I eat popcorn fairly often and I was wondering if I can improve on the taste with minimal effort. Do you guys know any good mix I could use instead of salt alone?
flavacol – “better living through chemistry”
I was about to scroll by because I have nothing helpful to add, when I saw the last few words „…instead of salt alone“. Salt? You guys are wild! The only thing that belongs on popcorn is sugar (and this way I‘m showing that I‘m German, I guess, while you prove to be from the US, I think. Taste is funny. Enjoy).
Not from US! I’m from Brazil and sugary popcorn is very common here, I don’t particularly like it though.
Hah, I guessed wrong then. To be honest, I only tried salty popcorn about 20 years ago, so maybe I should give it another chance. The idea to use bbq herbs or other stuff sounds cool, actually.
Sugar is really the thing to add to popcorn over there? That’s wild. Here in Norway we’re all about the salt and butter also.
In the movies they sell popcorn, everywhere. And 99% it’s sweet, in some rare cases they have both. But never, ever it’s only salty. Butter sounds nice, actually. I might buy that when I see it one day 🤔
Well, there are the few of us over here who like to enjoy salted popcorn. But I guess we are a minority…
You can get popcorn with sweet stuff in the US. My dad used to carmelize sugar in a pan and make cracker jack. And chocolate-covered.
But it’s more-frequently a savory snack.
I didn’t know that sweet popcorn was a bigger deal in Germany, interesting.
Chocolate-covered? I’m in! Never even thought about that, very cool. I wonder if a cheesy popcorn would be possible as well.
Yeah, if you can buy popcorn somewhere (at the movies, in rollercoaster parks etc.), if it does not say otherwise, it is always sweet. Some booths have both salty and sweet, but not so often.
Oh, my friend, there’s this stuff called Chicago Mix that is half cheesy popcorn (just a cheesy powder) and half carmel popcorn. It’s a rather tasty blend of salty and sweet.
Sounds like foodporn to me 😆
Sugar on microwave popcorn is super good. Tastes really close to kettle corn.
My microwave popcorn usually gets too dark and tastes a bit burned. Either I did it wrong or we just do not have good microwave popcorn here. The best is the fresh one.
Furikake and arare. The furikake for flavor and the arare for some nice variety of texture. You can find it as Hurricane popcorn all over Hawaii and I think Amazon as well at this point.
I haven’t seen that vid in ages, didn’t expect it here.
Somehow i had never seen this video before. Honestly? beats Food Network. Now im off to Amazon to buy a Wok and a Coffee grinder. I need to get bomb at making Pepcorn.
Was hoping to see someone post this lol. Love it.
Pepcorn is actually and unironically very good.
I could eat seven bowls of that!
I use Lawry’s seasoning salt (recipes are easily found online), Montreal chicken spice, taco seasoning, or seasoning mixes that duplicate potato chip flavours. My personal favourites of those are salt and vinegar, all dressed, and cheddar cheese. Or mix some liquid smoke with some salt and let it dry, and then use that for a smoky bacon/hickory sticks flavour (I have also used bacon salt back when I could find it cheaper). I make all my popcorn in a pot with some oil, so any powder sticks pretty well with not much effort.
Lawry’s seasoning salt (recipes are easily found online)
do you have a favorite, or do you just search every time you want to make some?
Garlic powder and the cheap parmesan cheese in the shaker. So good!
I second this. I put garlic powder or flakes on basically everything. Garlic salt works well for this too
This is exactly what I came to suggest! A good friend of mine turned me onto it and changed my life.
Our favourite here is garlic-infused olive oil with nutritional yeast.
It’s addictive as hell. Once you get into nutritional yeast, you want to put it on everything.
I’ve never heard of that, I’ll definitely look into trying it. Thanks!
I have heard people tell of using the seasoning packets that come with ramen noodles.
I’m a purest. I generally just use butter and salt, but sometimes sprinkle on that fake-ish grated parmesan & romano cheese that you shake out of a canister.
Jacobsen Salt Co has some good ramen seasoning, but their Turmeric popcorn seasoning is where it’s at. Combines well with flavacol too.
https://jacobsensalt.com/products/turmeric-popcorn-seasoning
I pop my own on the stove, and recently found that ghee is a great oil for that giving a light buttery flavor. I sprinkle on a bit of salt and King Arthur “Better Cheddar “. So delicious!
I like Old Bay. But really, any seasoning blend works pretty good. If you have a spice grinder, you might consider grinding it finer so it distributes better.
I have a WhirleyPop so making kettle corn is pretty easy, since you stir the whole time.
I love my Whirly Pop
yeah it’s great. I do wonder about the ones that are basically the same, but self-contained and electric though.
Hidden Valley Ranch seasoning packets. Just sprinkle some on. Be sure it’s the dry powder!
I came here to say the same thing. Best popcorn flavor I have ever tried. Simply fantastic.
I’m a fan of nutritional yeast and salt
Agreed, that’s the good stuff
I grind the yeast flakes and salt in my mortar & pestle to get a fine powder that sticks much more easily
Old Bay on popcorn is amazing, I don’t make it any other way anymore.
go on amazon and buy 1kg of flavacol and eat cinema popcorn every night
This is the way to go. Just recently got some and it’s perfect. Don’t follow the box amounts though because it’ll be too salty (imo), use about a tsp per cup of kernals
If you’re willing to add some calories, oil. I got an oil sprayer. I fill it half with chili oil, half with olive oil; not too hot, but gives it a kick. Sprayed on, it doesn’t put nearly as much in as being drizzled on. It helps make powdery stuff adhere to the popcorn, too.
I have a salt shaker of Flavacol, which is the “salt” part of what goes into movie theater popcorn.
Movie theaters use (or used, dunno if this has changed) palm oil. This can congeal at room temperature, so may need to be heated.
Powdered butter or powdered various sorts of cheese can be kept in the fridge and can just be sprinkled on.
Cinnamon and sugar can be sprinkled on.
Il second oil as a topping but when I’m feeling extra fancy,y favorite is white truffle oil!
Actually, for popping they mostly use coconut oil. And some places use stuff that gives the popcorn a weird coconut flavor. The stuff that they put on at the end might be /probably is palm oil based though.
Argh, yes, you are right, thanks. Brain fart on my part. It’s coconut oil that does the room temperature congealing thing.
