Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Kettle Corn.

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Posted by Rene Ferron (Member # 4674) on 09-06-2009, 06:16 PM:

I was just wondering if it would be possible to make kettle corn with a theater popcorn machine. (IE: Pop-O-Gold Floor Model Popcorn Machine )

If it's possible, If anyone has a recipe that i could try, thx.

Rene

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 09-06-2009, 06:55 PM:

Gold Medal sells kettle korn mix. You can google them up & see if it'll work for you.

Offhand, I wonder if the temperatures of standard popcorn machines might be too high for the sugar they pop kettle corn with. At the sports stadiums I see the stuff being made at, they use big gas-fired copper pots that they can stir like crazy.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 09-06-2009, 07:10 PM:

What is kettle corn? A customer asked Jen the other day if her theater served kettle corn. Being as how the popcorn there is popped in a kettle, she said yes. The customer got angry proclaiming that "This isn't kettle corn", had a coronary and died. Or something like that.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 09-06-2009, 07:14 PM:

Yes, you can use a regular popper to make kettle corn, but it needs to be a separate popper due to the temperature differences.

Posted by Rene Ferron (Member # 4674) on 09-06-2009, 08:17 PM:

What would be the difference in temps ?

Posted by Jack Ondracek (Member # 1466) on 09-06-2009, 10:42 PM:

Like I said... it's lower. You'd have to call someone who makes the stuff if you're looking for numbers.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 09-06-2009, 11:14 PM:

quote: Joe Redifer
What is kettle corn?

I guess it's just popcorn with alot of sugary caramel flavoring. It's huge at county fairs, I know that...we were at 4 fairs this year and every one of them had a booth selling gobs of the stuff.

Posted by Jarret Chessell (Member # 5077) on 09-07-2009, 12:09 AM:

Kettle corn... go to youtube, you can see all kinds of videos of people explaining it and making it. Some videos have people making it at home on their stove, and you can also see videos of people making it in quantity in at the fair.

We tossed around the idea of making it at one cinema I work at. The issue was that we only have one popcorn machine....

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-07-2009, 02:48 AM:

You can call it between regular popcorn and caramel corn.

Joe, have Jen make you some popcorn balls - basically the same as kettle corn, just more stickier..

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 09-07-2009, 03:14 AM:

We used to use Pappy's Kettle Korn (it might be a Gold Medal product) mix to make our own kettle corn. We used the regular popper and didn't have to change any temperature settings. As a smallish location we would just pop a few batches every few days and seal them in bags they provided.

It was a nice thing to try out, but the labor involved and the actual sales were not nearly enough to justify keeping it as a regular product. On average we sold less than 20 bags a week.

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 09-07-2009, 06:44 AM:

I think part of the Kettle corn mystique is the preparation. It is supposed to be done in a wok like bowl (kettle) and stirred, by hand, in a whipping like motion. How the kettle is kept/prepared adds to its flavor. In a fair like situation, this set up is FAR more easy than in a theatre where show turns are tight and the show is the movie, not the food prep.

There are microwave Kettle Corns for those that want to try something similar. It does not taste exactly right (how could it) but you will get the idea. Monte is pretty close in his taste comparison...it like a cross between caramel corn and regular popcorn but there is a texture difference in the real stuff.

It doesn't surprise me that there would be a kettle corn mix or something to give a similar flavor.

Steve

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 09-07-2009, 01:42 PM:

We tried it a few years back....it was a disaster -- totally messed up our popper. Of course we weren't doing it right, too hot I guess, but the experience and the labor then cleaning the blackened kettle was enough to swear us off it forever. As Justin said, the demand was so small that we could have just as well used the microwave to pop a few bags of the microwavable kettle corn in the back when someone actually asked for it. One of the kids -- the one I assigned to clean the burnt kettle -- commented, "Next time one of those aholes asks for kettle corn, hand them a salt shaker with sugar in it & tell them to make their own." He was not a happy pup.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 09-07-2009, 11:24 PM:

Some theatres have this Concession Item as part of their snak bar sales..

It's all prepackaged, has a rack for display and very eye catching...

(saves on having to make the stuff..)

-Monte

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-07-2009, 11:38 PM:

I don't know about Kettle Corn but lately I've had a craving for Cracker Jack... It's somewhat hard to find too.

Mark

Posted by Robert Madara (Member # 3981) on 09-08-2009, 09:57 AM:

We make it in a separate 14 oz. popper. We just add sugar & reduce the heat. We also use a Gold Medal product called Compound "S". It keeps the kettle clean! We bag it up in the Pappy's bags, & sell it for 2.99. ..It's a great "grab & Go" item in our Moon Car-feteria -(not Barf-feteria, Tim, LOL.)

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 09-08-2009, 01:23 PM:

quote: Robert Madara
We also use a Gold Medal product called Compound "S".

I think that's the same stuff they use to clean the hulls of ocean liners Monte!!!!

Posted by Robert Madara (Member # 3981) on 09-08-2009, 03:37 PM:

After handling all of the "Princess & Frog" trs, I think that I may need some Compound W.

Ok, My wife said that since we bought the used 14 oz. popper, that she doesn't have to reduce any heat. We use HI-POP mush room variety seeds. We pop it in a cocanut oil blend that comes in sticks. I think it's called Nads-pop. The COMPOUND-S container says: use 1 Tbs. per 12oz. of corn. It says when you add your corn & sugar to the hot oil (475 degrees),then add the COMPOUND-S. They say that it helps separate the corn & helps keep your kettle clean. It comes in a 1-1/2 lb. container from Gold Medal.

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 09-10-2009, 02:34 AM:

"Nads-pop" [Big Grin]

Posted by David E. Nedrow (Member # 4981) on 09-11-2009, 06:31 PM:

Just to add to this, Gold Medal does sell poppers with a "sweet/salty" option. It's basically and additional switch that controls the temperature of the kettle.

We're looking at that, in addition to Flexipop, for our new popper. The drawback to sweet/salty is that switching between salted and sugared popcorn isn't fast. You need to clean the kettle thoroughly and run a couple of throw-away batches before popping the other type.

Popping some "kettle corn" just before opening, put it in a warmer, and then switch to salty for the rest of the day. We're a single screen, so having multiple poppers going doesn't make sense.

As several have stated, you can't make sugared corn in a regular popper. Way too hot.

Posted by Dylan Houdeshell (Member # 5415) on 09-14-2009, 11:39 PM:

Kettle corn is pretty damn tasty. I wish we could pop authentic kettle corn but our theater took the cheap route and got "Kettle Corn Flavoring" instead. Not bad but it's pretty much just sugar in a salt shaker with Kettle Corn Flavoring written on it.