Easy Peasy--Cheddar Cheesy Popcorn

The end of fall semester is a rush to finish projects and prepare for final exams. At the same time, much of the outside world is celebrating the holidays with cheerful decorations and decadent treats. 

This cheddar popcorn will help you accomplish the dual purpose of fueling yourself through project stress and treating yourself to something festive.

This recipe comes from The Boy's Cook Book, which was published in 1959 as a specialty cookbook for adolescent boys. It promised its readers that "once word gets around that you can turn out really superior chow, you'll be a hero, and that's no joke!"

 

This modded popcorn recipe starts with a popping a standard pan of popcorn. The book recommended a traditional method of cooking over hot campfire coals, or barring that, a pan on the stovetop. It noted that the popping kernels will "sound like a battery of tiny machine guns." Since we knew that our popcorn was about to receive a heavy dose of butter and cheese, we opted to airpop our batch. 

Like many twentieth century recipe books, The Boy's Cookbook did not denote how much of each ingredient to use. Instead, it gave really basic instructions. 

We made our best guesses on the amounts for melted butter and shredded cheddar, and we tossed them quickly on the hot popcorn to ensure even melting. In the end, we definitely overdid it with the butter in our quest to assist with melting the shredded cheddar. Luckily, that problem is easily resolved by adding additional hot popcorn. We ended up popping an additional batch, and then the cheese and butter toppings were balanced just right.

In the end, we were rewarded with a melty, savory treat that could easily fuel a late night study session or make the latest streaming holiday movie feel just that much more festive. If you're looking for a simple and festive pick me up, this snack will definitely do the trick.