[Captions by Y Translator] Today, we're taking a look at movie theater popcorn
versus homemade popcorn.
Is it possible to perfectly replicate the movie theater recipe?
And if so, does it cost more or less?
[Music]
The popcorn in this bucket right here is from a movie theater.
I bought it less than an hour ago, and it's quite good stuff.
The goal today is to replicate this popcorn so
that it looks the same, smells the same, and most importantly, tastes the same.
We're going to show you what we used to get that kind
of popcorn here at home.
The basic idea here is simple.
By cooking good quality popcorn in the right kind of oil
and adding the right kind of flavoring,
you get popcorn that tastes exactly like what they serve at the movie theater.
There are some important ingredients and equipment you need to get
this kind of popcorn, but don't worry.
None of it's very expensive.
First off of course, you're going to need some popcorn,
and it might seem at first like all popcorn
is going to be the same after all in the container,
it pretty much all looks identical.
But I have had noticeably better results using better quality brands of popcorn.
I'm not saying you have to use this one, but this is a good brand,
and there are other good brands,
and I do think that they work better
than just the cheap store brands.
Next, we need to be able to cook our popcorn in something,
and there's lots of ways to cook popcorn.
You can cook it with hot air.
You can cook do with oil.
You can actually just cook it in the microwave,
as long as the dish it's in can handle being in the microwave that long.
We're going to use oil to cook our popcorn,
and not just any oil,
we're going to be using coconut oil,
and just because it adds a little bit of this delightful movie theater color,
we are using coconut oil that has been dyed with beta-carotene.
Beta-carotene is nothing more than a plant based color.
It's found naturally in the plants.
It's extracted, and then they add it to the coconut oil
so we can have this nice butter colored popcorn.
Next up is an ingredient that is pretty brand-specific.
This is called Flavacol.
It's a powdered salt that has butter flavoring added,
and this is kind of the magic.
This is what gives our popcorn that movie theater butter taste.
It has almost the exact same color as our coconut oil,
but it doesn't transfer the color as much,
so it is important that we have the color
in the coconut oil if we want our popcorn to look authentic.
This stuff is a really fine powder.
Much finer than most salt, and a little bit goes a long way.
Finally, once our popcorn is popped, we have some movie theater butter oil
that we pour on top of it.
And this is just an oil that has a butter flavor to it.
Occasionally, they used some real butter in them,
and this, you pour on top of your popcorn
if you like that extra buttery flavor and texture to it.
Those are the ingredients were going to be using,
and I said that there are multiple ways to cook popcorn,
but it is actually pretty important how
you do it in this case.
We need to cook our popcorn in the coconut oil,
and we need to do it in a pot that stirs the popcorn as it cooks.
This is just a thin aluminum pot.
But the lid that goes onto it has a handle
with a gear that goes down onto this.
So as we turn the handle, it actually just spins down inside the pot.
There are multiple popcorn cookers that use similar mixing techniques.
Some of them are electric.
You can actually buy some miniature theater-style popcorn makers that you
can just put in your home theater, or your living room,
if you like popcorn that much.
This particular one uses no electricity and it's pretty cheap,
which is why we're using it.
To get started with a batch of popcorn,
we are going to use 2 tablespoons of our coconut oil,
1/4 cup of our popcorn,
and one teaspoon of our flavored salt.
We're not going to add it all at once though.
We'll start with the coconut oil, put that on the stove, heat it up,
and once it's all nice and liquid,
then we add the popcorn and the flavored salt.
[Music]
Now that our coconut oil is all melted, we're going to add 1/4 cup of popcorn,
and that doesn't seem like much.
It's not even going to completely cover the bottom of the pot,
but it'll do a pretty good job of filling this once it's popped.
If you have a bigger or smaller container that you're cooking your popcorn in,
you can add more or less to match.
We're just trying to get a good ratio for the oil, the popcorn, and the flavoring.
Speaking of which, it's time to add one teaspoon of our flavor.
[Music]
Alright.
Things are getting hot.
We're going to close the lid and stir it as it pops.
[Music]
Alright, the popping has mostly stopped.
Time to take it off the heat.
