I'm a "heat kernels to just below popping and then pop" fan, since trying this method a decade ago. The goal is to get all the kernels to pop in a relatively short window, so nothing sits there to burn.
Method:
- Prepare: Measure out 1/3 cup of popcorn and have a serving bowl ready.
- Add high temp oil to the pot. I use 1-2tbs of coconut oil.
- Place in stock pot along with 3 kernels over medium high heat.
- Cover with a kitchen towel (to let out some steam during popping, don't want a soggy popcorn).
- Once the kernels pop, immediately dump in the rest of the kernels (I usually do 1/3 cup, whatever the instructions recommend).
- Immediately take off the heat and shake gently to the count of 30. The kids love participating in the count.
- Put back on the heat and shake a little to make sure the kernels are evenly distributed.
- Once the popping slows, immediately take it off the heat and dump into a serving bowl. This prevents burning.
This method works great, rave reviews from the family.
With this method, the popping is reasonably quick, and the temperature fairly consistent, so, despite the advice seemingly everywhere in the internet, high temp oil isn’t actually necessary. Be careful and you can use olive oil (though that tastes a bit weird) or even butter.
That's why I take out a dozen or so unpopped kernels before popping the rest. It's easier to throw them right in the trash, rather than have to pick them out of the rest of the popped corn.
You have to study the grain. Most kernels have a left to right grain, and they will pop between 140-150C, because the cell structure of the skin is weak in several places. A relatively rare genetic mutation leads to around 1-2% of kernels having a right to left grain, and because of this orientation the skin is actually more robust in the typical popping spots, meaning that temperatures as high as 450C are required to pop these! That's why they typically will remain unpopped when cooking popcorn in this legacy manner.
To detect the right-to-left kernels, you can actually use a UV flashlight - you will see that they have a softer glow compared to the bright left to right kernels.
If this is true, does this mean that it's technically possible to pre-sort out most of the kernels that won't pop easily? Do expensive popcorn brands do this? Would it be possible to breed out this mutation? So many questions.
Apparently, the reason why some kernels don't pop is because they have too little moisture due to the hull not being perfect and the moisture escaping[1][2]. So it seems like it should be possible to somehow go through all the kernels and remove most of the unpoppable ones? Maybe make something that weighs each kernel and removes ones outside a range?
Out of interest, why do you prefer a salt grinder? I've never understood why these exist. Pepper grinders, absolutely - the aromatics are released on grinding. By not so with salt. Curious if I'm missing something.
I've asked my mother the exact same question a couple of weeks ago. She said, that as salt is hygroscopic "table salt" comes with anti-cacking agents. Salt which comes as larger crystals doesn't need them.
I guess it'd depend on what the agent was, but either way, it means some amount of the salt you're pouring over your food isn't salt. Eliminate the non-salt from your salt and you never have to worry about what might be wrong with it or how much non-salt you're paying for. That's the reason I've switched to shredding my own parmesan cheese instead of just shaking it out of a can since the cans in some cases contain ~10% cellulose.
Table salt is just sea salt (the stuff mined from underground just comes from an ocean that dried up a few million years ago) and is full of other compounds beyond NaCl.
EDIT: I looked it up. It's supposed to stabilize the iodide. The reason they use corn sugar is that it's cheap. Thankfully there are brands that don't include additives in their salt. I'll have to keep an eye out for them. I already get plenty of iodide in my diet.
With ferrocyanide in particular ([Fe(CN)6]4−), the reason cyanide (CN-) is such bad news is also the reason it's safe complexed to iron: Iron-Cyanide coordination is very strongly favored by thermodynamics and kinetics, so it likes to stick to iron, sticks very quickly, and un-sticks itself very slowly. When cyanide is not already coordinated to iron, it coordinates to the iron in hemoglobin (+ COX enzymes in mitochondria, and other less immediately important enzymes) and makes them not work, basically forever. But when CN- is already stuck coordinated to free iron, it doesn't really fall off enough to stick itself to enzymes in any meaningful amount. It would be more of a problem if CN- accumulated, but it's metabolized and excreted quickly enough to not be a big deal. The LD50 values basically reflect this.
No, it doesn't, because sodium ferrocyanide is poorly absorbed in the first place and not bioaccumulative in humans. I suppose you also don't each spinach or almonds either?
"spinach" nope and of almonds not too many either.
But my point is, sodium ferrocyanide intake is not beneficial, (unlike ordinary sodium). Even if it might do no harm, why should I risk even little harm?
And with adding up, well there is a whole libary of other toxic or potentially toxic additives in the normal food you can buy.
I prefer to minimize the potential bad intake, that's all.
As well as in any processed food I am buying, yes I am aware of that. But when I have the choice, I prefer the non toxic salt
(and it is still mindblowing to me, how it became normal to add cyanide to salt in the first place).
Yup, there are cheap salts with their own toxins and even expensive Himalaya salt can probably contain bad stuff.
But at least here in germany, there are (non government) organisations that test food for their poisons and you can buy their test results, also for salt, in the shape of a magazine.
And even they can be wrong, sure, but I can still avoid poison where possible, so if I see no reason to voluntarily add cyanide on top of all the other shit for no good reason, I simply won't.
That’s not enough to justify the grinder. Buy a box of Diamond Crystal Kosher salt. It has the perfect texture for keeping in a salter on the counter so it’s easy to grab a pinch.
I use salt flour for popcorn; it's essentially salt that is milled as fine as flour. There was a study (which I can't find now) which found that our perception of saltiness is based less on amount and more on surface area coverage.
It's sometimes just called "popcorn salt" and it's exactly as you describe. (And it can also be made at home from regular table salt with a food processor or mortar & pestle.)
I take a trip to the bulk-barn often enough to get “Butter Salt” it’s powdered and yellow. I suspect it’s what goes into the packages for the movie theatre.
I've never seen on-the-spot ground salt smaller than the stuff you can buy already grounded. Except if you buy flakes, but then why do so if you want finer salt?
It's just culinary cargo cult. You grind pepper and other such things because the flavor survives well in the peppercorn but degrades relatively rapidly in air, so waiting until the last minute to grind it results in better flavor. Oxidized pepper is easy to notice the difference in flavor profile and much lower complexity. Especially the pepper shakers that have been sitting at the restaurant table probably yea verily these many years, mostly unused.
