The secret to perfect popcorn
Beyond butter and salt, oil — and lots of it — makes for the most impeccably crunchy kernels, writes Melissa Clark
ITHOUGHT I knew all about making perfect popcorn. I would pop the kernels in oil, slather them in butter and salt, and gobble them while watching old slapstick comedies on the couch, battling husband and child for that last craggy crumb.
Then I tasted Jessica Koslow’s recipe, and my popcorn world exploded.
Her snow-white kernels were impeccably crunchy, glistening with fat and seasoned with just enough salt to stick to my fingers. Their initial crackle melted into a corn-flavoured fluff on the tongue before completely disappearing. I yearned for more and didn’t stop until I hit the bottom of the bowl, which was blissfully free of any un-popped tooth-breakers. My lovingly tended version just couldn’t compare.
Koslow, the chef and owner of Sqirl in Los Angeles, has a knack for taking something that people think they know how to make, and making it even better.
Take, for example, the toast with jam that made her restaurant famous: extrathick slices of near-burned brioche coated with ricotta and a sticky puddle of Koslow’s seasonal, innovative jams. With simple twists, she turned the quotidian into the extraordinary.
She gives popcorn the same thoughtful makeover. Her tweaks? Using two to three times the amount of oil called for in most recipes, then tossing the extra-crisp kernels in dry seasonings so as not to soften the crunch.
“The large amount of oil kind of snuck up on me,” she said.
When she started developing her recipe, she eyeballed it, aiming to cover the surface of her Dutch oven before adding the kernels.
“Once I measured everything, I thought, wow, that’s a lot more oil than I thought.”
But after tasting the popcorn, she knew she was on to something good. She found that using that much oil imbues the kernels with richness and giving them an extra-crunchy exterior, and what she calls a “potato chip sturdiness”. Her recommended proportions are a half-cup oil to one-third cup popcorn kernels. That’s more oil than corn.
Of course, you can get away with using a lot less. The Fannie Farmer Cookbook popcorn. The Joy Of Cooking brings the oil down to one to two tablespoons, depending on the edition. Or you could forgo the oil entirely — no air popper required — and pop your corn in a clay pot full of hot sand as Native Americans did for millenniums, or by using a cast-iron skillet lined with salt as Laura Ingalls Wilder did in These Happy Golden Years. Even a pan of hot water will work.
But after testing of all of these methods (except the sand), I can tell you: They’re not nearly as good as Koslow’s exuberantly oily, salty kernels.
As for the type of oil, Koslow prefers grapeseed for its high smoke point and clean flavour, but sunflower, safflower, vegetable, canola and corn oils also work, as does ghee if you have it on hand.
For a buttery flavour without using ghee or adding melted butter at the end (which can make the kernels soggy), you can pop your corn in half butter and half oil, my current obsession.
Similarly, I’ve had great success using a quarter-cup grapeseed oil mixed with a quarter-cup of another flavourful fat with a lower smoke point — coconut oil, olive oil, bacon grease, duck fat. While you can use fats with lower smoke points by themselves, I’ve found they work best when mixed with more refined oils. The mix makes the popcorn slightly crunchier and helps ensure that every kernel is popped.
No matter which fat you use, these shiny kernels hold their seasonings well. Stick to dry toppings like ground spices, seeds, chiles, nutritional yeast, vegetable powders, seasoned salts and dehydrated herbs. Anything with high moisture content (grated Parmesan, lemon zest, fresh herbs) will wilt your crunchy corn like water on a Cheeto.
Koslow is partial to toppings that include a mix of sweet, salty, sour and umami. She mixes her sweet caramel corn with coconut sugar and turmeric. And her homemade seasoning mixes often include spices, dehydrated herbs, sugar for sweetness and a pinch of citric acid for acidity without moisture. Riffing on her basic technique, I came up with a deeply savoury mix of nutritional yeast and rosemary (or powdered kelp), and another with both sweet and hot smoked paprika, along with a little cumin for earthiness.
But, then again, when the popcorn itself is this crisp, even plain sea salt tastes amazing.
“Great popcorn is surprising to people; they’re not used to it,” Koslow said.
Until, like me, they get hooked. Then there’s no going back.
NYT