Comments on: Movie Theatre Popcorn Secret Ingredient?

By: John G

John G — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 19:47:58 +0000

I have been wanting to figure this out too: how to make that theater popcorn. Reading this site helped a lot. And I have made great progress.

This works well, still not absolutely perfect, but much better than home made! It reminds me more of the department store popcorn from when I was a kid. NO need to add salt or butter to your bag of popcorn (glutten!), good yellow coloring .

My popper looks like a theater machine, hanging pot, tilting kettle, motorized agitator, etc, but it is quite small, only 2.5 ounces per batch, though I found I can overload it by 50% and it still works fine. Here it the best recipe I have tested:

First, if your kettle is totally clean and dry, oil it first, you need that pre-existing oil film inside the kettle.

Preheat the (already used once with some oil residue still in the pot) kettle until it begins to barely smoke. Add 1 tablespoon Gregg's ready to use popcorn oil ($15 per gallon at cash and carry) The new oil will cool the pot slightly. Immediately add 1/8th to 1/4 teaspoon Flavacol salt to the oil in the kettle. Before it begins to smoke again add 1/2 to 3/4 cup popcorn kernels. When the popping stops shut off the heat and dump the kettle.

Use Powdered popcorn salt to salt to taste, but I don't add anything on account the Flavacol already salted the popcorn while popping.

I tried the exact same recipe but using a solid popcorn oil Lou-Ana Coco-PoP, but the results were inferior. I wondered that this solid shortening maybe was too old on the retailer's shelf, it seems to have a very slight stale taste. If that was not there it would be fine, so probably I got an old batch, I would encourage you to try it, it's cheap.

Also I tried variations, including just flavacol and clear corn oil, diluted Gregg's oil with corn oil, etc. I had a great time experimenting, and watched some of my favorite dvd movies to pas the time between batches. Your best bet I think is to invest in these supplies and play with the recipes and experiment.

Cheers!

By: popcornmonster

popcornmonster — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 14:11:53 +0000

hello, thx for great info, i tried today with coconut oil with aluminum kettle, result was dissapointing. Because of low smoke point, i did not make it on medium high flame as i usually do, i tried with low at first but of course it takes ages to pop, and i noticed all oil vaporized. Left too many unpopped kernels and popped corns tasted dry and no oily like hot air machines do.

in second run, i make it medium high flame, i saw coconut oil giving white smoke and vaporized again and popped corns tasted dry and no oily again...

i dunno what im doing wrong, im suspicious about coconut oil's quality. It smells like cough syrup and vaporized easly. Any ideas???

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 03:31:49 +0000

The movie theater I go to. Dose let me go in there and buy a bag of POP cken and take it home

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:39:00 +0000

We purchased your jumbo pop secret popcorn. We were very disatisfied with it. It wouldn’t pop. Was full of hulls and so many seeds left unpopped. Would not purchace it again. This was a jar of popcorn. We tried to make popcorn balls with it and gave most of it to the birds.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 06:29:00 +0000

http://www.coconut-connections.com/healthiest_oil.htm

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 11:28:56 +0000

Since movie theatres make the bulk of their profit off of the refreshment stand, they should allow people to walk in and buy the popcorn fresh to take home – supply closeable bags instead of the ones you eat instantly. I’d probably go once a week to get a big bag for the family movie night! It could be a great source of extra revenue. I bet a lot of people would drop by to grab some popcorn for movies at home.

By: jn

jn — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 03:45:08 +0000

i rent a poper from snappy and use mega pop and snappy butter burst

By: Wayne Kuhn

Wayne Kuhn — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 03:58:50 +0000

Check out Dr. Russel Blaylock-a neurosurgeon converted to nutrition research. Coconut oil and butter are actully very healthy oils, if one does not turn the temp to high and make them smoke. Both butter and coconut oil are naturnally hydrogenated (very different from artificial hydrogenation-especially partial hydrogenation) In addition, coconut oil is composed largely of mediam chained trygilcerides-making them easy to digest. However, if you see on the label of ingredients anything like partially or artifically hydrogenated-avoid it. Many controlled studies show that short lived mammels (mice and rats)when fed diets of partially hydrogenated fats, develop many life threatning conditions (clogged arteries and cancer to name two. Falvacol is definitely not on my menu. Wayne Kuhn

By: Cecil

Cecil — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 01:18:44 +0000

I like to use an air popper, and a large tupperware tub. As the popcorn pops into the tub, I use a spray bottle, and spritz with good extra-virgin olive oil every few seconds to coat the kernels well, shake it thoroughly, then spinkle lightly with Flavacol while still hot. GOOD STUFF!

By: Gray-haired engineer

Gray-haired engineer — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:18:05 +0000

If you want fluffy kernels, take some dry popcorn, put it in a glass jar, cover it with water, pour the water off, then put it in the refrigerator for a few days.

Lots of water content in the kernels, and when they hit hot oil they get very excited. MUCH fluffier than normal.