Therefore, grinding things at the last minute makes them taste better, goes the simplification.
Therefore, grinding salt must make it taste better.
But salt is not like the aromatic flavors in a peppercorn. Salt is geologically stable. NaCl itself does not need a last minute grind to retain its salty flavors. NaCl is not a chemically complex flavor.
I qualified that as NaCl specifically because it is faintly possible some of the fancy salts could have their fancy flavors come out better if they are ground, but I'm yet to even notice a difference when any of these are used in food in any manner so I can't judge. Those flavors must be awfully darned stable as it is if they're still hanging around in a 99+% NaCl environment. I'd want to see a specific chemical that can survive that but will suddenly wilt if exposed to oxygen. (We're sure not talking about traditional benzene-ring aromatics at that point!) If there is a difference it is hovering at the very bottom of human detectability.
Salt grinders are annoying. They're hard to use because you're trying to grind a rock, a soft rock sure but still a rock. It's wasted effort, and it occurs to me to wonder if they even do anything to speak of; now I want to find one and compare the before and after of the chunk size; I find myself suspicious that many of them are just theatrics and the salt basically passes through unscathed because "cheap plastic" and "grinding a rock" are not compatible with each other. Even if it does do some real grinding it's still a waste though because it was never necessary, you could just have bought it at the right grain size.
The reason you'd use a salt grinder is when you specifically want an inconsistent spread of grain sizes in one single application. Like salt flakes on ganache or caramel, or there's a beloved french butter with large crystals mixed into it.
Usually you'd just use two sizes of salt. I don't own a salt grinder, can't remember ever seeing one in a professional kitchen, don't recommend people buy them. But it does produce a particular effect that you could prefer for some applications.
And in fact I suspect popcorn might be one of the places where it would shine. An even background of salt dust with bursts of intense saltiness from larger grains sounds good here. I'm not going to buy a salt grinder to test it but it's not an absurd idea.
I think you’re misunderstanding the use. It’s a different goal from grinding spices. It’s functional. And I’ve never seen powdered salt selling anywhere in Canada. (Except for expensive artisan stuff). So, the best way to achieve it is with a grinder+rock salt. I’ve been using a simple Amazon grinder and it’s easy to use.
Powdered salt tastes different not because of a differing chemical composition, but because of its different physical nature + your tongue.
>It’s a different goal from grinding spices. It’s functional.
Or... it's an after the fact rationalization for the cargo cult!
At best this might be your goal, for whatever reason. 99% of the people who cargo cult a salt grinder don't have that reason - and regular sold salt would be 100% OK for their purposes.
Okay c'mon now, are you even trying to understand/empathize with their argument at all?
Right off the bat any real consideration will make you aware that large particles will distribute very differently from small particles of the same volume.
Additionally that large particles will be substantively different from small particles in how they interact with the toungue. Eg large particles will "burn" more due to their extreme concentration and will be effectively "hot spots" of seasoning.
From just that it would be apparent that there would be truth to the claim of substantial difference in experience when using the two forms.
In my neck of the woods, unground salt is much, much cheaper than ground. Ground salt can basically be only found coming in a plastic dispenser. It could be argued that throwing all these plastic containers away isn't great for the environment.
I only realize that I've never thought of comparing, but I've got the habit of using unground salt when cooking. My grandmother used to do this for some reason, so I picked it up.
Unground salt is also useful for cleaning things, like cooking pans.
It's therefore easier to only buy salt in one big pack that lasts forever.
In london at Canary Wharf there is a 'German' pub that serves pretzels without salt on them! I tried explaining that they are all crinimals but they were just really confused!
For pop corn you need fine grained salt. A grinder lets you control that. It is only about the grain sizes. Nothing about freshness with salt.
With pepper it is about freshly releases aromatics.
I’ve never found a salt grinder able to sustain the salt corrosion in the long run. Sooner or later, salt is aggregating and turning even the more resistant parts into rust.
I was recently planning to get back to a regular pestle/mortar setup after yet another costly failure.
Did you manage to find a way to work this around?
What timescale are you talking about? I have a William Sonoma salt grinder, as well as one that my friend made for me. They're both about 5 years old. As far as I know there's no significant deterioration on either one. The grinding surfaces are ceramic.
A coffee grinder will quickly make a lot of really fine salt. I do that when I need to heat treat 3D printed parts to improve their material strength. You pack the part into fine salt, bake it at the original extrusion temperature, then slowly let it cool down. The plastic liquefies, and the packed salt holds its shape.
If you want a really fine grind in a hurry you can use one and get ok results. You have to let it rest every 30s or so to cool down or it heats the grounds too much. I liked to shake it while grinding too. It isn't quite Turkish grind and there are a few large pieces that won't get full extraction, but if you want really fast extraction (or fast intentional over extraction) it works.
And salt is a lot harder than a coffee bean. Blade is probably a really weak/soft metal. Might be harder than salt on the Mohs scale, but that just buys you time.
Blade also gets kicked around more going around the salt instead of grinding through, more bending = shorter lifespan.
You do need 100%, otherwise you'll end up with a void at the top once the plastic melts. You could experiment with intentionally designing in a "sprue" of extra material to melt and control where the void is, but I haven't tried it yet.
I've successfully used this method on a sun gear for a planetary gear box designed for a low speed, high torque application. Due to mechanical constraints, the gear only had about 1.2mm of wall thickness at a 5mm radius, and it was prone to shearing off. Remelting it in salt solved the shearing, without having to redesign anything else.
The shapes of the crystals affects the taste. If the salt is going to be dissolved, such as in pasta water, then grain-shape doesn't matter. Use the cheapest salt. But if the salt is going onto the surface of a food, such as in popcorn or a steak, then fresh-ground salt gives a more salty flavor per gram used. The salt grains that come already ground have a smooth texture like the smooth pebbles in a creek. Fresh-grinding gives the crystals a jagged, irregular shape. This enhances the effect when they hit your taste buds.
My conjecture: salt grinders create more irregular shapes than provided by commercially made table salt. Irregular shapes mean more surface area, which means faster absorption into the body, which means tastier food.
I'm a big fan of tomatoes, and one of my favorite dishes is sliced tomatoes, salted, and eaten with cheese.
