Microwave Popcorn

Search for kernels of truth leads to overall sense of dissatisfaction

It used to be so simple. There was a jar of kernels, a little oil, and a pot with a cover. Shake vigorously over a burner, add a little melted butter, a sprinkle of salt, and you had something wonderful.
Then came the air popper, which blew dry popped corn into a bowl - or all over the floor. The hot air on top allowed you to melt butter as the machine did its magic.
Microwave popcorn changed everything. Enclosed in a flat paper bag are kernels, flavorings, and spices. But go shopping for microwave popcorn and your head spins: Butter, light butter, butter flavor, real butter, and much more.
With the holidays coming and families set to gather around to watch DVDs and eat big bowls of snacks, we decided to test light butter-flavor popcorn. Then real confusion settled in. Serving sizes are anywhere from 3 to 6 cups, nutrition facts are difficult to navigate, even the smell of the bags varied. Some had no odor, one had the aroma of "chemical butter," as one of the eight participants put it, some whiffed of oil and one smelled just plain bad.
We used a microwave that had a popcorn setting (technology!) at 2 minutes and 5 seconds (perfect kernels) and when the bell went off the digital read-out said "Enjoy!" Participants sipped club soda as a palate cleanser. The winner was Pop Secret, which is made with some real butter. "Just when I was about to give up, this one has at least a bit of flavor," wrote one muncher. The runner-up was Jolly Time, described as "nicely, lightly salted but not bland." The hands-down loser was Newman's Own, which elicited the most vicious comments. One taster decided to go looking for an old-fashioned pot with a tight-fitting lid.

Jolly Time Healthy Pop Butter Flavor 94% Fat Free Microwave Popcorn
$2.19 for three 3-ounce bags
"Not much butter. Light and crisp." "I'm despairing; maybe lite popcorn shouldn't be eaten ... better use would be for packing material." "Is this cardboard? Gets stuck in my teeth." "No flavor at all, puffed cardboard." "Tastes like rubber."

Orville Redenbacher's Gourmet Popping Corn Light Butter
$2.49 for three 2.9-ounce bags
"Buttery, crisp, but still rather boring." "Salty and buttery. Too artificial." "Reminiscent of movie theater, but the butter is slightly bitter." "Hardly any smell ... where's the butter?" "No taste, no salt, no flavor - why bother?"

Non-Hydrogenated Smart Balance Light Butter Flavor Deluxe Microwave Popcorn
$2.69 for three 3-ounce bags
"OK ... no doubt this IS packing material ... right?" "Best if eaten while chatting so you don't notice the taste." "Hard to chew." "Coats the mouth in an undesirable film; swallowing repeatedly doesn't solve the problem." "Buttery and moist." "Bad feeling in mouth after chewing, kind of oily." "Crisp, light, very buttery."

Premium Popcorn Pop Secret Light Butter Winner
$2.29 for three 3-ounce packages
"Not really buttery but the topping still coats the roof of your mouth. It's not awful." "Strong `butter' flavor, recedes to artificial taste. Think popcorn jelly beans." "Dry and delicious." "Like movie popcorn. Hard to believe it's light ... question is what are they putting in it to make it taste good?" "Tastes like real butter. None of the cardboard aftertaste. Yummy."


Roche Bros. Microwave Popcorn Butter Light
$1.50 for three 3-ounce bags
"Good but a little flat." "Slight buttery flavor, somewhat dry in texture ... but that's a good thing." "Light, flat. Clear popcorn flavor." "Smells like movie popcorn but the taste doesn't deliver." "Light and fluffy like a cotton ball. I like it. I can't believe it's light."
All Natural Newman's Own Old Style Picture Show Microwave Popcorn Light Butter Flavor
$2.49 for three 3.5-ounce packages
"Disgusting. What is this flavor? Chemicals, I think." "Decent, tasty ... a bit industrial tasting." "Boring." "Stale aftertaste - very unpleasant." "This one tastes weird." "Funny taste, good texture."

Whole Cranberry Sauce

In the shopping bag or back to the bog?

As one taster put it, "I was born and raised in New England - I have to like cranberry sauce!" Indeed, the cranberry should be our state emblem. Last year, more than 14,000 acres of cranberry bogs, mostly in the southeastern part of the state, produced around 1.4 million barrels of the sour, native berry (one barrel is 100 pounds). Cranberries love our acid, peaty soil.
Cranberry sauce, whole or jellied, is the Thanksgiving condiment of choice to tart up turkey's low-key and mild flavor. But don't just consign it to the feast day; cranberry sauce is just as good with roast pork, duck, chicken, even rich fish.
Nine tasters sampled six brands of whole cranberry sauce with a chaser of sliced turkey and bread. Several were surprised to find the tartness missing and an overwhelming sweetness in most brands. One self-proclaimed connoisseur only makes his own. "It's so easy," he said emphatically. Another claimed "I've yet to meet a cranberry sauce I didn't like - until now." One woman was so disheartened, she announced, "Well I guess I will be making my own this year."
The winner was Stop & Shop's house brand, but not by much. Its whole berries were plentiful and had a "nice balance of tart and sweet." Trader Joe's Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce was a close second, but was judged more preserve-like than a whole berry condiment.
One taster, a Jamaica native, tasted cranberry sauce for the first time. Her family in New York eats goat curry and plantains for Thanksgiving. This year, she's decided to bring the cranberry sauce. But it may be homemade. She was seen taking down the recipe from the cranberry sauce expert. - DEBRA SAMUELS

Market Basket Whole Cranberry Sauce
99 cents for 16-ounce can
Although this didn't get thrown back into the bog, it might well have. "Tastes like cardboard," said one. Another: "Awful, strange." And these, too: "Totally tasteless," "Ew! Like Grandma used to serve." Sorry Grandma - this isn't a compliment. There were a few faint praises, as in "just like a berry jam," "a bit sweet, actual berries were not soft enough," and "not enough jelly, too much berry."

