from america's test kitchen:
I'm not embarrassed to admit that the sole reason I purchased a microwave oven was to make microwave popcorn. Stovetop popcorn always seemed like too much work for a quick snack, and air-popped corn tastes to me like, well, air. Choosing the microwave, however, turned out to be easier than choosing a brand of microwave popcorn. The supermarket shelves are overrun with more than a dozen brands and countless permutations of flavors, from movie theater butter to butter blast to natural to kettle corn. I enlisted my coworkers' help, and we narrowed the field to nine popular brands. We selected the most basic butter flavor each brand offered -- no "butter light" or "butter bonanza." We also threw in some "homemade" microwave popcorn, popping kernels in a paper bag in the microwave and then dowsing them with fresh melted butter.
The differences between the popcorns were vast. Of the 10 samples, tasters found only five that were good enough to recommend. That seemed strange, considering that all of the popcorns had strikingly similar lists of ingredients: popcorn, oil, salt, butter and/or "natural and artificial flavors," and, in some, coloring. Most brands (including the homemade) had a fat content of 8 to 12 grams per serving. The two lower-fat samples, Healthy Choice, which had just 3 grams, and Black Jewell, which had 5, fell into the "Not Recommended" category. Aside from fat content, then, what made for the difference? The answer lay not in the list of ingredients but in the tasters' comments.
Tasters were asked to give each sample an overall score, as well as to score the popcorns on the following characteristics: buttery, artificial, and corn-y. We discovered what tasters looked for in popcorn: good corn flavor, nothing artificial, and a moderate amount of butter flavor -- not too much, and not too little. Our top two overall finishers, homemade and Newman's Own, were ranked among the lowest for artificiality and the highest for corniness, and they were right in the middle of the pack when it came to butteriness. Ironically, the two brands deemed the most buttery, Orville Redenbacher and Pop Secret, were also deemed the most artificial and ranked at the bottom of the tasting.
The real surprise of the tasting was the showing of the "homemade" popcorn, which barely squeaked a victory over Newman's Own. Though many tasters praised the real butter flavor of our fresh popped, several described that popcorn as soggy or greasy. Most of the commercial popcorns were flavored with a dry butter powder, which lent a buttery flavor (sometimes) but not a buttery texture. That real butter texture was more appealing when the popcorn was warm, but when the popcorns cooled (we sampled them all at room temperature because they cooled off too quickly to taste them all warm) they became soft and greasy. For that reason, only half of a point separated our homemade popcorn from the second-place finisher, Newman's Own.
The benefit of popping your own, other than the monetary savings (kernels cost about half as much as packaged microwave popcorn), is that you control the flavor and can add as much butter, salt, or any other seasoning you wish (many of our tasters confessed to sprinkling jalapeno salt, Parmesan cheese, or cinnamon sugar on their popcorn). However, for true convenience and a taste that's almost as good as homemade, choose Newman's Own Butter.
In order of preference:
RECOMMENDED
KERNELS AND REAL BUTTER $3.69/30 oz
"Nice toastiness," "tastes like real butter, yum!"
NEWMAN'S OWN BUTTER $2.49/10.5 oz
"Good corn flavor," "real tasting."
SHAW'S (SUPERMARKET BRAND) BUTTER $1.59/10.5 oz
"Quite buttery," "pretty good, really."
GUILTLESS GOURMET BUTTER $3.29/9 oz
"Good corn flavor," "no discernible butter."
ACT II BUTTER $1.99/10.5 oz
"Average," "salty."
NOT RECOMMENDED
HEALTHY CHOICE BUTTER $2.49/8.55 oz
"Dry," "artificial."
ORVILLE REDENBACHER BUTTER $2.49/10.5 oz
"Can't taste the corn for all that fake butter."
POP SECRET BUTTER $2.29/10.5 oz
"Greasy," "off tasting."
NEWMAN'S OWN POP'S CORN (ORGANIC) BUTTER $2.69/10.5 oz
"Dry and dusty," "tastes like dried shrimp."
BLACK JEWELL BUTTER $2.99/10.5 oz
"Hard and chewy," "kinda burnt."
Facebook
Twitter