Popcorn

SandwichShortOfAPicnic

SandwichShortOfAPicnic

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Mr SSOAP adores sweet and salty popcorn. It's been a permanent fixture since I've known him and something he eats regularly (oh well at least it's full of soluble fibre) but sweet and salty is not a thing in Spain. You can buy popcorn, just not the sweet and salty flavour he loves.

So I've had a look into recreating it and it appears it's not completely straight forward.
Apparently I need a powdered salt (not a thing in the UK or Spain) and icing sugar (powdered sugar to our American friends) and clarified butter or ghee (there's also no chance of buying ghee here). The recipes are really vague on the sugar salt ratios to use, copping out with the 'to taste' instruction which isn't a lot of help!

To further throw a spanner in the works the popcorn he prefers head and shoulders over the other brands is made with demerara sugar and sea salt.

Personally I don't like the stuff, it's fine until one of those kernel skins makes it's way into your gums and then it's just a pita!
If anyone has any popcorn making experience or opinions on popcorn I'd be happy to hear them.
 
badjak said:
No idea, but I would try putting salt and sugar in a coffee grinder to make it fine enough
Then make popcorn, toss with some oil and the sugar salt mix...
I don't care for popcorn and definitely not the sweet type, but that's what I would try
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That's an excellent suggestion, thanks.
I had envisaged pounding away a mortar n pestle and salt flying everywhere evading being crushed until I gave up :laugh:
 
No idea,

We used to make a wonderful buttered popcorn, but that's no out for me.

We love the little sweet and little salty popcorn here as well. In fact we've just had some this evening. We used to get the ready made stuff, but had too many lumps of sugar in the bag and the quality had gone down hill. That was brown sugar. Typically it is raw sugar which is more like granulated brown than demarara sugar.

Now we buy the ready to pop bung it in the microwave stuff. It's pretty good though annoyingly our local supermarket stopped doing that flavour so we have to get it elsewhere whenever we're in the city centre.

If you do suss a recipe out that's dairy free, I'd happily give it a try for you!
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
No idea,

We used to make a wonderful buttered popcorn, but that's no out for me.

We love the little sweet and little salty popcorn here as well. In fact we've just had some this evening. We used to get the ready made stuff, but had too many lumps of sugar in the bag and the quality had gone down hill. That was brown sugar. Typically it is raw sugar which is more like granulated brown than demarara sugar.

Now we buy the ready to pop bung it in the microwave stuff. It's pretty good though annoyingly our local supermarket stopped doing that flavour so we have to get it elsewhere whenever we're in the city centre.

If you do suss a recipe out that's dairy free, I'd happily give it a try for you!
Click to expand...
Some of the recipes specify oil rather than butter so that's on the experimental kitchen list already 👍

I've never found a microwave popcorn that's not made with artificial sweeteners and although Mr SSOAP doesn't mind them (he chooses soft drinks that have them in) he seems to dislike the taste of the microwave bags.

Even when he was popcornless during lockdown and I managed to get microwave bags he said no thanks!
They're still knocking about somewhere, wonder how long they last?!
 
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Ours is made with sucralose but it doesn't taste bad at all.

Screenshot_20250424_213604_Woolworths.jpg

That said it is about as close as I get to eating anything artificial,
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Ours is made with sucralose but it doesn't taste bad at all.

View attachment 127647
That said it is about as close as I get to eating anything artificial,
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I don't have a problem with some artificial sweeteners or some additives. It's more the flavour of them I struggle with.

When I taste them I get that feeling you get when somethings off.
But the popcorn bags taste just as good to me!
 
Ghee is easy enough. Its, afaik, butter with the milk fat solds removed. I make it when I need it.

Edit: The majority of recipes I see online for making ghee are cooking it to the brown butter stage. Commercial products I see in the store, in the name of profit, are only cooked enough to remove the water. Your popcorn, probably, has the latter.

Here's a link, I'm partial to the one on Foodnetwork by Alton Brown.

I'd demonstrate but I'm far more likely to only have margarine than butter. 🤷‍♂️
 
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We make loads of popcorn here, including the sweet-salty variety (called kettle corn here, because you can buy it at outdoor events and fairs, popped in a giant wok-like kettle, big enough to put a pig in).

I’ve never seen it made with powdered sugar…superfine granulated sugar, yes. Not the powdered icing sugar, though.

I’ll post up a recipe later today, but to tease you, it uses high-heat oil (peanut oil is my preference), butter (not ghee), table salt, and granulated sugar (superfine or otherwise). It’s dead easy, done on the stovetop, takes 10 minutes tops, and will leave you with a pan that’s a real chore to clean! :laugh:
 
Barriehie said:
Ghee is easy enough. Its, afaik, butter with the milk fat solds removed. I make it when I need it.

Edit: The majority of recipes I see online for making ghee are cooking it to the brown butter stage. Commercial products I see in the store, in the name of profit, are only cooked enough to remove the water. Your popcorn, probably, has the latter.

Here's a link, I'm partial to the one on Foodnetwork by Alton Brown.

I'd demonstrate but I'm far more likely to only have margarine than butter. 🤷‍♂️
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As I said in the original post clarified butter OR ghee, it's ghee thats not readily available.
I've clarified butter many times but appreciated your efforts 👍
Really I want a simple process with few ingredients thats speedy to do so there are no barriers to making it.
 
TastyReuben said:
We make loads of popcorn here, including the sweet-salty variety (called kettle corn here, because you can buy it at outdoor events and fairs, popped in a giant wok-like kettle, big enough to put a pig in).

I’ve never seen it made with powdered sugar…superfine granulated sugar, yes. Not the powdered icing sugar, though.

I’ll post up a recipe later today, but to tease you, it uses high-heat oil (peanut oil is my preference), butter (not ghee), table salt, and granulated sugar (superfine or otherwise). It’s dead easy, done on the stovetop, takes 10 minutes tops, and will leave you with a pan that’s a real chore to clean! :laugh:
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That would be great! Apart from the cleaning part 😭
 
medtran49 said:
I just use Orville Reddenbacher (sp?) For Kettle corn when I get a craving since Craig isn't much into popcorn.

But, I've never seen at fairs like TR, where they use powdered stuff. I've seen it made because of having to wait for a new batch before.

I'd try any of these.

The 5-Minute Salty-Sweet Snack I'm Making on Repeat This Fall

This 2-Ingredient Kettle Corn Is Perfect for Snacking (So Easy!)

5-Minute Homemade Kettle Corn
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Thankyou I'll add them to the test list!
 
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