Ghee, or Indian-style clarified butter, is butter that’s been simmered and the milk solids (proteins and sugars) skimmed off. This leaves a clear yellow oil that doesn’t smoke when it’s heated and doesn’t go rancid quickly, but has a distinct toasty butter flavor.

Popcorn fans often want a buttery flavor, but plain butter is a bad choice for popping popcorn in a pot, because the proteins and sugars smoke and burn around the same temperature where it’s hot enough to pop the kernels.

Vegetable oil is either flavorless or faintly bitter, and some high-temperature vegetable oils tend to start polymerizing (i.e. becoming plastic) when heated in small amounts. This is also not good for popcorn.

Good-quality popcorn popped in ghee reliably produces lots of “butterfly” popcorn with few unpopped “duds” and no scorched kernels or batches ruined by smoke.

Try it! I’m sure not going back to canola oil.

  • lnm225@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    smacks forehead

    That is a great idea! Coconut oil was ok,but kinda odd-flavored for popcorn …

    • acupofcoffee@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Since ghee is so expensive, I usually do coconut oil and ghee mixed!

      I love ghee on my stovetop popcorn! A wok works great!

      • blueskiesoc@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s a bot. I kept getting it too and there are identical ones for other teams.

        Here’s how I blocked it. Click on the community listed next to the (bot) username. Then on that page block the community. It should be on the upper part on the right close to where it says join the community.

        I had like three bot baseball communities that I blocked.

      • minimar@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s another websocket related bug that’s already been fixed! lemmy.world is currently out of date, however. If you want to get rid of it, either wait for Ruud to push the update, or switch instances.

  • half@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Avocado oil is great for popcorn. It doesn’t add any flavor but I love the resulting texture: very crisp and clean. I like using red or blue corn because the contrast is visually appealing. You want long, skinny kernels to get the butterfly popcorn. Personally I’m crazy for cheesy popcorn, and the secret there is to find cheese powder with some savory herbs like oregano. I also love to do it with Kashmiri (floral hot Indian chili) powder.

    Important edit: Do NOT under any circumstance use chili popcorn to spice up Netflix & Chill. This is a snack for lonely degenerates who don’t even masturbate daily any more. It’s for watching war documentaries and French New Wave, not pervy cartoons and superhero throwdowns with a plot designed to be ignored while you finger your frenemies. You won’t look worldly and sophisticated while you’re driving somebody to the fucking hospital. Be responsible.

  • tanin@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’ve always just used avocado oil. Sometimes coconut oil but that obviously leaves a faint hint of coconut that not everyone likes. I’ll try ghee next time but I never heard of anyone trying to make pop corn with just butter in the pan. That sounds like a mistake folks only make once! lol

    • RalphTheDog@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The makers of my commercial-grade popper recommend coconut oil. Like you, I am interested in trying ghee. It’s good to just have a bottle of that stuff handy for lots of things.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          They are pretty much the same thing. Clarified butter can be skimmed as soon as the milk solids begin to separate. Ghee is cooked until the solids become browned and settle to the bottom, giving it more of a nutty flavor.

  • mynona@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Olive oil here. The market nearby doesn’t sell canola oil because it was never popular. MSG is also great on popcorn.

      • niktemadur@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I second that comment.

        It’s been about two decades since I’ve gone there, but the Landmark Cinemas in the San Diego area had nutritional yeast for your popcorn, right there in the station where you pump your own butter and grab napkins. Curious, I gave it a try…

        For the past twenty years (give or take), a can of Bragg’s Nutritional Yeast has been an ever-present staple in the kitchen, which I use to season popcorn, as well as slightly charred tortillas with either butter or avocado.

    • Cthulhu@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Olive oil has a very distinct olive flavour and is generally not advised to heat up to much, since it gets carcinogenic

  • seth@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Add in a teaspoon of Tabasco to the butter/ghee/oil before popping. 🍿

  • Jakwithoutac@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    For any dairy intolerant or vegan people here you can get a similar effect by clarifying a vegetable spread like Flora and adding salt until it tastes ‘buttery’ enough for you

    • smokedtofu@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Exactly. And don’t use the vegan butter to pop the corn, just use some neutral vegetable oil like rapeseed oil there. After the corns have popped, just melt the vegan butter in a pan and drip it over your popcorn.

  • thesalamander@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Never tried Ghee. I usually use canola, coconut, or bacon grease. I’m up for more buttery flavor though. Thanks!

    • ohmyiv@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Oil and artificial flavors. I’ve tried a lot of them and none of them have a “real” butter flavor. It’s more of a greasy feel than taste.

    • kreekybonez@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      soybean oil, usually. and diacetyl can be added as a buttery flavoring.

      fun fact: diacetyl inhaled in large enough doses can cause bronchitis. this was a problem in popcorn topping factories, hence the term “popcorn lung”

  • poejreed@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Also, as far as i know, you can buy the same seasoning they put on the popcorn at the theaters. Its called flavacol.

    Also, beware of bagged popcorn a lot of the bags contain PFAS, which is supposedly bad for you.

      • nihilist_hippie@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You must use refined coconut oil. As long as it is refined, there is no coconut flavor. It basically just tastes like theatre popcorn, because that’s what they use. They just use a fancier version that has beta-carotene in it, for a nice yellow coloring.

        • Capt. Wolf@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Man, I could definitely go for regular coconut flavor on popcorn though! Toss in some dehydrated pineapple bits…

        • zzzz@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          They just use a fancier version that has beta-carotene in it, for a nice yellow coloring.

          So, that’s why it’s so expensive!

  • Salad_Fries@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    And if youre a terrible cook (like me), throwing the kernals in a paper lunch bag & throwing it in the microwave for 3 minutes makes perfect popcorn (and does so without covering your kitchen in oil splatter/ annoying your neighbors with smoke detectors going off.)

    Lol sorry. Thanks for the ghee suggestion! It sounds awesome & im excited to try it!