Ocean Spray Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
$1.59 for 16-ounce can
You're instructed to open this can from the bottom, which will make you think you have jellied sauce. But there are plenty of berries. "Sweet, great flavor," was one comment, then "pretty good but a little sweet," then, "very sweet tasting, creamy; almost like a jelly." The overly sweet reaction continued; a taster used the word "jammy." The one person who chose this as his winner said it was "moist, tasty, mighty fine." And he was gleeful to discover this is the brand he uses. "I know that taste," he said.

Roche Bros. Whole Cranberry Sauce
99 cents for 16-ounce can
"This has a taste of its own - awful," said one taster, who added: "not sweet, no berries, not tart." Comments on flavor went from "mild" and "tastes like artificial sweetener" to "poor flavor." As for consistency: "chewy skins, but not much else." We decided to send this brand back to the bog.

Stop & Shop Cranberry Sauce Whole Berry Winner
$1.29 for 16-ounce can
First thing you see are a whole lot of berries. "Very large, crunchy berries, and good flavor," was one reaction. "It tastes like real cranberries." Also: "Some good flavor and chewy berries." As for taste: "Very subtly sour - good mix of the sweet and sour flavors" and "Good balance of sweet and tart." Those who didn't choose this one called it "bland," and "not too tasty." The ultimate criticism: "Tastes like it came from a can."

Shaw's Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
$1 for 16-ounce can
A sniff fails to yield any fruity odor. Bad sign. One person who voted this the least favorite said, "Tastes a little like the can." Another: "Nasty. Can I have pecan pie instead?" This is the brand that had at least three participants picking skins from their teeth. As for texture: "This is like a Jell-O mold with chunks of cranberries."

Trader Joe's Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce
$2.99 for 18-ounce jar
This sauce won second place. It was the most expensive of the lot and came in a nice glass jar. It was also the least gelatinous. Most compared it to jam. Some comments: "Gloopy - doesn't hold a candle to homemade," "Sweet and plummy," "Are there strawberries in the mix?," "Good, but too sweet for a traditional sauce," "Mushy."

STRAWBERRY PRESERVES

Fruit, not sugar, makes the spread

First the strawberries. Then the -oses: sucrose, fructose, and glucose syrup. Perhaps some cane sugar and corn syrup, a little pectin, and citric acid, and you've got strawberry preserves. We tasted five brands and while all those sugars were not in one jar, many had at least two, some three.
As all old-fashioned jam makers know, keep down the amount of sugar in the batch, and you'll have a fruitier flavor. This would explain one taster's lament afterward that his "teeth were hurting."Unlike clear jellies and pureed jams, preserves have pieces of fruit suspended in heavy syrup. One brand had us wondering "Where's the berry?" A German taster, confident that she knew her preserves, did indeed pick the brand she eats every morning. French-made Bonne Maman was her favorite, but alas, no one else's. The Swiss brand, Hero, with the prettiest label, was at the bottom of most lists. In the end, the winner was all-American Smucker's - the brand that goes into many PB&Js. It just edged out the other American jar, Trappist, made locally in Spencer. We tasted all of them on plain crackers and once we found a favorite, we wondered why no one had the good sense to bring the peanut butter.

Bonne Maman Strawberry Preserves
$2.99 for 13-ounce jar
This comes in a lovely jar worth washing and saving. What's inside, said one taster, "is sickeningly sweet." Another: "It's seedy and syrupy." Indeed there was plenty of strawberry and a little crunch. "It goes down smoothly," said one, and it's "very spread-able."

Hero Swiss Preserves,
$2.99 for 12-ounce jar
Well, the spoon stood straight up in this jar, and stayed there. "Too much pectin." "Gelatinous." One commented that it "tastes like it was made in a lab!" Many found it "low in odor," "had no smell," and "tasteless." "I find this quite disagreeable," was one taster's final pronouncement.

Smucker's Strawberry Preserves Winner
$2 for 12-ounce jar
Easy to spread and not gooey. "This has chunks of fruit," exclaimed one, almost surprised. "More grit per square inch," said another. And "it's fragrant." One thought "it smells like strawberry shortcake." Several proclaimed it to be "less sweet" than the others, but it does contain three sweeteners. "It is the real thing with a real strawberry smell and bits of fruit." One taster's disdain for another brand was to say "it tastes like Smucker's." Go figure.

Trader Joe's Strawberry Preserves
$2.49 for 20-ounce jar
This was the best buy for the money but the preserves stuck to the spoon and you had to shake it a few times to get it onto the cracker. Three said it was like "gelatin with pits," or "Jell-O-esque,"and "Jell-O-y." Another thought it had an "artificial flavor." One person compared it to a "kid's dessert" and another yelped "gummy bears!"
Trappist Strawberry Preserve $2.50 for 12-ounce jar
A beautiful color with bits of fruit floating in the jar. These preserves slid down easily from spoon to cracker. "A nice rosy color," said one, but another claimed it tasted like "ruby Jell-O." "It has real fruit but is gooey." "It's just OK, but the real fruit was nice." "Chunky fruit." "This is very preserve-y."