The way I’ve always salted popcorn is to put the salt in with the kernels and oil before popping. That way, it’s salted and the salt sticks to the kernels when it’s done popping and no need to mix it post pop. Microwaving it works fine even without any kind of oil.
My teenager questioned whether it’s more proper to salt before the pop or post popping? I turn to the wisdom of the Dope on this.
Note: my alternative is to pop without salt, and then sprinkle/mix soy sauce in with the popcorn. You can also sprinkle brewers yeast in as well. Tasty.
Bonus question: what’s the best way to “herb” popcorn? For example, basil does not seem to be conducive to being mixed in with the oil, salt and popcorn and then microwaved. I haven’t tried mixing it in post pop, but that should be way to go. Voice of experience please chime in here…
Use fine grained popcorn salt, which tends to stick to the kernels better than regular kosher/table salt - you can buy it, or make it by whizzing up the latter in a coffee grinder or food processor.
I don’t know if this is proper, but I have a hot air popper and a squirt bottle filled with extra virgin olive oil. As the popped corn falls out of the popper and collects in the receptacle (medium size pot, as it fits just perfect under the popper chute so the kernels don’t fly off every which way) i douse it with the oil. Then when it’s all in the pot I sprinkle over a little salt right out of the shaker or sometimes even right out of the container it comes in, and A LOT of yeast, in that order (Nice to meet a fellow yeaster, BTW. I prefer large flake nutritional, sold in bulk. You?) I put on one layer as such, then give the pot a couple gentle up-down jostles, then put on another layer and let it lie just like that. Occasionally I mix it up with some parm (I find the sawdust kind out of the can works best) and rarely herbs - haven’t done that in quite a while - never preferred it much - when I did I just layered it in between the salt and yeast.
Always looking for process improvements. Think I’ll try that salt grinder thing.
I also use a hot air popper. I like to give the popcorn a light spray of Pam, and then regular salt sticks. But I will try grinding up some homemade popcorn salt. People who hate air popped complain that the complete lack of oil is what makes the popcorn horrible, so I figure I’ll just spray a bit on afterward – no harm, no foul.
I use a microwave popping bowl. A small dab of butter on top of the corn, pop it, add a little bit of (big grain) kosher salt and stir with the butter knife. If only iodized salt is available, then no salt.
I can tell you how it’s done with commercially-made popcorn, though I’m not sure how helpful that actually is for home use.
The big popcorn machines (like the movie theater ones) use coconut oil and a veeery finely powdered salt that’s both thrown in together with the kernels at the start of the popping process. That way the salt’s evenly distributed and actually sticks to the popcorn properly. Sprinkling the exact same kind of salt on top of the popcorn after the popping process really will not give the same result.
Took the words right out of my bowl. Just one more of the million excellent reasons for ghee.
I find it oddly unpleasant when making my way through popcorn and suddenly bite down on one full of melted butter. It feels weirdly cold and wet in contrast to the hot, dry popcorn all around it. Even preheated butter that goes on hot produces this effect. Ghee is totally the answer, though olive oil works just as well, for the reason you gave: no water. When I make ghee, the finished volume is only 2/3 of what I started with because all that water boiled away.
