Popcorn! What's the best way to make it?

Wok is love, wok is life. If you’re willing to put in some extra steps (and you have a wok), it is bar none the best way to make popcorn at home in my experience. I’ll find a link for some more details in a little bit here.

Edit: Alton Brown’s most recent version uses a steel mixing bowl topped with foil which is even more accessible, but a wok will provide the same, potentially better results since the cooking method is the same (unpopped kernels fall to the small bottom surface and are cooked, popped kernels jump up and rise out of the way of the heat). He also goes over the quintessential toppings (ie “popcorn salt”) and some other fun accoutrements.

I am going to defer to @cfabbro’s wisdom, posted here previously. I replicated his method and it’s some of the best popcorn ever. You’re on the right track with Flavacol, but the Whirley Pop is clutch.

Usually I just eat skinny pop.

But, I also get these Orville Popcorn Kernels. I'll get a medium to large size pot. Spray the pot with Olive Oil throw in some salt. Heat it up and wait. Throw in the kernels (I just eyeball it). And then wait. When they start popping, that's when I start moving the pot. The pot is covered but with a small opening to allow air in (otherwise the popcorn comes out soggy). Pop them all and then move them into a large bowl. Spray the popcorn with more Olive Oil and pour salt on them again. Toss them in the oil and salt. And then eat them.

I've been making massive quantities of kettle corn in a soup pot! Usually quarter cup sugar for a cup of popcorn, along with some salt and 2 tbsp butter. I get more of a workout shaking this pot than most activities. Never heard of flavacol, but I also like to add nutritional yeast.

I do NOT sympathize with your air popping device plan. They sound entirely too modest. Get a bigger pot!

Pot. Microwave is a scam; overpriced, worse, and not much faster.

I put a bit of sunflower oil in the pot and a known number of kernels. Wait for them to pop on medium heat, then add more kernels covering the bottom of the pot. Cover with a loose lid so all the vapor can exit. Shake as the kernels pop. No butter; just added salt after transferring to a bowl.

I don't know if it's really superior to other methods, but for the past decade when I get the occasional itch for popcorn I'll usually break out an air popper, pop the corn with it into a large bowl, then drizzle it with olive oil and sprinkle salt over it, periodically moving the bowl in manner that's hard to describe (kinda "tosses" the popped corn) but is very effective at rotating it out for better topping coverage.

Spray olive oil may work better, but I haven't seen the brand I buy (which is selected to avoid the adulterated/rancid oil issues common to most commercially available olive oil) available in that form.

I make popcorn ahead of time and let it dry out - that makes it much crispier. I think one of the big misconceptions of the casual public is that "fresh" popcorn tastes better. I find it too chewy because it hasn't allowed the moisture to leave the kernels completely.

One of my favorite things is popcorn made in one of those home theater machines; you pop the popcorn in the big kettle, dump it out into the area below with the tray that allows the unpopped kernels and smaller bits to filter through, and then leave it with the heat lamp on. Come back hours later (or overnight) then top it with a little salt and it's super crispy.

So I do stovetop and it's always my favorite. Popcorn has been my favorite snack since I was a kid.

Get a big pot (we use 8qt pot but you can use smaller for smaller batches), I use a mix of Amish Country Mushroom popcorn and their medium white hull-less. For an 8qt pot I use 1 1/3 cups of kernels total.

Put enough neutral oil in the pot to cover the bottom (vegetable works fine), toss like 2-4 kernels in and cover with heat on high. Once you hear the kernels start to pop, put the rest of your kernels in. Shake the pot every so often to cover the kernels in oil and continue shaking until most of the popping is done.

No butter needed, one seasoning that you may not expect but I've found to be my favorite is Morton's Season All.

I've tried other season-all flavors or other combinations of salts and it just doesn't hit the same, has to be Mortons.

But IMO the stovetop way above yields some of the best texture and flavoring. Putting any leftovers in an airtight container overnight tends to have a really good taste the next day as well, it's hard to describe how it changes but it's really good.

I have tried air poppers, I had two different ones and both broke down and the results were kinda meh, so I gave up on that approach.
Then I tried to just put them in a pot with a closed lid on the the stove with a spoon of oil, the result was much better but for some reason 1/3 of the times it just fails miserably, either they burn or they don't pop properly, and no idea why because I always try to do the same.
Now my favorite method is that put popcorn mixed with a very small amount of oil in a paper bag, close the bag and put it in the microwave for 3 mins. This has been working so far and the results are quite good, so I'm sticking with this.

I prefer air popped as well simply because I don’t like it greasy, and every stove method tends to need at least a little bit of oil to aid with heat transfer. Air popping also helps because it dries out the popped corn which makes it even more crispy. The secret is to pop it directly into a paper bag so you can shake out the unpopped kernels, because - spoilers - every air popper sucks! I kind of want to experiment with making my own shroud to try to improve upon the design.

The irony of this super dry popcorn is that seasonings don’t stick well to it so you’ll actually have to moisten it if you want it strongly seasoned, and for that it’s best to lay it out on a baking sheet and do a quick spray with a spray bottle. Don’t do too much though; it shouldn’t look or feel wet in the least.

The best seasonings are peppers of different kinds. Black peppercorn is great, but also try good old fashioned red chili flakes, paprika, etc. Curry and other spice blends are also good to experiment with.

If you do want fat on your popcorn I really don’t blame you, just avoid butter. It blunts the flavors you want. Use a neutral vegetable oil. If you want that butter flavor, you would be better off purchasing flavacol or some other brand of butter flavored salt.

Regardless of method, the secret is it has to be popped in oil mixed with Flavacol. This is why movie theater popcorn tastes the way it does and air popped stuff tastes like sadness.

As a child, we used to have wood stoves and we had a popcorn tray thing - it was a perforated dish where we put the kernels in and it went on the wood stove and when it started popping we shook it. Salt got added after in the bowl, and it popped most of them - some user skill required in knowing when to take it off the stove.

These days I just microwave it because I'm lazy and as I prefer just plain salt, I don't really notice a difference :D

Something I really want to see in person one day is those pressure vessel popcorn makers, they look awesome

It's distinctly different from the kind you get at the movie theater, but I've been in love with BDG's pepcorn since he first released the video. It's mixed with Lao Gan Ma and (optionally) red pepper powder, for a savory and (optionally) spicy popcorn.

I make it basically the same way he instructs in the video, it's very easy and you can grind a big bag of spices to use for many preparations. I recommend you buy a separate coffee grinder to use for spices, as no matter how well you clean them there'll still be a little bit of dust left, and I don't really like coffee flavored salt or salt flavored coffee.

I do stovetop with vegetable oil, I don't use flavacol since I don't really care about replicating theater flavor. I usually season with table salt, cumin, and chipotle powder, and shake well! My number one tip for stove top is to make sure it is high enough heat! When it's popping slower it's more likely to burn since the already popped kernels have more time to sit in the oil, gotta get it going fast!

I spent years experimenting with various popcorn methods, including studying under the various schools of thought on r/popcorn, finally settling on coconut oil + flavacol + Amish Country butterfly kernels in a whirley-pop.

One improvement I would like to see is a combination of the bowl method (like in Alton Brown’s video, linked by u/Shevanel above) with a whirley-pop-like stirrer. Maybe this type of device exists, but I haven't seen one and I'm happy enough with my whirley-pop.