For some reason, normal salt just sticks on the top of the tomato despite it being wet and I can "taste" the salt not just saltiness. However, with crunched salt crystals, they basically dissolve and disappear into the moisture of the tomato. This just tastes better too.
Don't ask me why or how it all happens, it's just what I've found using my taste buds.
Probably the anti-caking agents in the normal salt absorb some of the wetness and have it stay clumped up instead of diffusing through the tomato liquid
This comment reminded me that for the past few years I’ve been using a hand crank coffee grinder for my pepper and i don’t think I’ll ever go back. It’s perfect.
> Some salts mined in Pakistan are not suitable for food or industrial use without purification due to impurities... Although a study of pink salts commercially available in Australia showed Himalayan salt to contain higher levels of a range of elements, including calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, potassium, aluminum, barium, silicon, and sulfur, and reduced levels of sodium, compared to table salt, the authors concluded that "exceedingly high intake" (a level in excess of the recommended daily salt intake by almost 600%) would be required for the differences to be clinically significant, levels at which any potential nutritional benefit would be outweighed by the risks of elevated sodium consumption such an intake would entail.
Well, iodine is required for life so you better get some elsewhere, like from a supplement. It's not present in sufficient amounts in water or plants these days...
Lack of iodine in the diet was an issue 100 years ago, but not so much now.
According to the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements, tests have shown that the population in the United States is “iodine sufficient.” Most Americans who eat a varied diet get enough iodine even if they don’t use iodized salt. They are at little risk of iodine deficiency*
It links Americans being iodine sufficient to getting varied diet but that’s not a conclusion made by the source from what I can see.
The article also says bread is a good source of iodine when the source says it’s a very poor source of iodine.
So I think the article is making stuff up, linking a source but hoping no one will actually read it, and probably written by someone trying to get iodine supplements removed.
Normally I’d expect to see this kind of writing from some blog but not the NYT.
It’s worth it for anyone to read the article. Plenty of circumstances that could lead to deficiency.
I think the “varied diet” usually means Americans get enough through non-home use iodized salt (like processed/restaurant foods). As the article says, seafood (plant or not) and dairy are good iodine sources, if you consume them.
Not an expert on this, but after buying both types of salt from the same manufacturer and comparing them, the pre-ground one has a different texture and is less pleasant to eat; almost like it was mixed with dust.
I also don't use salt grinders, preferring coarse salt like Kosher or coarse sea salt on most dishes. However, to play Devil's advocate, a grinder is adjustable between fine and coarse.
It didn't sound plausible tbh since they add anti-caking agents and sugar seems like a pro-caking agent. I even googled salt additives (to keep the search neutral) and it didn't turn up sugar anywhere.
Yeah, no. I have no idea what that person is referencing. I've had all the available salts around me and I've literally never seen sugar in salt. That would be insane. They do use an anti caking agent sometimes though, but that's more like sand
That’s way too much work. Buy big bag of organic Amish baby corn. Buy a silicone popcorn maker. Toss a handful of popcorn in with some olive oil. Microwave for 3.5 minutes or until you hear only 2 pops a second. Sprinkle with salt. Done. Also a $20 bag will probably make more than a hundred bowls.
I was just about to post about the silicone popcorn makers. They’re amazingly practical, I’m super happy with mine, and I’m pretty sure it can’t get any easier than that. Some risk of burning your popcorn tho as the window between “most kernels popped” and “burnt” is relatively short, so until you figure out the correct timings for your microwave’s power, watch your fire alarms.
You can do this with brown paper lunch bags. Put some popcorn in a bag, fold the top so that it doesn't open when it expands, and hit the popcorn button.
I think that only applies to variations of “non stick” or grease repellant paper bags, which is often used by fast food joints to avoid the food sticking to the paper.
That article appears to be talking about the type of bags and wrappers you get from fast food joints. I don't think a standard "brown paper bag" contains PFAS.
Air poppers are great for efficiency and convenience, but I find the consistency a bit chewy for my taste. Efficiency and convenience usually wins though, which is also why microwave popcorn is such a hit.
I have a vague memory of using an air popper and as far as i remember it wasn’t allowed to add oil. With the silicone ones you add oil and salt at the beginning and can ensure a uniform distribution
It's really no different. Take a pot, toss in a handful of popcorn with some oil. Turn on stove for a couple of minutes until pops subside. Sprinkle with salt. Done.
I never bothered with the butter etc, though maybe I should.
I have experimented with various techniques: huge pot, wok, air popper, silicone bowls.
The silicone bowls are by far the best. Big consistent, crisp pops. Minimal waste, you can even repop the unopposed kernels. But easy to burn if you are not careful.
Air poppers are by far the worst. The pop corn always came out like styrofoam. I’d bite into the popcorn and it would just flatten.
I don’t believe the comments about getting minimal un-popped kernels using a pot, by just swirling around a bit of oil. Sounds like baloney to me. Results are good but waste is relatively high in a flat bottomed pot.
The best vessel for stove top is a metal container with a curved bottom - wok, large metal bowl. Add popcorn and oil as normal. Heat for about a minute. Turn the heat off. Stir the kernels for 30s to a minute to let the heat even out. Turn the heat back on and cover. As they pop shake the container to help the kernels settle to the bottom. The same technique can be used in a normal pot, but the heat distribution is not as good.
> I don’t believe the comments about getting minimal un-popped kernels using a pot, by just swirling around a bit of oil. Sounds like baloney to me.
It works, though!
I use an ordinary 3qt pot (Cuisinart MCP193-18N, if it matters; this is a tri-ply pot). Choose enough kernels to make a single layer on the bottom of the pot (that's about 1/2 cup for this one, if I'm remembering correctly... I'm usually on autopilot doing this though) and set aside. Add enough oil to the pot to basically half cover the single layer, or a bit more. Add five kernels to the pot and start the heat at medium-high to high. Add the rest of the kernels when 3/5 of the test kernels have popped. Cover with lid. You're done when the pot is full (and it will be!). Pour the popcorn into a separate bowl to season and serve.
According to https://www.healthline.com/health/body-modification/is-silic..., silicone utensils are unsafe to cook with above 220C, which I guess you're not going to reach popping popcorn. The list of potential conditions from silicone exposure aren't great. I couldn't find any studies at a quick search.
Well, I don’t believe it in the sense that I think these recipes are all missing out key steps. Because not everyone gets such good results. I sure don’t without extra steps.
