After the past two years in my life without a microwave, I’ve perfected the best way of cooking popcorn. I’m talking delicious, buttery popcorn that melts in your mouth – not microwavable fluff with butter lard mixed with salt and kernels – half of which don’t usually pop.

Microwavable popcorn is cheap and easy, but it never tastes as good as this. Here's my detailed instructions on making the perfect batch of popcorn.

These ingredients are cheap, you probably have most of them already, and will be making you popcorn for months.

Here is what you’ll need:

1 large cooking pot with a lid
1 bag of popcorn kernels
1 bottle of Canola oil
¼ - ½ stick of butter, depending on taste
Salt

Carefully pour enough kernels into the pot to cover the bottom. Slide the pot back and forth to spread them across evenly. A little more is OK, but enough to cover the bottom is just where you want to be. This balances out the amount of oil in the popcorn, lessens the likelihood of burning.

---During the popping, place the butter into a small sauce pan (1/4 stick or ½ stick, depending how much you want and start heating it at a low temperature. You don’t want it to melt too fast, and you don’t want it to burn.---

Place the lid on the pot and you will hear the kernels popping, within a minute or so. Listen closely to the popping – this is critical for the perfect batch. The timing between perfect popcorn and burnt popcorn is literally seconds. During the popping.

1) Shake the pot vigorously a few times vigorously to keep the kernels even across the bottom and popping evenly. This will also keep popped kernels on the bottom of the pot from burning to the bottom or the walls.

2) Lift the lid for just a second to get some air flow into the pot. A few kernels may pop out at you, but don’t worry, at this point, you will not have to worry about splashing oil!

3) Listen careflly - when the popping is around 1 or 2 kernals per second, it’s time to remove it from the heat. IMMEDIATELY lift it off of the hot burner and place it onto a cool surface. The corn will continue to pop. Turn off the hot burner and lift the lid off of the pot.

Place the cooking pot on the stove, no lid. You will want one with plenty of surface area across the bottom, so typically wider is better than taller, but a tall one will work just as well with a few shakes during the popping process.

Pour just enough oil into the pan to coat the bottom.

Place a kernel into the bottom of the cooking pot. Optimally, the depth of the oil should come up about halfway to the top of the kernel. If the oil is too high, pour off a little of the excess oil. If it’s too low, add just a tad bit more.

Place about 4 more kernels into the pot and turn up the heat to HIGH. If your stovetop has 10 settings of heat, you’ll want it up to at least 8 or 9. The trick hot and quick. Cooking too slow or to low temperature can cause more burning.

Now, wait until the kernels start to pop. DO NOT put your face into the pot when they start to pop! There is very hot oil in the pot at this point and a popping kernel can cause it to splash upwards! The safest way to approach the pot is to wait for all kernels to finish popping or to use the lid as a shield when approaching.

Once the kernels have popped, we now know that the oil is at optimal popping temperature.

Carefully pick up the hot lidless pot. Shake it so the popcorn bounces up and down, generating airflow to the bottom. Shaking it from one side will allow the popcorn from the bottom to shift to the top, allowing you to do an inspection for any kernels that may have burnt a little. Pick out these kernels as you find them, feed them to the dog or toss them in the trash.

By now, your butter should be melted or close to melted. Place the pot on a cool surface. Mix the butter around to balance out the oils and fats and pour on about ¼ of the total butter across the popcorn in a zig-zag fashion.

After pouring the butter, carefully sprinkle some salt on top to taste. The salt will stick to the butter.

Now carefully shake the popcorn again as you did before, repeating the butter and salting to taste until you’ve got plenty of butter and salt on there. The shaking/pouring process will be sure that every bite of your popcorn is delicious, mouth-watering popcorn that will be the envy of all popcorn-eaters you know.

A final note about this popcorn recipe: If you’ve got leftovers, I’ve left this popcorn on the counter for as long as a week and it still tastes great. It doesn’t seem to go stale and will retain an incredible flavor for days after – so make more than you’ll eat if you want, you can bag it up and eat it later for snacks!