[Music]
That's looking good.
Now, there is going to be some flavor because we poured in the flavored salt.
However, if you like a little bit stronger of the flavor,
you can add a little bit more.
Some people like it weaker.
Some people like it stronger.
I'm definitely not going to do a whole teaspoon again,
that would be probably too much.
We'll start with about half a teaspoon.
Just sprinkle some of that down on top.
Not even using that whole half teaspoon.
Just going to pour this into our serving bucket.
[Music]
Now, if you are the kind of person that likes to have the butter oil
on top your popcorn, it's time to add that.
I wouldn't go overboard with it.
[Music]
Time for our comparison test.
Here, we have our authentic movie theater popcorn,
and here we have our home-brewed movie theater popcorn.
First Impressions is that I think we actually have
a little bit better color from the homemade popcorn.
They smell pretty much the same.
There's a little bit more of the smell coming off of this one.
I think it's because the movie theater popcorn was popped about an hour ago
at this point, whereas this was popped about five minutes ago,
and it's still warm.
So there's like some steam coming off of it, but the smell,
although there's more of it from here,
it does smell pretty much the same.
Of course, the real test is how does it taste?
Movie theater popcorn.
Tastes like the artificial butter of movie theaters,
which is delicious.
Home-brewed popcorn.
That is almost exactly the same.
Very, very similar taste.
You can buy popcorn that says it's movie theater flavor
in microwave packets at the grocery store and stuff.
To me, none of those have ever really tasted
like movie theater popcorn the same way this stuff does.
If I went to a movie theater, and they served me this exactly,
I'd be super happy with it.
Movie theater popcorn is legendary for being expensive.
This right here is probably about the smallest size popcorn
you can order at a theater, at least it is in mine,
and in my theater, they charge, I think it's about $6.75 for a small,
whereas using the ingredients that I did,
what I popped up cost about 86 cents of materials,
and that's the more expensive side.
Getting these little containers cost more than if you get big containers,
and if you go through popcorn a lot, maybe you've got a big family,
you do movie night a lot, you definitely want to get
the bigger containers,
and that would bring the price down even more.
This stuff is particularly cheap.
It's just over $8 for this.
But because you use so little, I calculate you should be able
to make about 140 batches of popcorn
with one of these containers.
One more cool thing though, is when you buy this flavored powder,
there's actually an option to get it in a pack of three.
One that is for glazed popcorn,
and one that is for caramel glazed popcorn.
This is sort of just a sugary sweetened popcorn,
and this is a really good caramel popcorn that you cook almost the exact same way
as the regular popcorn.
Let's whip up a batch of that and see how it looks,
just I really like this stuff.
Now, we do need to use quite a bit more of the caramel flavoring than we do
for the butter flavoring.
This has sugar and caramel flavor all mixed into it.
You can see it's much larger grain.
Kinda looks like sand actually.
Tastes a lot better than sand though.
For 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels, we're going to use about 3/16
of a cup of the caramel mix.
3/16th is not a common measuring cup size.
What that really comes down to is that we're going to take the quarter cup,
and fill it 3/4 of the way full.
Now, as this heats up it, will begin to melt all
of that sugar and caramel mixture that we just poured in,
and then when the popcorn pops, it gets coated in the melted sugar mixture.
However, it is better if we leave the lid closed so, sorry.
[Music]
Random Fact: Grains of popcorn around a thousand years old
have been found in tombs in Peru.
The kernels are so well preserved, they can still be popped.
[Music]
Caramel-coated goodness.
Light, crispy, crunchy, caramely popcorn goodness.
It's just like you're going to buy at a state fair or something.
Super good, super easy to make.
Movie theater styled popcorn, and caramel corn made at home,
it's cheap, it's easy, and it's fast.
This barely takes any longer than cooking popcorn in the microwave.
Maybe one minute more, it's super quick,
and like I said, it makes really good popcorn.
If you want to get started making movie theater style popcorn at home,
check the links in the description for where to get everything you need.
Wonder if you could just carry this into a theater,
and be like, Oh, yeah. I bought this a few minutes ago.
I just walked outside for something...
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