

Cooking popcorn in butter never worked for me, the temperatures involved burned the butter. Popping the kernals using an oilless method led to the problem of getting salt to stick to the popcorn, and clearly, the theatre popcorn seemed to have a butter flavor. I’ve tried various oil toppings, including butter-flavored oils said to be specifically for popcorn, and still was disappointed, it never tasted like what they sold at the theatre. This latter method is how I make popcorn now, and I don’t use any oil in the container during popping, though the container’s instructions indicated it was permissible to add oil if desired. Movie night just got that much better.I’ve tried popping it on the stove with oil, in hot-air machines, in ready-to-pop prepackaged microwave bags, and in a reusable microwave cooker specifically designed to pop dried corn kernels.

Clarify butter by melting a few sticks in the microwave, skimming off the top layer of foam, and saving the liquid underneath. Make Your Own Buttery Topping Kirby Barthĭon’t worry: while you can’t recreate the psychological factors at home, DIY-ing a buttery topping is far more doable. Psychology researchers at the University of Southern California and Cornell have found that dim lights and movie trailers prompt people to eat popcorn, even if it’s stale. This phenomenon is even backed up by science. The smell and taste of popcorn in a movie theater can be nostalgic for some, bringing back memories of childhood or first dates. Last but not least, movie theater popcorn is better than the home-popped stuff simply because you’re eating it at the movies. This often means way more oil and salt than you’ll find in a bag of microwaveable popcorn. The lower water content in oil makes for less soggy popcorn, something we can all get behind.Īnother reason movie theater popcorn is so good? Theaters aren't required to label the nutrition information on their products.

Most theaters don't use real butter, but some form of buttery topping, which is basically just butter-flavored oil. The kernels are the same as the ones at the grocery store, but theaters elevate their game with butter–sort of.
