Poptastic

Popcorn: America’s classic snack food

By
February 27, 2008

We Americans really, really love popcorn; every year, in fact, we chomp down a billion pounds of popped kernels. It’s no surprise that much of that is eaten in movie theaters, but it may surprise that some 70 percent is made and snarfed at home.

Pretty much everyone loves buttered and salted popcorn. Still, folks can get, well, a little popped over the best ways to get corny. And please, don’t even bother with the toxic stuff known as microwave popcorn.

Here are eight other ideas for dressing up this crunchy classic.

  1. How do you like your popcorn?
    Home-popped. Explode those kernels — try a wok if you don’t have an air popper — and then get funky with the toppings: nutritional yeast and chile flakes, black truffles and truffle oil, or gourmet finishing salts.
  2. Cheesy. Grated cheddar cheese, blue cheese, Pecorino Romano, and Parmesan all play well with popcorn. Sprinkle as much or as little as you like over a bowl of warm popcorn to get the cheese to melt slightly.
  3. Spicy. Sprinkle popcorn with dashes of chile powder, garlic powder, paprika, and cayenne pepper. For something more complex (or bizarre), try this Gourmet recipe featuring egg whites, miniature pretzels, and Worcestershire sauce.
  4. Farm-style. Mix popcorn together with a few herbs and buttermilk for an addictive (but not too salty) treat.
  5. Caramelized. The classic sweet treatment for popcorn. For extra fun, read David Lebovitz’s candid blog entry before you give his recipe for caramel popcorn a go.
  6. Nostalgic. Make pink peppermint popcorn bars. Think of them as a brightly hued alternative to Rice Krispies Treats.
  7. Appetizer. For a simple starter, pop up a batch of popcorn and serve it in bowls as a traditional pairing for ceviche.
  8. Wet. Stretch the limits and use popcorn as a textured garnish for soup.

    How do you like your corn?
Subscribe
Comments
There are 7 comments on this item
Add a comment
1. by Carrie Floyd on Feb 27, 2008 at 12:06 PM PST

It’s hard to beat a bowl of popcorn with melted butter and salt. My kids’ babysitter turned them onto popcorn tossed with melted butter, cinnamon & sugar.

2. by jcarlile on Feb 27, 2008 at 2:36 PM PST

sometimes I’ll melt a handful of chocolate chips and mix it with brown rice syrup (or corn sryup) to make it a more pour-able consistency, then drizzle it over home-popped popcorn -- yum!

3. by anonymous on Feb 27, 2008 at 4:55 PM PST

you can pop your own corn in the microwave--just put some (about a quarter cup) in a paper lunch sack and fold the top over a few times. convenient and diacetyl-free

4. by pintogal on Feb 27, 2008 at 6:48 PM PST

Truffle Salts, hands down. Adding fresh grated pericino romano is a delight as well.

5. by Farmer de Ville on Mar 9, 2008 at 6:30 PM PDT

You have forgotten the two great giants of the genre:

1) Popcorn with Brewer’s Yeast, Parmesano Reggiano and Plenty of Melted Butter

2) Popcorn sprinkled liberally with A Favorite Furikake Powder

Either could be said to be the ne plus ultra of popcorn seasoning strategies...

- Farmer

6. by Carrie Floyd on Mar 10, 2008 at 11:42 AM PDT

Farmer de Ville, what the heck is Furikake powder?!

7. by Farmer de Ville on Mar 10, 2008 at 12:22 PM PDT

Furikake Powder is a Japanese seasoning mix. The makeup varies, but it usually contains nori flakes, sesame seeds, and most often has kind of a sweet-salty flavor profile...

Though it more often appears as a garnish for savory foods, I picked up the habit of putting it on popcorn while living on Kauai, they offered it that way at the theater in Lihue...

- Farmer

Add a comment

Think before you type

Culinate welcomes comments that are on-topic, clean, and courteous. For the benefit of the community we reserve the right to delete comments that contain advertising, personal attacks, profanity, or which are thinly disguised attempts to promote another website.

Please enter your comment

Format: Bare URLs are automatically linked; use this style: [http://www.example.com "place text to be linked here"] for prettier links. You may specify *bold* or _italic_ text. No HTML please.

Please identify yourself

Not a member? Sign up!

Please prove that you’re not a computer


Advertisement
Dinner Guest

Do-over fever

Revisiting September’s efforts

What an essay, grape jelly, and my house have in common.

Subscribe
Graze: Bites from the Site

Most Popular Articles

Editor’s Choice