I think one of my favorite foods in the entire world is popcorn from the theater. I know it's not exactly healthy for you, especially because I always get the extra butter flavoring. We don't go to movies very often (I think we have seen one movie in the past year) so I figure a treat like this once in a while isn't going to kill me. However, I recently found out it's possible to make it at home. I like the bagged popcorn okay and even popcorn from the air popper is good but nothing compares to the popcorn from the movie theater.
It turns out the secret ingredient is coconut oil. I cannot STAND coconut so I found this really surprising. I've also heard that it's hard to find in stores but it's easier to find online.
It also matters what popping device you use. People recommend a hand-turned crank kettle as the cheap way to do it and the expensive way to do it is a home version of the commercial popcorn machines.
The type of corn you use doesn't really matter but make sure it's fresh. It's also best if it comes in plastic instead of a bag but I'm not sure how big of a difference that makes.
The salt and butter are also very important. Most people add salt to the oil so it distributes evenly. Some places recommend getting the powdered salt so it's like a cloud of salt that helps spread evenly also. The butter is supposed to be clarified (which is a whole process that I'll let you look up on your own) but I kind of think that you could use regular melted butter and not have a problem. I think it depends on how picky you're going to be. If you want it to taste EXACTLY like the theater, it's going to be more costly and time consuming than making a few tweaks. However you make it, it will end up cheaper than the theater popcorn because they definitely jack up the price.
Let me know if any of you try to make your own. I want to try but I'm not sure it's worth all the work. I think I might just save it as a treat for the theater.
Coconut oil is getting really common. I can't speak for "conventional" grocery stores, but Trader Joe's and the co-ops have it. Sometimes it's with the lotions since you can also apply it to your skin, but it's the same stuff either way. Matt hates coconut too but i've made some things with coconut oil that he really likes.
ReplyDeleteI didn't look for it myself but the sites I was looking at were telling me that it was hard to find. It's also encouraging to know about making things with the oil that Matt likes because I think I scared David off movie theater popcorn now.
ReplyDeleteIt does taste a little coconut-y. I think Matt's aversion to coconut is more the texture of the flakes than the taste. You can use some of mine if you want.
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