December 11th, 2012

This recipe makes one of my uncle's all-time favorites. Him and my Grandpa get into these, and could eat the entire batch themselves:

Old-Time Popcorn Balls

You will need:

20 cups popped popcorn
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla

Keep popcorn warm in the oven, heated to 300 degrees. Butter the sides of a two-quart saucepan, and combine sugar, water, corn syrup, vinegar, and salt. Cook to 270 degrees, or soft crack stage (my mom tests this by dipping little streamers into ice water. If it gets hard it's ready). Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour over popcorn (take it out of the oven first; this helps) and stir in. Butter hands and prepare to be burned. Shape popcorn into balls. This stuff is hot, so be careful, and use plenty of butter on those hands, or it will stick.

This recipe was taken from the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. Directions were written by me, with much checking in the book for accuracy.