and when I did it this time you don't, but you do shake it pretty regularly and you'll hear it start popping.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: It actually didn't take that long a few minutes.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: You just let it and then when the popping starts to slow down, that's when you take it off the heat.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Then I took the popcorn and I put it in a big bowl that I could use to add my toppings, which in this particular case was the infused ghee.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: I was eating it all myself, as I often do with popcorn and salt.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I just use salt.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: But if you're adding any other toppings, this is when you would want to add them, and then you kind of mix it all up.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: I just mix it up with my hand because, let's be honest, I'm going to be the one eating it.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: Taste it, make sure it's got enough salt and fat on it and voila, you've got popcorn.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: It was kind of fun to make it.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: I have to say it was just almost exciting.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Maybe that's really indicative of where my life is at right now, when popping popcorn on the stove.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: I find exciting.
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: The reason you don't want to necessarily use the infused ghee in the pot is because you are heating it quite a bit.
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: You need not a lot of oil, but you need enough oil to pop the popcorn in and if you add the ghee afterwards, because of course, it's really nice to add, you know, the butter or whatever fat you're using to a bowl of hot popcorn.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: It's going to melt nicely.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: But then also, if you're adding or if you're serving this to other people you're having a movie night or something like that then you can easily just add the appropriate amount of ghee to get the potency that you're after.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: You can then tailor it to whoever's going to be enjoying this popcorn with you.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: So that's another win as well, because you can have it in a couple of different bowls.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: And well, I don't need to explain that to you.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: And of course, if you want to get creative, you can add whatever other seasonings.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: And do bear in mind that, yes, I used ghee for this, but you could use butter, you could use olive oil, duck fat.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I will probably be trying it with a few different things, because I've been experimenting with some infusions lately which I'm going to be reporting on in the not too distant future.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: So one of the great things about using ghee for the cooking fat is because it has that really high smoke point, so your popcorn's not going to get soggy.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Now I haven't tried it with these other oils yet.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: But that is a really good point, that when you're turning you have to be careful because butter can burn and olive oil has a smoke point, but it's definitely not as high as ghee.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: If you go back to that episode that I did on the benefits of using ghee for your edibles, we talk about the high smoke point in that episode and some of the other benefits to using ghee and why it's so great for your edibles.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Bear that in mind as well, that it can be handy just to have a little ghee just so you can make your popcorn.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: You could also probably infuse it afterwards with a different butter if you wanted.
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: I'm not really sure you would notice like if you used butter instead of the ghee to top it afterwards, because that's what you had on hand infused.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know if that's going to make that much of a difference.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: This is a nice little savory treat, so savory snack that you can make your own tailor to your own preferences really easily.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: I know I'm going to be enjoying a lot more popcorn now that I've made it, although it's interesting because I used a half cup of popcorn and that made a pretty decent sized bowl just for myself.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: But I made a lot of popcorn and I forgot how filling popcorn was.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I've been enjoying some shows in the evening.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: I thought what a great snack.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: But you could probably also experiment with a quarter cup of popcorn, and that might make a pretty decent amount as well.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: And did I eat it all when I made it?
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: I sure did.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: But that half cup of popcorn, for reference, filled an eight cup measuring cup Cup of popcorn.
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: Obviously you're going to have two large bowls of popcorn, and maybe that quarter cup is better for an individual serving, depending on how hungry you are.
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: So if you have a chance to make this popcorn, I really suggest you try it out.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: It's a lot of fun, even if you don't end up infusing it, and it didn't take that long to make Five minutes, I think.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: I think that's it for this week, my friends.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I do have some exciting episodes coming up for you.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: I have a couple of interviews that I've done recently that I'm looking forward to releasing soon.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: So stay tuned for those.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: And again, let me know what should I make next.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: Send me your suggestions and I will do my best to try and accommodate.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I'm your host, margaret, and until next week, my friends, stay high.