I use this method with a flat bottom pot (peanut oil and salt only), and I find that if I don't shake it from time to time, it will sometimes burn a bit before all kernels have popped. So, about halfway done, I shake and/or vertically bump the pot to let kernels settle back to the bottom.
As the popping slows, I take the lid off entirely (there's enough popcorn at that point to keep new popping from splatter or jumping out), and add salt, and then rotate the bulk of the popped corn with a bump to one side, salt again, bump-rotate, etc, getting the salt on it evenly without letting it cool too much. I like popcorn that's just-popped hot.
Two other notes:
I only use peanut oil, because at fast popping temperatures, some oils smoke. The popcorn does not taste like peanuts, if you'd worry about that.
I use more oil than most commenters, such that the single layer of kernels (3/4 cup in my pot) are nearly submerged at the start. Cleanup is more involved than a wipe of the pot, but the popcorn is a lot tastier and I don't need any butter or parm.
IMO flavacol is essential. Oil type matters too, coconut oil gives more of a movie theater style flavor (OTOH maybe not as healthy as other options...)
You're probably thinking of the MCTs in coconut oil, which do seem to offer some health benefits, but coconut oil is also monstrously high in saturated fats (90% vs 14% for olive oil), and tons of studies show that saturated fat is relatively awful for the human body.
I recommend jalapeno popcorn. If you enjoy a spicy snack its great. Only difference is when you're heating up the oil, add some pickled jalapenos and cook them until they're crunchy--the oil will absorb the spiciness.
Also, try using coconut oil instead of canola oil to cook the popcorn--its pricier, but its a great taste. I think it removes the need to add butter afterwards.
You can get pretty varied with the seasoning too. Parmesan is my favorite, but I like Italian herbs, nutritional yeast, garlic powder. You can throw a bunch of stuff on there together.
Sprayed with cooking spray, then dusted with flavored gelatin power & quickly popped in the oven, you will get something that resembles those flavored popcorns with a sucker-like candy shell.
Popcorn is a magnificent flavor-vehicle! My personal favorite is to melt salt, ginger, and sugar in butter and toss the popcorn in that tasty mixture. Or just douse the popped-kernels in sriracha.
Kettle corn
* ¼ cup coconut oil
* ¼ cup white sugar
* ½ cup unpopped popcorn kernels
Heat oil first.
Use the 3 kernel method to make sure oil is hot enough then add sugar and rest of kernels.
Use a large lightweight pot with lid to shake every few seconds or you get uneven coated or crispy burnt pieces.
I tried different oils and sugar mixes but coconut with white sugar seems the best.
I read there are ways to use an air fryer also but haven’t tried yet.
My household follows this method, though we find high heat, while extremely efficient, frequently results in chewy output.
In my experiments heating the pan and oil to a medium-high temperature, just before smoking, with 3-4 test kernels preloaded allows them to generate an alert by their popping, signalling the optimal time for addition of the rest of the kernel package.
I love movie theater popcorn so I often try to get that exact experience at home. The biggest leap in quality for me is using a tall pot and a colander on top, it achieves the same goal as your paper towel between the lid-- getting that excess moisture out of the pot really makes all the difference!
The butter oil is a bit of a pain as there is so much of it and you can not really buy in small quantities, and it will go rancid before you use it all. It is meant for movie theaters to use. I have not found any supermarket versions that are correct. Usually they are kinda gross.
You can use a coconut oil for cooking with. Most theaters do not do this at all. The butter oil is closest to the same as movie theater as that is what they use during cooking and topping at the end. I personally use the coconut oil when cooking as it imparts a nice texture and flavor to the popcorn. 1-2 tsps for cooking with for either. Then top with the butter oil.
The flavacol and butter oil are the key ingredients.
For the popcorn I just buy orville redenbacher popcorn. They have a decent process of removing the duds before they get into the container. You can buy generic just expect a few duds.
* 3 tablespoons bacon grease
* 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
Put the bacon grease in a large pot and add three kernels of popcorn. Heat it on half heat (5 on a gas burner, anyway) until the three kernels all pop -- this will usually be the point at which smoke from the grease is accumulating in the pot (if you have a large lid you can watch). Once the three pop, dump the rest in. Scoot the pot vigorously back and forth on the stove to shake the unpopped kernels to the bottom. Turn off the heat when the popping stops.
Pour in a bowl and salt to taste. No butter required. As above, you get almost no unpopped kernels this way!
We use "rainbow popcorn," which is multi-color and we think tastes better. It doesn't pop as big as the regular yellow kind.
I'll have to try the paper towel trick, especially with the smaller pot I sometimes use.
I love popcorn. And this might be arrogant. As I might come around like the extremist (that I am). But I am reading here between the lines, that even with popcorn, there is a lot that could be done better for the environment:
- gas is not renewable. I hope we can get away from that
- once popping starts you turn of the stove, does this mean you have fairly solid pans that keep the heat long? I don't think that is sustainable either
- You put butter in the popcorn? Well that is also not sustainable either.
- Then you add Parmesan, well that makes it even worse.
- You use a paper towel, that you toss away
Why do we just happen to glance over those issues so easily?
Knowing full well that you enjoy the popped corn enough to develop such a method. The one thing that took my basically verbatim instructions to the next level, was to add some “Butter Salt” in with the oil so the kernels are coated as they pop. It’ll give it that movie theatre yellow colour. It’s potent so not too much.
Also I usually toss in 3 kernels to the oil. When they pop you add the 1/3 cup as the oil is preheated and ready to get to work.
> Cover, put on high (I use gas). I like to suspend a paper towel between the lid and the rest of the pot, absorbs excess oil and water.
Cool tip, thanks. I use basically the same steps except fort this one. Living in a high humidity environment (it's rarely below 70%), any step to reduce excess moisture helps improve the crunchiness of the popcorn.
I have stopped using paper towels after discovering those "flour sack" towels at Menards. I bought a lot of them so there is always a stack in the kitchen. They are a joy to use and easily replace paper towels for 99% of their functions. We still keep paper towels but the roll lasts forever now.
> I like to suspend a paper towel between the lid and the rest of the pot, absorbs excess oil and water.
Interesting. I like to keep that excess oil/water, as that extra moisture on the surface of the popcorns later helps the sugar/salt stick to it - without the need for additional butter/grease.
