I usually buy the cheap (for us) 2.79 CAD bag of 1kg popping corn. the 850g Orville Redenbacher is 5.79.
However, they were out of the cheap stuff so I was forced to get the ol’ Orville’s stuff. And I found it there were less kernels unpopped, the popcorn was fluffier and weirdly, it sounded louder too. (same stove, pot and everything)
So my question is why is there such a quality difference? Is there a difference in how it’s prepared before shipping? Anyone know?
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I can’t speak as to WHY one brand pops different than another, but America’s Test Kitchen figured out the qualitative difference:
tl;dw
When a popcorn kernel pops, it can go one of three ways:
The more unilateral kernels, the crunchier and tastier the popcorn.
The more multilateral kernels, the more likely it will be squishy and stale.
So if a brand were able to figure out how to maximize the unilateral, and minimize the multilateral…
(I think the bilateral and multilateral hold on to butter better).
God dammit Matpat! Why aren’t you still doing food theory to explore this???
In one sense, I get it. He wants to spend time with his family, and raise his son, and be a good husband, and not be bound by commitments, and pressures of working…
But also…HOW COULD YOU LEAVE US!!!
Food theory has fallen off a cliff. It’s garbage after garbage now.
MatPat started to get on my nerves years ago, but I’ll give the man credit: it was easy to just stop watching his videos. The only time I saw him after that is when he made a guest appearance on Pitch Meeting and that was actually a cool cameo. He’s not one of those people you just can’t get away from. He never (to my knowledge) got mixed up in some horrible controversy or anything, he just kept doing his thing and if you don’t watch him you wouldn’t know him.
Anyway, I feel for you, it sucks when someone you’re a fan of stops doing the thing you love.
a lot of it has to do with the thickness of the kernel hull.
some people have a preference for “mushroom” style kernels which have thick hulls and make big, round, robust pops.
other people prefer “hulless” popcorn for a smaller more tender pop.
so you just have to identify what attributes you like/dislike most and look for popcorn that gives you more/less of that.
The shapes explain a texture difference, why would one be tastier, or stale?
Surface area. The smaller the kernel, the crunchier it is. A wider surface area makes it squishy.
Those are texture elements, not flavor elements. Surface area could affect flavor but surface area is the same once you chew it up.
Orville got famous by selectively breeding their strain of popping corn. It’s their own proprietary seed. Pretty much engineered to pop more kernels.
Why can’t someone from Bobo Brand Popcorn infiltrate Orville Redenbacher’s fancilities and take enough fanseeds to plant and reproduce, then sell the same popcorn for cheaper?
Same reason Monsanto sues the crap out of anyone if they think they’re even looking at their bioengineered crops.
Probably because corporate espionage is frowned upon.
The first summer of covid, when there were all those supply chain shortages, I read an article on the shortages (I think in the NY Times). They explained that some of the shortages weren’t that the companies were short of an item, just short of that item in a format conducive to home use or preference, and that sometimes they lacked the flexibility to move that stock to the consumer.
Like, there was a massive home toilet paper shortage, but companies were sitting on stocks of commercial toilet paper that they couldn’t move: it wasn’t properly packaged for individual resale, couldn’t be easily switched to a different packaging, was often thinner or rougher than home-use paper, came in massive rolls that didn’t fit on a home spindle, and most people couldn’t, wouldn’t, or didn’t think of trying to get commercial toilet paper.
Anyway - one of the mis-matches they talked about was popcorn. People were in lockdown, wfh, etc, and the home popcorn kernel market was exploding - there wasn’t enough stock. At the exact same time, however, movie theatres were closed and huge stocks of movie theatre popcorn kernels were going unsold. And they couldn’t move the movie theatre popcorn into the home market.
Movie theatre popcorn uses a different variety of corn than home popcorn does. Like, one type of popcorn has a mushroom-shaped kernel that produces a large round shape with lots of surface area and is pretty crisp, while another one produces a butterfly shape with lots of edges sand that melts easier in your mouth. And if you’ve built your brand recognition around one type of popped corn, you can’t just suddenly substitute in a different type - people will notice, and complain.
Aside from the main types of popcorn kernels, I’m pretty sure there are subtypes as well. Just like eating apples include premium types like cosmic crisp and ‘common’ types like red delicious, I’m sure that there are premium and ‘common’ varieties of home popcorn kernels. And the Redenbacher popcorn is using a more ‘premium’ kernel than the cheap versions.
There’s also stuff like time on shelf, moisture content, etc, but I’d bet a lot of it - especially the difference in size and texture - come down to Redenbacher using a different type of kernel, and from a higher-quality kernel within that range.
People were in lockdown, wfh, etc, and the home popcorn kernel market was exploding - there wasn’t enough stock.
