Popping Tips

Experimenting with oils is one of the best ways to create a wide variety of delicious, natural flavors of popcorn. As mentioned in the stovetop popping directions section above, we prefer the following healthy and heat tolerant oils: Coconut, Avocado, Sunflower, Olive Oil, Safflower, Canola. As most of us know, there are “good” fats and there are “bad” fats. Different oils offer different health benefits. Some of our customers are completely off fats and they elect to use air poppers (see our comments on air popping above), but most popcorn lovers are perfectly happy with a little healthy fat along with their popcorn. The best oils for popping are “Expeller pressed” oils – this process is the most natural way of extracting oil and it eliminates the use of things like hexane in the oil making process. Any oil varieties with a “high smoke point” can be used for popping popcorn and we encourage you to ask your doctor or nutritionist if there are varieties they recommend.

Preheat the oil to medium/high heat is best. This is one of the most important tips and we can’t stress it enough. Heating the oil in advance along with a few test kernels is the best way to make sure your oil is at the proper temperature when you add the remainder of your kernels. This all goes back to HEAT – when you add your kernels, you want the oil temperature to remain high so that the kernels can quickly get to their job of popping. If you add all the kernels right at the beginning, your whole batch will be fighting to get up to popping temperature and will often lead to batches that aren’t perfect. This is also why we recommend medium/high heat – anything lower will not provide enough heat and lead to kernels that slowly roast, rather than explode.

Resist the urge to shake obsessively! Constantly picking up the pot to shake it means you’re removing it from the heat source, when the heat is needed for it to pop. Shaking the pot like crazy is only fighting against their goal of getting the heat. What does have the potential to burn is the popped popcorn – but unlike a microwave (where everything inside is getting heated intensely and relentlessly) the stovetop batch of popped popcorn is only taking heat from the metal, and very few pieces of popped popcorn are actually touching the bottom of the pot (the rest of them pop up into the center and have almost no risk of burning). When you get to the point during the popping process where the kernels are popping vigorously, you know you’re on track for a perfect batch (you preheated the proper amount of oil, didn’t add too many kernels, and resisted the urge to shake the pot). What’s happening at this point is the popped popcorn starts to fill the pot and all the commotion inside the pot will trap some of the unpopped kernels up and away from the bottom of the pot (and the heat they need). So rather than shaking continuously to prevent burning, you actually want to briefly shake the pot toward the end (see How To Pop instructions) and help those unpopped kernels return to the bottom of the pot so they may also pop.

The amount listed in our How To Pop directions should yield enough popcorn for 1-2 people to enjoy. Typically, ½ cup of Unpopped Kernels popped will yield 8 cups of popped popcorn. Depending on the size of the pot you’re using on the stovetop, our general rule of thumb is that the oil should nearly coat the entire bottom of the pot, but the oil should never be more than 1mm deep. If you use too much oil, this can easily lead to poor popping results. The problem with too much oil is that the kernels end up swimming in the oil and roasting slowly instead of exploding into fully popped kernels. Also, do not pour in too many kernels with the oil. Another rule of thumb is that there should never be more than a single layer of kernels in the pot. If you add too many and they are piling up on top of one another, you may have many unpopped kernels - or what we call “Old Maids” - at the end.

Ghee is clarified butter, which is essentially butter that’s rendered so it can be cooked at higher temperatures. We love to pop in Ghee (grass fed and organic ghees are our favorites), or it’s wonderful when melted down and used as a flavorful topping on our popcorn.