I'm somewhat of a fanatic on popcorn style... Take with a grain of salt.
> Take one large pot (the kind that holds like 10qts).
Ideally a dutch oven or similar heavy bottom that distributes heat well. This makes the process nearly foolproof on any heat source.
> Add a bit of oil, basically just enough to swirl and have everything covered in an oil sheen, not enough to have them submerged.
If you are looking for "movie theatre" popcorn the "secret" is using (extra virgin) coconut oil along with flavacol dissolved in the heated oil with the kernels popped in it. I use 2-3tbps of coconut oil and 2tsp of flavacol for 3/4 cup worth of kernels.
Flavacol should not be used as a topping imo, but as part of the popping substrate.
> Cover
This is tricky. Covering traps moisture released during popping, and moisture results in soggy (or at least not crisp!) popcorn. You do need some sort of cover though for obvious reasons.
I found a pot+metal strainer combo that fits perfectly together, where the strainer has about as many holes in it as you could get away with without creating oil splash mess. This lets as much steam as possible out immediately upon popping with as little kernel contact as possible. A more easy to come by lid is using a mesh oil cover meant for deep frying.
The commercial poppers accomplish this by having a very small popping pan, which kernels get "pushed out" of fairly quickly after they pop into a well vented holding tub.
> Toss 1/8 cup butter in the hot pot, melt the butter with residual heat.
Disagree on butter on popcorn, but it's a personal preference. I find butter makes popcorn soggy due to water content - and the flavacol+coconut oil is typically what most US theatre chains use vs. real butter, so it's what I "expect" the flavor to be. That said, I sometimes do melt up some butter to switch things up.
> Salt(I prefer a salt grinder)
I prefer pre-made popcorn salt in a wide metal popcorn salt shaker to really get a nice even spread.
> transfer back to the mixing bowl.
One trick: If you are making a lot of popcorn "to go" (e.g. for a party later) the best way I've found to keep it fresh is inside doubled-up paper grocery shopping bags. This helps soak up residual moisture, and the difference is noticeable after a few hours.
I remember my family doing this when I was a child. You can return to the television and listen for the popping to slow if you wish. Returning to the kitchen and finding the lid wasn't placed on pot is tragic comedy. Sweep and mop, the floor will be oily. I think it only happened once.
Buy a 20 USD hot air popcorn machine. No unpoped kernels and you add as little or as much oil/butter etc you want at the end. No cleanup needed either. Only downside is that they are loud.
If you have time, or have pre-made it, using clarified butter results in a better final product. I keep some in the fridge all the time. Ghee would probably work similarly, but I have never tried it.
Microwave is also fine, I just use a Pyrex bowl put in kernels and cover with a non-metal plate. The plate is necessary or they end up everywhere except the bowl.
I would avoid normal butter. I use ghee instead. The problem with butter is that it has water content that can cause the popcorn to get soggy. Ghee avoids that.
But I prefer to measure butter (and most other things -- especially sticky/messy/powdery things) by weight because it's easier. 1 cup of butter weighs about 227 grams, so 1/8 cup is about 27 grams.
Most American cookbooks use volume measures for baking because most of us don’t own scales. It sometimes leads to wildly inconsistent results when an ingredient is compacted too much.
I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't get this joke until I reread it a few times. Probably because my entire life, I've internally pronounced "qt" as "quart". It took a bit before I realized the joke was shooting for "cutie".
I used the common Unix "units" program, and entered quarts and asked for l (i.e., litres). Maybe it used my locale? GNU programs can be crazy like that.
Reminder that PFAS is so pervasive that researchers can't design studies with a proper control group. i.e. they virtually cannot find anyone in the world without PFAS in their blood.
Dupont/3M did (and continue to do) a level of harm on par with CFCs and leaded gasoline, with complete regulatory impunity.
At some point the ICC needs to extend the crimes against humanity/nature to something like crimes against Human Health.
> Dupont/3M did (and continue to do) a level of harm
3M is on The Economist today with relevance to this matter:
> 3M, an American conglomerate, agreed to pay cities and utilities $12.5bn to settle thousands of lawsuits that had alleged chemicals emitted by the firm's products had polluted drinking-water supplies
This is absurd. The GDP of the entire world is on the order of ~$100T. How can this article claim that 15% of all GDP is spent/lost due to PFAS without going through absurd calculations like how long it would take to remove every bit of it from water supplies using current inefficient methods? (Obv I'm not paying for a euobserver subscription)
The top 12 PFAS producers in the world and the staggering societal costs of PFAS pollution
Only twelve companies account for a majority of the PFAS production in the world. PFAS production is hardly profitable, but the cost for society is massive.
Nice. I’m guessing that’ll barely cover a years worth of filtration (which they won’t ever spend it on anyway). What about the next 100 years? Let them profit because oligarchy?
If the true cost of this damage were paid, 3M would be driven to bancrupsy. Maybe then the next conpany would not be so gun-ho about dumping strange chemicals.
This is your regular reminder that many of the wealthy are only so, because they never pay for the consequences of their actions.
Littering was a social norm when these chemicals were invented. Even today, most Americans eat meat from factory farms, drive gas powered cars, and throw most trash in a landfill. Problems that will have to eventually be fixed.
If you’re born into this kind of society are you going to handicap yourself by holding yourself to a stricter set of rules than everyone else? The ‘yes’ and ‘no’s to that question don’t fall neatly into class lines.
If you want to be proactive about problems you need the political will to create and enforce rules. But nobody votes for rules that make people’s lives worse now, but future generations lives better. You can’t just blame rich people for that.
The political will didn’t exist for pfas back then, and it doesn’t exist for things like water scarcity, or antibiotic resistance, or e-waste today.
Knowingly poisoning people is a criminal offence, and always was. They knew their workers were dying from it, they had done studies that show it’s toxic.
No new laws are needed.
This is not the case of finding loopholes in laws or pushing a problem off to the next generation, like climate change.
This is a corporation profiting off someone’s death and getting away with it.
> Reminder that PFAS is so pervasive that researchers can't design studies with a proper control group. i.e. they virtually cannot find anyone in the world without PFAS in their blood.
The very pervasiveness argues against PFAS being that bad for humans in real life. Despite pretty much everyone having PFAS in their blood, at a global level, health is probably better than ever and most health problems are from refined sugars and sedentary lifestyle than anything that can be attributed to PFAS.
