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Alton Brown Makes Perfect Popcorn | Food Network



Alton Brown leaves no kernel unpopped in his search for the perfect popper.

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Get the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/perfect-popcorn-recipe

Perfect Popcorn
Recipe courtesy of Alton Brown
Total: 8 min
Prep: 5 min
Cook: 3 min
Yield: 3 1/2 to 4 quarts
Level: Easy

Ingredients

3 tablespoons peanut oil
3 ounces popcorn kernels, approximately 1/2 cup
1/2 teaspoon popcorn salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions

Place the oil, popcorn and salt in a large, 6-quart, metal mixing bowl. Cover with heavy-duty aluminum foil and poke 10 slits in the top with a knife.

Place the bowl over medium heat and shake constantly using a pair of tongs to hold the bowl. Continue shaking until the popcorn finishes popping, approximately 3 minutes.

Remove the bowl from the heat and carefully remove the foil. Stir in any salt that is on the side of the bowl.

Melt the butter in the microwave. Slowly drizzle over the popcorn, while spinning the bowl. Serve immediately.

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36 Comments

  2. Kevino Gracia

    Ahhh…
    The science of a perfect bowl of popcorn…
    Would it be sacrilegious to add ground yeast flakes, cayenne pepper,
    and, perhaps, a splash of tamari?
    To each his and her own.
    Peace on earth.

  3. Corey Evan

    Mad scientist or evil genius? Based on this and Cutthroat Kitchen (which needs badly to come back imho), my vote is the latter.

  7. Cowboy Bob

    How about using a wok?
    I'm not keen on using a thin stainless mixing bowl with a gas stove.

  20. Hee-Choon Sam Lee

    Just saw this and decided to try his method. OMG! It made the best popcorn ever!!! Was unhappy with couple dozen unpopped kernels when using the microwave. All the kernels popped and the salt in the pot made the popcorn uniformly tasty. Great vid. Thanks.

  25. HL Ho

    Nico:You made this? Like, magically?
    Mr. D: Oh, no magic. I watched some videos on that YouTube thing. Some fellow named Atlon Brown taught me the perfect recipe
    – The sun and the stae

  28. DJ LakeSea

    Never pour melted butter on popcorn! Unless you like a soggy gooey mess!
    Use melted clarified-butter or ghee. They contain almost no water content, so the popcorn will stay crispy yet taste buttery!

  30. Metoobie

    Fantastic vid, popcorn is soooo under rated and can be tasty and healthy! I heat the oil first, personally. Cook with a spring of rosemary and dress with duck fat instead of butter. Or bacon fat! Best ever. Want to leave out the fat? Salt, pepper and nutritional yeast. I'm not joking, it tastes like cheese.

  31. Tom Something

    When I'm just doing a single serving of popcorn, I grind my salt in a smalll mortar and pestle I got for ten bucks. Just ten to fifteen seconds, and I'm there. Half the time, I don't even bother washing it. The thing is solid marble, and a little residual salt isn't going to do anything. Lights, camera, action.

  33. James Lyons

    Not bad but I’ve been making popcorn on the stove for my kids for almost two decades, I just did it last night and my kernels popped bigger than that. My method:

    Use heavy thick walled aluminum pot.
    Put in vegetable oil (or peanut oil) enough that it will almost cover kernels
    Put four or five kernels in around edges of the pot
    High heat
    When all your test kernels are popped it’s uniformly hot, pour in popcorn
    Cover with mesh oil splatter guard, partially cover with an every so slightly moist paper towel and on top of that place the lid. At least one third of the pot should be covered only by mesh. This allows steam to escape. The paper towel prevents condensation from the lid from getting in the corn
    Let it pop until the popping starts to slow down. Don’t try to pop everything. The ones at the end have low moisture content you’re not losing anything of value
    Put corn in a big bowl and add salt. Then scoop the corn gently into another bowl allowing any unpopped kernels and small bits to fall out.
    Add melted butter if desired but spoon out the separated milk solids first and get rid of them.

    I don’t think a few slits in his aluminum foil cover allowed enough steam to escape and he probably got condensation in there as well. His corn looked serviceable, but not great.

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