 America's Test Kitchen is a real 2,500 square foot test kitchen located just outside of Boston that is home to more than three dozen full-time cooks and product testers. Our mission is simple: to develop the absolute best recipes for all of your favorite foods. To do this, we test each recipe 30, 40, sometimes as many as 70 times, until we arrive at the combination of ingredients, technique, temperature, cooking time, and equipment that yields the best, most-foolproof recipe. America’s Test Kitchen's online cooking school is based on nearly 20 years of test kitchen work in our own facility, on the recipes created for Cook’s Illustrated magazine, and on our two public television cooking shows. Pop up flavor, not fat, with this resolution-friendly snack. String it on your Christmas tree, Festivus pole or right into your belly. When cooking the popcorn, be sure to keep the lid on tight and shake the pot vigorously to prevent scorching. We like to use a rasp-style grater for the Parmesan here because it makes small, delicate shreds of cheese that stick nicely to the warm popcorn. 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Heat the oil and pepper together in a small skillet over medium‐low heat until warm and fragrant, about 1 minute. Meanwhile, heat a large Dutch oven over medium‐high heat for 2 minutes. Add the water and popcorn, cover, and cook, shaking frequently, until the first few kernels begin to pop. Continue to cook, shaking vigorously, until the popping has mostly stopped. Pour the popcorn immediately into a large bowl, toss with the pepper oil, salt, and Parmesan cheese, and serve. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxwfTjxUfYs?w=416] More from America's Test Kitchen: |
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Chris Kimball is a god and the Test Kitchen is his Dominion. I'd give my right eye to see him belt out Shakedown Street.
Um, yeah, what those other folks said. I'm getting tired of CNN's really grabby headlines on ho-hum articles. Are you really that desperate for page views?
36 chefs, 2500 square feet of state of the art equipment and THIS is what they come up with. This isn't even the best way to distribute the fat and pepper. Keep up the, um, "work."
My experience with recipes from America's Test Kitchen has been...disappointing. They're technically fine, as a rule. But the way they're developed – dozens of minor variations, tested by a panel, with the high vote winning – always seems to turn out food that tastes like it was concocted by a committee, and is bland and uninteresting.
While the techniques are sound, the recipes themselves are rarely better than just a basis or starting point for something that can be vastly improved by actually tasting – and correcting – as you go along.
I thought it was going to be that thing where you take a date to the movies and get popcorn for two and then cut a whole in the bottom of the container and sit it on "your lap".
I guess you could still do it with parmesan cheese.
I can't be the only one who clicked on this article expecting an entirely different story. I wish to register a complaint, this is not a popcorn trick I can play on my wife or my girlfriend (or both at the same time) at the movies. Now where's that suggestion box?
Amen! Thought it was popcorn pranks, not a fancy snack.
CAUTION CAUTION CAUTION
I WOULD NOT SUGGEST ADDING WATER TO HOT OIL. (ESPECIALY OIL SATURATED WITH BLACK PEPPER)
I WOULD BE EVEN MORE CAUTIOUS TO THOSE THINKING ABOUT DOUBLING OR MORE UP ON THE BATCH SIZE.
IT WOULD NICE IF THE AUTHER OF THIS ARTICLE COULD DECIDE ON WETHER TO USE A LOW HEAT OIL LIKE EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL WHICH WILL LIKEY BLACKEN THE POPCORN VERY QUICKLY OR A HIGH HEAT OIL LIKE PEANUT OR CANOLA OIL, AGAIN ADDING WATER TO PEPPER LADEN OIL DOESNT SOUND SAFE.
You need to re-read this article... note that the oil and pepper are heated in a small skillet and added to the popcorn after it is popped. Meanwhile the popcorn is popped in a dutch oven with a table spoon of water. Nowhere does it say to add water to hot oil.
Caution caution caution. Reading the above post will make you dumber because the poster didn't even read the article.
Caution, caution, caution! Your caps lock is on and you have poor reading comprehension skills!!!
Sober up pal, and learn to live and let live...
caution caution caution
i cannot read, write, nor spell. but despite my severe retardation, i enjoy reading and posting about popcorn.
The problem is that the video doesn't match the article, something a reader would expect. Stupid publishing on the editor's part.
Did you read the recipe completely? Because I read to use a separate pot for the water and popcorn...
I always thought the best popcorn trick was the one with the hole in the bottom of the carton.
HOT BUTTER AND SALT IN THAT AREA DOES NOT SOUND EXCITING TO ME
OK, video totally doesn't match the instructions. :: sigh :: I wanted to see how their 'water' trick looked (if that's what the trick was).
Really? Put cheese on popcorn and then hang it on your Christmas tree? Somebody has been hitting the spiked eggnog.
Absolootlee a horrible thing to do to popcorn. Your local theater would be outta biz in a week! Merry Christmas.
I've never heard of popping the corn kernels in water before. Am I the only one? Or is this a typo?
Even the video shows the chef cooking the popcorn in oil
I was curious about that, too. I found several recipes on several websites where they used water instead of oil to pop the corn. Guess it works because of the steam created by the water evaporating. All the recipes then poured an oil or butter over it with various things added to the oil/butter.
Best ever? I've seen better. Take that.
There is no popcorn quite as good as Jolly Time White! I don't know why people like yellow popcorn, the taste and texture is not nearly as good as white kernel popcorn. Yellow color does not mean it's going to fool people into thinking it tastes like butter; but I think some people must think so, and that must be why they prefer it.
I'm a white popcorn girl myself, having grown up in Indiana. Daddy used to buy it from the local factory in Van Buren 50 lbs at a time!!!
Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to all!
Or...........
How to make your Popcorn smell like old dirty socks.
soak it in cheap tequila
How is this a trick? Front page headline reads best trick EVER. It's making popcorn from a recipe.
I guess the trick was getting me to click on the link with a misleading headline.
The trick is in the Youtube video inserted in the article. It is actually a good trick to guarantee that all the kernels will pop almost simultaneously.
Popcorn is delicious when sprinkled with parmesan cheese & curry.
If I can't have mine with extra butter and salt, I would LOVE some from Johnson's Popcorn (New Jersey Shore – Ocean City). Loaded with buttery (no molasses) caramel. OMG...it's so good!