However, how do you go after people who have so much money they can literally buy their way out of any appropriate punishment? We need something stronger than the ICC.
> The researchers found that people who ate microwave popcorn every day over the course of a year had levels of PFAS that were up to 63% higher than average.
As far as I could tell the relevant study [1] merely finds association rather than causation. This is often the best you can do in the nutrition field though. I have not yet read through the entire contents.
[1] Herbert P. Susmann, Laurel A. Schaider, Kathryn M. Rodgers, and Ruthann A. Rudel. 2019. Dietary Habits Related to Food Packaging and Population Exposure to PFASs. Environmental Health Perspectives 127, 10 (October 2019). DOI:https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP4092
Even double blinded randomized cross over trials only shows associations. That doesn’t mean you can’t make reasonable casual inferences after looking at the balance of evidence. Else we couldn’t even infer that smoking causes cancer, something most people have to bite the bullet on when they denounce nutrition science.
? You can show causation by having a test group and a control group.
Just get N people. Have the control group eat pot cooked popcorn and have the experimental group eat microwave.
You can’t get causation by just observing, but once you are willing to make someone do something, then it’s pretty easy to arrive at.
I tried to verify the GP quote but actually couldn’t find it in the study - but if it’s true, people who eat microwave popcorn every day for a year is an extreme population in all sorts of ways. I don’t eat anything every day for a year, much less popcorn.
Who is going to fund a study designed to find causation of high pfas blood levels?
The corn producers, the microwave popcorn brands? If any of them ever does, be sure that the study will either find no proof of causation or not be published
The quote is in the original UCLA Health article, not the study.
"Research suggests that people who regularly consume microwave popcorn have markedly higher levels of PFAS in their bodies. A study published in 2019 analyzed a decade of data about the eating habits of 10,000 people, which was collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2003 and 2014. Blood samples from the study participants were also collected. The researchers found that people who ate microwave popcorn every day over the course of a year had levels of PFAS that were up to 63% higher than average."
A lot of studies are done on high-level, competitive NCAA / college athletes. Both cuz they're, like, already at a university, but also NCAA has mandatory physicals, and high level athletics lends itself to controlled lifestyles.
Both tend to rule out most health issues as well; in theory you can be diabetic and play NCAA Div 1 ball, but selection bias tends to weed them out, while the Army explicitly does so.
it's cheap, even vegan probably (if not buttered), not full of sugar, etc. what's wrong with it? yes, every day seems suboptimal, but it's not trivial to have a varied balanced healthy diet, and folks need to eat every day (usually at least twice).
The reality of commercial microwave popcorn is the problem, not the "idea" of microwave popcorn, if that makes sense.
What I mean is, if you make homemade microwave popcorn with good oils and a pinch of salt it's presumably fine. But the cheap packets you buy in the store, brand-name or not, are full of crap - rancid, cheap oils, additives and preservatives of all kinds, weird artificial flavors, almost certainly a ridiculous amount of salt and sugar, and now possibly packaging that's of such poor quality it leeches PFAs. It's not the corn that's the problem.
I mean, the study states clearly that the PFAS are in the "food contact materials" in question, here, which are the microwave popcorn bags. Then they end up in the people. Kind of open and shut.
> In a plant where workers with uncontrolled exposures to butter-flavoring chemicals in microwave popcorn production had rapidly developed severe, irreversible lung disease, increased ventilation and isolation of flavor sources in mixing, holding tanks, and microwave popping decreased the risk for most workers.
Put 1/3 cup kernels in a large brown paper lunch bag and fold the top down several times. Microwave as normal, bag standing up, listening for pops to slow down. Air pops in the bag with no issues.
I do this too. I also use a food scale to weigh out the popcorn within about a gram. I figured out the number of seconds required, so I no longer have to listen.
The process is surprisingly reproducible. I get very few unpopped kernels, usually around 5 of them.
66g of popcorn (that's two servings, according to the label).
2 minutes and 8 seconds.
After cooking, add oil/butter and popcorn salt, then toss. Popcorn salt likes to fall to the bottom, so after tossing, I put on the popper lid, carefully flip it upside down, and shake.
Also, I use a silicone popper, not a paper bag. (Above, I meant to reply to a different comment.)
I'm eating some right now, turns out. When I'm done, I'll edit this comment with a count of unpopped kernels. :-)
I'm using one called Salbree from Amazon. But looking at the pictures of the other ones, many brands of them look identical, like they're made in the same factory.
I'll give this try, although after reading about the problem with PFAS and microwave popcorn a few months ago I switched to Jiffy pop and it's pretty fun.
It depends on the shape and size. Smooth metal spoon in the microwave will be fine, a fork in the microwave will get electrical arcs and possibly destroy your microwave.
Personally I'd just use some kind of metal-free chip clamp instead of actual staples, just to be safe.
It's not even very obvious what won't arc. FreshDirect sells pre-cooked turkey burgers. They come in a metal container with the edges bent over in a way to allow a plastic lid to snap on. Their official cooking instructions stay to just remove the lid and put the container in the microwave. It was surprising, but it doesn't have any arcing issues.
The microwaved popcorn is much crisper. Really surprised me. Not that the whirlypopper is a lot of work but the microwave is even quicker since there is little mess.
Cool, I was wondering if there were any similar health concerns I wasn't thinking of with the comment. Not that eating popcorn is exactly a healthy choice. I've been looking into alternative popcorn popping ideas and friends have given great reviews (and great samples over the years :) ) of the whirlypop so I've been considering that along with an airpopper.
I'll give that paper bag trick a try sometime, thanks!
An oncologist in my family anecdotally told me how her patients are getting younger and younger - speculates (with research) that lots of food chemicals might be contributing.
Since the beginning of this year, our family has been much more conscious of the ingredients in the food labels. Lots of additives with many different numbers. We've been trying to get back to more natural things with less numbers. We bought breadmaker and started making our own bread (fun and messy). Bought a second hand ice cream maker (fun, tedious, but yum). Never knew how simple popcorn making was! Lots of colours of vegetables, home-grown spring onions. Our grocery bills on vegetables and fruits went up sharply. But it went down on crackers, chocolates and other things sharply.
I don't feel anything - but it helps me to think that I'm eating less numbers.
