Cook some campfire popcorn

Before you begin

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
• All young people and adults involved in the activity need to know how to take part safely. You should give a safety briefing and/or demonstration.
• Have appropriate adult supervision and an Intouch process in place for the activity you’re running. You may need some parents and carers to help. All adult volunteers should be given a copy of the Yellow Card, including external visitors and parent/carer helpers.

Making and being safe around the fire

• Build and light a fire before starting this activity. Our activities, Campfire admirers or Construct a campfire, can help you to do this. You’ll use the hot embers to cook on, so the fire will need enough time to die down before cooking.
• Remember to have a hand washing station and take extra hygiene precautions, such as regular handwashing and washing up, when handling raw meat. Take a look at our guidance on food preparation.
• You could do run our fire safety activities, Fuel air ignition and Sitting safely by a campfire, prior to running this session.

Create your popcorn maker

1. Take the wooden pole. At one end of the pole, place one of the sieves. The sieve handle needs to be led on the pole, so it’s flat on and perpendicular to it. The broom handle touches the dome of the sieve. The broom is acting like an extension to the handle.
2. Using the metal wire, secure the sieve handle onto the pole by wrapping the wire around the both. An adult volunteer should cut off any excess wire using the cutters.
3. Take the second sieve and attach it to the first sieve by wrapping some between the hooks on each sieve. This makes a leverage point, so the sieves can be opened and closed. This second sieve should now be able to fold over on top of the first sieve, creating a full circle or dome to enclose the popcorn.
4. Slide the metal “O” ring up the pole. It needs to be pushed over the top of the two sieve handles to secure them in place while cooking.

Pop that corn

1. Open the sieves. Place a small handful of popcorn kernels, approximately 20, in the bottom sieve.
2. Close the top sieve over the popcorn kernels and secure the two sieves in place with the metal “O” ring.
3. Hold the sieves over the hot embers of the fire, keeping them at arm’s length with the pole.
4. Remember to keep moving the pole around to stop the kernels sticking to the sieve while cooking.
5. After all the kernels have popped, remove the pole from the fire.
6. Give the metal sieves and ‘O’ ring a few minutes to cool down. Using heat-resistant gloves, remove the metal “O” ring and carefully open up the sieves.
7. Wait for the popcorn to cool down if needed.
8. Pour the popcorn into the bowls or plates. You could add a topping or two if you’d like to.
9. Repeat steps one to eight until everyone has had a chance to cook and eat some popcorn.