Why YSK: 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.

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.

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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    62 years 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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      22 years 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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        12 years ago

        Go to youtube and watch how to make ghee. It’s quite simple. I use butter to make mine. I won’t buy expensive storebought again because it’s so cheap and simple to make.

      • @minimar@lemmy.world
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        12 years 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 lemmy.world is currently out of date, however.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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    2 years 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
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    2 years 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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      12 years 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
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          22 years 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.

    • kreekybonez
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      42 years 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 facilities, hence the term “popcorn lung”

    • ohmyiv
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      22 years 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.

      • °˖✧ ipha ✧˖°
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        2 years ago

        In order for a cow to produce milk it must be pregnant or recently pregnant, then once it gets older and starts producing less milk it will be slaughtered.

        ~~the more you know!~~

        • Neb
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          22 years ago

          is - in your opinion - artificial insemination equal to rape?

            • Neb
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              22 years ago

              then something here doesnt make sense

                • Neb
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                  2 years ago

                  maybe. maybe the topic is more complex than that.

                  Are cows raped for butter? always? is it the same degree of awfulness if a cow gets ‘raped’ in a industrial plant or if a cow gets mounted by a bull in a field? is ‘rape’ even a term that can be used to describe actions that are done to or by animals? Or should it be used for humans only? is it disrespectful to human victims of rape to use the same words to describe something that happened to an animal? Are cows slaughtered for butter? every cow that produced milk that was used to make butter? How many people could the death of a cow benefit before it becomes a morally correct thing to do? What is a cows life worth? Would stopping to breed cows and thus a collapsing overall world-population of cows be something good or something bad? Or is it in between somewhere? Who defines even what is morally correct and what isnt?

                  Im not trying to be an asshole or anything (i know it seems like it here), but I dont think writing

                  Cows are raped & slaughtered for butter ~~the more you know!~~

                  with a slightly condescending undertone on a messageboard thread about popcorn is the smartest way to go about this

    • meat_popsicle
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      02 years ago

      Cows can be raped?

      Do we send cow rapists to cow jail? If a cow is in a field with a bull, do we arrest the bull pre- or post- mount?

      • NotAPenguin
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        02 years ago

        Come the fuck on buddy, obviously they are talking about humans forcefully impregnating cows to force them to produce milk.

        Humans have the capability to understand the consequences of our actions, other animals don’t.

    • NotAPenguin
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      02 years ago

      Even on the fediverse people absolutely refuse to hear about the animal abuse they support everyday…

      Come the fuck on people, stop being reactionary and think about it for a minute.

      • Dangdoggo
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        02 years ago

        The point is to be conscious about the shit you’re eating and where it comes from, not to demonize butter or animal products on the whole. Factory farming is a horrid practice that I don’t support but I’ve worked with local livestock outfits for 15 years and see the care they put into production. Not every pound of butter is wrought on a life of pure suffering, and to reject the fundamental role of death in life’s process is just a bizarre and sterile approach to living.

        • xuxebiko
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          02 years ago

          By equating artificial insemination in cattle to rape.

          You’re just using shock tactics to garner attention. Do you even care about how your minimization affects rape & sex assualt survivors?

          • NotAPenguin
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            02 years ago

            Sexually assaulting cows is bad just as sexually assaulting people is bad, no minimizing.

      • @nihilist_hippie@lemmy.world
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        22 years 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
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          12 years ago

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

  • Jakwithoutac
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    22 years 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

  • elrac
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    12 years ago

    I tried ghee, it tasted awful. Butter flavored coconut oil is where it’s at.