The numbers are not bad, and in many cases they might even be totally natural (eg. e330 citric acid, the acid present on citrus fruits).
I worry more about what's not in the labels (like pesticides used, antibiotics in meats, packaging etc). Your approach seems to be directionally correct tho, if you source your ingredients right.
I believe a lot of this is leached from packaging, not even put directly in the food. How about we stop using plastic foil, foil laminated paper and plastic trays for everything? Glass was fine, plain paper was fine, waxed paper was fine, even non-laminated cans are fine.
That's why I'm so happy Yuka exists. It's an app that scans barcodes of foodstuffs or cosmetics, and gives you an easy and clear scoring of the stuff inside them based on how good are they for you and for the planet (e.g. too much sugar, lots of protein, high impact on the environment, local or not, additives, etc.).
Of course it doesn't work on stuff without barcodes like vegetables and fruit, meat bought fresh, etc. but still it's extremely helpful and useful.
Less ironically the nonstick surfaces do not leach much of those after an initial bake cycle, unless you scrape them.
Much less than, say, a plastic bottle.
But if you're really bothered by this, you can actually get a non-stick ceramic coated insert instead.
Or do it the classic way with steel or glass and fat, just like cake.
I thought at first that the existing patients are getting better and looking younger thanks to the chemicals, rather than the new patients being younger than the previous ones.
My great grandmother was a housewife in the 50s so that would include things like a "salad" made of mayo and nuts on a banana or a jello dish full of tuna.
It removes flouride as well, for better or worse -- one of very few available filters which do. (Some think flouride is good and some think it's bad.)
I have it, and purely ergonomically, it's the best filter I've ever used. It's also quite expensive with expensive filters that need replacing frequently.
This isn't a some think it's good and some think it's bad kind of thing. Just like with climate change there's no legitimate other side.
Fluoride in your water supply is key to reducing tooth decay. Every medical association every scrap of evidence that we have says it's useful and important. It cuts tooth decay by 25% or so at all ages. You're doing yourself and your family a massive disservice by not adding it back in, never mind causing yourself a lot of pain and losing a lot of money in the long term.
I think it's ironic that people don't listen to doctors when they suggest simple proven methods that have a worldwide consensus behind them and unlimited evidence. But then are willing to let those same doctors drill into their skulls when they're in pain. Don't be that person :)
Nanohydroxypatite seems more effective than fluoride. But stannous fluoride looks like it has more overall benefits than sodium fluoride if you want to go to the fluoride route.
Some toothpaste have both, Dr jens for example which does have the 10% concentration shown most effective in clinical trials
> A study published in 2019 analyzed a decade of data about the eating habits of 10,000 people, which was collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2003 and 2014. Blood samples from the study participants were also collected. The researchers found that people who ate microwave popcorn every day over the course of a year had levels of PFAS that were up to 63% higher than average.
1. Is it too much to ask for a link to the original research in an article like this?
2. Given that every human alive has detectable levels of PFAS in blood, 63% elevation after eating every single day of the year doesn't seem like a lot.
3. Those advocating popping in pans/pots might want to consider what that pan/pot is coated with.
Most people stove top pop in a 8 or 10 qt pot. These are typically for making pasta, boiling potatoes, soups, or stews. Usually bare metal or enameled cast iron. No PFAs.
One more reason not to eat microwave popcorn: at least here in Australia, the prepackaged oil is invariably bottom-of-the-barrel palm oil, and there's lots of it in there.
Once I learned you can just microwave plain kernels in a paper bag, I threw out all of our microwave popcorn. Even low-salt/low-fat is much saltier and richer than I prefer. Now with this PFAS news, it's yet another reason to ditch the prepackaged popcorn.
I feel this is somewhat misleading.
One does not have to use these microwave popcorn bags, I have cooked popcorn in a microwave using a normal glass bowl, albeit covered with a plate.
No oil required.
I use clarified butter instead of oil so that the popcorn soaks it in immediately after popping.
Every time I take a bite, it’s like a buttery explosion.
I recommend taking it off heat for 30 seconds after adding all the kernels so they all heat up to an even temperature and roast a little in the butter. Use a screen to cover the pot rather than a lid so that steam can escape and your popcorn stays crunchy.
I've been using chicken fat collected from roasting chickens, simmered down and stored in a Ball jar (aka schmaltz)
It tolerates the high heat of popcorn popping quite well and tastes great with a hint of chicken. Usually has notes of the seasoning too... which in my case is mostly black pepper.
+1 on the screen hack, that's definitely a pro-tip.
This sounds delicious. I bet it combines well with sweetness too. I've found that when I do stovetop popcorn I can get sugar to caramelise around the popcorn to produce a crunchy shell. This with a little chicken hint inside would go down well I reckon.
I did it because I was doing stuff that caused me to get "the munchies" every night and a 440 calorie bag of popcorn was better for my health than an entire family sized bag of chips every night.
Right … but it’s not unreasonable to buy your kid microwave popcorn unless you know it’s harmful which one would assume is not the case since you can get it in the supermarket. So like, the people who were included in the study were obviously consuming the popcorn in the absence of the study.
Microwave popcorn (in the bag) is garbage. I found I much prefer using a silicone popper [1], and then adding my own butter/salt to it. Tastes just like when I use an air popper. Since that approach doesn't use the popcorn bag, would it then be free from PFAS?
From the other stuff in the url I'm pretty sure OP just copied the link from an ad to Amazon, not created their own affiliate link (which would be crass but par for the course in the techbro hustle we live in I guess)
30 days?! That seems shockingly generous for Amazon. What happens when someone has a handful of overlapping affiliate clicks? Do the referrers all split the pool or most-recent wins?
Or simply use large saucepan. Pour some oil to cover its base, wait until the oil gets high temperature, pour corn. Then, shake it every now and then. We used to make tons of them when we were kids and even now I make it occasionally, when we do movie nights at home
I've found I burn the popcorn often with this. Maybe just a lack of experience (we always had an air popper growing up). You can also use small amounts of butter (or I guess oil if you wanted) with the silicone popper or air popper. Having enough oil to cover the base seems like a lot more oil? I could be wrong, just guessing.
There's an element of practice too. Ideally, you want a very thin layer of oil to cover the base, or maybe even less. It doesn't need to be a lot. Also an average saucepan would produce quite a lot popcorn
To prevent burning, shaking and occasionally lifting off the hob is required. Also not adding too much corn helps a lot. The maximum a saucepan can take is when the entire base is covered with them.
