Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: How to make colored popcorn?

This is topic How to make colored popcorn? in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Stephen Frazza (Member # 2320) on 05-20-2004, 09:19 PM:

Does anyone know of a way to make your popcorn a different color
or would you have to buy it that way?

Posted by Kyle Watkins (Member # 986) on 05-20-2004, 09:35 PM:

more and likely use food coloring. I rembember when i was a kid had differt colours for hollween.

Want to make green for shrek. [Smile]

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 05-20-2004, 09:48 PM:

Caution: Don't use so much coloring that things get stained. [uhoh]

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 05-21-2004, 01:07 AM:

We made green popcorn once for St. Patrick's Day and everyone thought it looked terrible. Our popcorn sales for the day went south. Your own mileage may vary, maybe we just didn't put in enough color -- or too much.

How about using some green lights in your popcorn bin, or maybe put some green cellophane on your bin glass? Or make popcorn balls wrapped in green cellphane (and charge a premium for them!)

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-21-2004, 09:12 AM:

If you're going to make one color everything should be OK, customer reaction notwithstanding. However, if you're going to make multi-colored popcorn, be careful how you mix the colored batches together.

For instance if you want to make red and green popcorn and the batches get mixed together and the colors start to mix you might end up with shit brown!

Make a batch of red then make a batch of green. Once it's all warmed and dried it should be OK to mix them without the food dye rubbing off and turning another color.

Posted by Stephen Frazza (Member # 2320) on 05-21-2004, 12:14 PM:

Yes we were thinking about making green for Shrek because we are having someone dress up as shrek on the weekend for the kids to meet.

But should i put the food coloring in with the kernels and oil before it starts to pop?Or if not then when?
And any idea how much food coloring i should add?
Thanks

Posted by Rob Butler (Member # 2274) on 05-21-2004, 01:06 PM:

I wonder if you could soak the kernals in a mixture of water and food coloring before popping, when it pops, that should dry out the kernal, but the dye should remain, i don't know how this would affect the taste tho.

You could try soaking the kernals in water and food coloring after popping, this would ensure that the kernals would soak up the dye, but they might become too wet and get mushy.

Maybe if you put water and food coloring in a spray bottle and just lightly spray it onto the popcorn after it pops just enough until it get's the color.

I know that you can mix the dye in with the butter, but not everybody wants butter.

Maybe it might work if you mix the coloring in with the other ingredients that go in the kettle with the corn, but then again, the heat might fade the color.

I'd suggest doing a few Google.com searches, and experiment in small batches

Posted by Rich Granata (Member # 2285) on 05-21-2004, 01:21 PM:

Another nearby theatre tried it for Shrek by just spraying it. Its a cool idea, but I checked it out and it just looked moldy. Really moldy. [puke]

I've never tried it, but maybe there is a way to make the salt green instead of yellow.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 05-21-2004, 02:05 PM:

How about getting some white cheddar cheese topping to sprinkle on the popcorn and coloring it green?

You could mix up the cheese and the food dye to get a color thats a bit darker than you want. Then put the popcorn and the colored topping into a container and shake it up.

That way you aren't stuck with a huge batch of green popcorn that nobody wants. You only have to make as much as you need at a given time.

Posted by John Pytlak (Member # 331) on 05-21-2004, 03:09 PM:

Most of the recipes for colored popcorn on the net put the coloring in a topping (butter, gelatin). But pre-colored popcorn has been available:

http://www.kitchenetc.com/products.cfm?sku=000672030

quote:
Sure to be a huge hit with children, this colored popcorn is an excellent party snack food. Red, green, blue and yellow colors turn an ordinary bowl of popcorn into an extraordinary treat.
6 1/2 Oz.
Ingredients: popcorn, artificial color (Red #40, Blue #1, Yellow #5, Yellow #6)
Pop in pan or popcorn popper
About 5 servings, 110 calories and 1 1/2 grams of fat per serving

http://www.detroitpopcorn.com/Flyers/coloredseed.htm

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 05-21-2004, 03:30 PM:

Now does anybody know what 1970s horror film was released with "bloodcorn" advertising ? (I shouldn't have given my copy of that great gimmick book BEYOND BALLYHOO away...)

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 05-21-2004, 05:24 PM:

Gold Medal Products makes equipment for preparing seemingly every kind of gimicky food ("fun food" they call it) from popcorn and hotdogs to cotton candy and Sno-Kones®

Use their search feature, entering "popcorn" and "color."

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 05-21-2004, 08:34 PM:

Beta Carotene and Yellow #3 are often the colouring in popping oil and the colour must withstand the high popping temp

Posted by Ky Boyd (Member # 23) on 05-21-2004, 09:56 PM:

My dad owned a bar & bingo in the 80's and one year for St. Patrick's day, he decided they should have green popcorn for St Paddy's. It was a huge bomb. Nobody ate it because it looked moldy. He ended up throwing it all away.

Remember food is more than just taste and texture. Appearance plays a huge role in people's perceptions of food. However, having said that I have no explanation for the appeal of blue gatorade and the like. Looks gross to me.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 05-23-2004, 08:27 AM:

Slightly off the subject, but, relevant.

When my mom and dad got married, my mom will admit that she was not the best of cooks.

He came home one night, and she had put food coloring in the apple sauce, and mashed potatoes. He sat down, took one look at his blue apple sauce, with a side of blue potatoes, and said, "I dont eat blue food." That was the end of that.

Zip forward. My 4 year old nephew eats tons of stuff that is wierd colors. The recent hit was purple catsup. Why?

When I was younger, back when the earth was cooling, we had colored popcorn where the coloring was applied to the husks of the corn. When it was popped, all you got was a smidgen of color with the white popped corn. Mmmmm!

Do they still sell the corn this way?

[ 05-24-2004, 08:46 PM: Message edited by: Bruce McGee ]

Posted by Jeff Stuckey (Member # 1718) on 05-24-2004, 11:01 AM:

I remember once trying to be slick and make jalapeno flavored popcorn by pouring some of the pepper juice in the popper. We didn't clear the smoke for about 30 minutes. The popcorn was actually pretty good though. We only made it for staff, but the theater was open at the time we popped it. Last batch of the day. [Smile]

Good smell.

Posted by Rob Butler (Member # 2274) on 05-24-2004, 04:35 PM:

I remember when the first Shrek came out, Burger King had green ketchup, although it tasted exactly the same as the red stuff, I just couldn't seem to finish my fries, it just seemed too weird.