I’m kinda mad at you for not saying
the home popcorn kernel market was popping
FWIW, you can buy all varieties of popcorn in 50# bulk packages. But most people don’t want to buy 50# at one time.
I found that while popping popcorn, the finished kernel (mushroom or butterfly shaped) depends on popping conditions. I only use Redenbacher and if the heat is too high, you get the mushroom shape and the kernels are dense and if you set the heat a little lower you get fluffier butterfly kernels.
Is the popped kernel shape really supposed to be different based on what kind of popcorn you buy?
Movie theatre popcorn uses a different variety of corn than home popcorn does.
Source? Because:
I’m pretty sure there are subtypes as well
Doesn’t make you sound like an expert on the subject.
Not doubting that supply chain issues are totally a thing, btw. Just the unsaleability of movie popcorn in consumer markets sounds a bit weird to me. Wouldn’t there be a niche for a brand selling the stuff as original movie popcorn?
A theater here was selling their popped popcorn to take home. I still couldn’t conscion paying movie theater prices for popcorn at home, but it does agree with the idea that they were oversupplied and trying to get rid of it.
Is anyone else familiar with the word conscion? I looked it up to get the spelling right and apparently it’s not a real word but I’ve been using it my whole life. Not sure where I picked it up. Anyway I think the meaning is clear from the context.
I think the phrase you’re looking for is “in good conscience”
Ex: The cookies looked delicious, but since it was a Trump fundraiser, I couldn’t, in good conscience, buy any.
I found it. https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/conscion
And I found it there were less kernels unpopped, the popcorn was fluffier and weirdly, it sounded louder too. (same stove, pot and everything)
There are probably one or both of these things going on here.
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this new popcorn was fresher, meaning there was more moisture (thus more steam) still inside the kernel leading to bigger fluffier pops, and less duds.
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the new popcorn kernels had thicker hulls, which also leads to bigger fluffier pops, and also would be louder pops. thicker hulls hold in more energy from the steam building in the kernel, so when it pops it releases more energy.
if you prefer bigger popcorn you may want to check out “mushroom” popcorn which is designed for this purpose. theres a whole wide world of popcorn varieties.
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Others have alread hit on the reason: likely fresher kernals plus a special corn breed that’s optimized for popcorn.
At our local farmer’s market (decent sized city) there’s a guy that sells about 15 different verities of corn for popping. The sheer number of breeds of things are truly eye watering. We have a home garden, and even when we’re growing “green beans” we can be growing one of like 75 different breeds of bean that all have their own characteristics. It’s actually kind of funny that grocery stores will market which kind of apple you’re buying but they won’t do so for things like “red grapes”, “yellow peaches”, or “sweet corn”.
Incredibly, if you web search popping corn quality, you’ll find almost nothing but reviews of different brands. I remember reading several decades ago that the difference is really the characteristics of the strain of corn, and that’s probably the difference between brands. Premium brands have cultivated their own sub variety of popping corn with better properties for popcorn.
The key parameters are the amount of moisture and oil trapped in the kernel and the shell strength.
Older kernels pop less and pop shittier, so the cheaper popcorn is probably older, cheaper kernels.
Try soaking and drying your kernels.
I’ve never thought there was any real difference. My dad gets Orville Redenbacher; I get whatever is cheapest. Only had a bad batch once and that was the most recent time I got the Great Value shit at Walmart (which is unusual even for them). Only half the bag would pop and what did pop was extra chewy and crunchy at the same time giving it the weirdest texture I’ve ever had in my mouth.
But that’s not the popcorn’s fault; the last few times I got anything at this particular location it’s been stale or fucked up in some way. I’m going to start going to one further away that doesn’t suck because everything about the one closest to me is awful.
Learn to pop your own on the stove in a pop, toss it with olive oil instead of butter and sea salt and it’s so much better than microwave and takes just as much time.
(same stove, pot and everything)
Yes, OP agrees.
I’ll be honest, a lot of the explanations here sound like bullshit marketing talk when what it probably is the cooking chemicals they use.
What “cooking chemicals” are in grains that are harvested from a plant and then dried?
In the example of microwave popcorn, there is a temperature difference with the oil/butter and how long it takes to pop with your specific microwave. Oil and butter boil at different temps. Some microwaves are 500 watts and some are 3000 and the Popcorn button is going to heat things differently. Probably no difference in corn source.
This is for stove made.
Where do you live that you are comparing stove top popcorn?
Canada. And it’s because I’m cheap. what you pay for microwave popcorn would equal 10 boxes of microwave popcorn output when you make it yourself. Plus I can put my own topping on it. (I find microwave popcorn to be too salty.)