I use this method as well. To add some specifics, I use a 4 qt saucepan to produce enough for two people. I use enough oil to liberally cover the bottom (glug glug). This is not diet food, excess oil tends to remain in the pot anyway, and I believe most of the heat transfer is oil to corn as opposed to from the pot itself, so you need ample hot oil for a good batch.
To judge when the oil is hot enough for the corn, I add 3 kernels to the initial pot + oil. Once those 3 kernels pop, add enough corn to cover the base of the pan, swirl the hot oil w/ the new kernels, replace cover, but leave slightly ajar to allow steam to escape, and then yeah, a couple more swirls & you should have a perfect batch in about a minute or so.
I've found 50% oil by volume to kernels works great.
Eg 1/3 cup kernels, fill same cup halfway (1/6 cup), add flavacol to the oil in the measuring cup & stir, mix with kernels in a saucepan over heat. Love life
You may be using too high a heat. I've found the highest setting on my stovetop makes it a pretty high probability some popped kernels will burn (or many if I make a mistake) but a lower setting is sufficient to pop almost every kernel and reduce the risk of burning with techniques people describe in other posts. The air popper I tried tended to leave quite a few unpopped kernels with the same corn kernels I use on the stove top.
Yep. Got a silicone popper and love it. Much more efficient than stovetop, too.
Decide if you like white or yellow corn, find a good brand, and buy it cheap, in-bulk, for a cheap and nutritious snack. You'll notice significant variation in unpopped kernels between brands.
I spray my kernels lightly with avocado oil and sprinkle popcorn salt(finer than normal to improve adhesion) before popping. I eat at least one large bowl a day now.
Depends on your priorities. There is some recent evidence that silicone leaches chemicals into food, but if that's not important to you, then sure, microwave it.
Is it the microwaves effect on the popcorn, or the fake butter that might cause "popcorn lung" if the fumes get inhaled, getting modified into PFAs by microwaving?
If it's the first, I'd expect almost everything you nuke to be at least a risk of PFAs. If its the second, that's easier to deal with by avoiding fake popcorn butter.
> They are also widely used in paper products meant to hold foods that are hot, gooey or greasy. That includes the wrappers that hold fast food, and, as you noted in your letter, microwave popcorn bags.
Make oil-free microwave popcorn by buying a collapsible silicone bowl, filling it with kernels, and nuking it for 3 minutes. Low calorie snack, no mess, no cleanup. I find salt sticks to it best afterward by sprinkling with a little water.
Popcorn is 30cal per cup which is low calorie. Since you mention reading a label, the thing you’re getting fat from isn’t the popcorn but the fat added to it.
The comment you reply to specifically mentions oil-less popcorn which is a low calorie stack and a good source of fiber once you get used to not lathering it in butter or olive oil.
I believe that people who eat microwave popcorn have higher PFAS levels as the study suggests.
I'm a bit skeptical about microwave popcorn increases PFAS as the study doesn't really answer this question. People eating microwave popcorn might be different from those who don't eat it and the real source could be something else.
But I'm only a bit skeptical as it sounds plausible that the manufacturers probably use PFAS-contaminated surfaces in the production.
Fast food also. Not shocking since it’s all served in grease-blocking packaging.
It’s always depressing to eat inside a fast food restaurant, where they wrap all of your food in chemically treated packaging you almost immediately discard since it’s presumably cheaper and simpler than having washable dishes.
Take heart, because all the dishes and silverware in an upscale restaurant are likewise coated in contact poison. The reason being is that kitchens don't have the patience to air-dry their dishes, so they use chemical drying agents. These drying agents are toxic and they tend to leave a residue everywhere. So enjoy your fast food and know that you are in good company, no matter the number of Michelin stars.
I'm sympathetic to this point of view but unless we're linking these so called toxins with a worse outcome how can we know they're actually causing harm? In all likelihood we'll die of a heart attack before any amount of toxins give us super cancer or whatever.
Having just started my dishwasher with a rinse aid, I checked on some of the ingredients. All of them slightly toxic w/ little potential to bioaccumulate.
Do you know what chemicals or products restaurants tend to use?
My dishwasher manual suggested using white vinegar as a rinse aid alternative. I thought it might make the dishes smell like vinegar but it's been fine.
The Swedish brand of "micropop" I buy every now and then has a label on the box stating that the bag is made without perfluorated substances. I have no means of testing it, but I believe them.
Try the stovetop method with preferred oil and then drizzle honey before heating. Higher risk of burning, more shaking is needed. When popped, lightly salt. Make sure to rinse the pot with water while still hot to not allow sticky burnt sugars to get solidified for an easier cleanup.
Truly, microwave popcorn is atrocious for all sorts of reasons.
As top vote getting comment points out, regular popcorn is SO easy and SO much better. I have no idea why anyone wants to make microwave popcorn when the regular way is just as easy, taste better, and in now demonstrably healthier.
Certain brands (e.g. SkinnyPop) advertise their bags as "chemical-free" (SkinnyPop claims their's is free of PFOAS). Can anyone help me understand/verify these kinds of claims?
An air popper is a special tool, but it's easier to use than a pot, uses no oil, and takes up less space than an equivalent pot since the popcorn can be diverted into a bowl as it pops. Recommended!
we use an old fashioned stove top metal popper with a hand crank to stir it. use a bit of organic coconut oil and organic popcorn kernels and salt. its very easy to do.
Take one large pot (the kind that holds like 10qts).
Cover the bottom with kernels.
Add a bit of oil, basically just enough to swirl and have everything covered in an oil sheen, not enough to have them submerged.
Cover, put on high (I use gas). I like to suspend a paper towel between the lid and the rest of the pot, absorbs excess oil and water.
Once popping slows, turn off the stove. Dump popcorn into large mixing bowl.
Toss 1/8 cup butter in the hot pot, melt the butter with residual heat.
Pour popcorn back in and toss to get the popcorn evenly lightly buttered, transfer back to the mixing bowl.
Salt(I prefer a salt grinder) and toss, add a bit of grated Parmesan and toss.
There should be less than 10 unpopped kernels, no burned popcorn at all.
Cleanup is a wipe down of the large pot with the moisture capture paper towel.