For better crunch and a saltier snack, just pop your popcorn in the … freezer?
Ah, hot buttered popcorn. There’s no other aroma that indexes summer fun so deeply. One whiff and you’re at the circus, watching a baseball game, and on the edge of your seat with the latest blockbuster all at once. That salty crunch is so uniquely satisfying.
Until the next day, that is, when the leftovers have the texture of window insulation, and you’re still picking the hulls out of your teeth.
TikTok’s latest viral hack to the rescue! Just pop your popcorn in the freezer … wait, I mean, you pop it in the microwave, then place it in the freezer for at least an hour or two. Testers say it will make it crunchier with an enhanced salty nip, but with less tendency to stick to those back molars.
I love to hazard food science guesses about why a particular hack might work, and there might be some logical explanations. Popping corn may seem totally dry, but it’s the miniscule amount of water inside each kernel that makes it pop when heated. As the water turns to steam and builds pressure, the seed coat cracks and the superheated starch curls and expands into those familiar corny clouds. Most of that steam escapes, but maybe freezing ices up the few remaining water molecules, or even pulls some out through freeze-drying, making it crisper. This would be the opposite of the process of going stale, wherein water absorbed from the air into dry foods like chips, crackers and popcorn robs us of our craveable crunches.
As for why it might taste saltier, it may be that a slight freeze-drying effect draws salt to the outside surface more, or that cold dampens other flavors that might compete with salt. In any case, I’m betting it works. Even some commercial popcorn manufacturers suggest it.
Let’s try it! You can certainly use packaged microwave popcorn, but one of my favorite cheaper, healthier dietitian hacks is to put a couple of tablespoons of popping corn into a brown paper sack, fold it over a couple of times and microwave for about two minutes, or until the pops slow down. You can add a teaspoon of oil or butter, if you like. These days, I’ve got a trusty microwaveable silicone thing that also works like a charm.
Heather Martin
Heather Martin I’m trying this hack with freshly popped and leftover commercially bagged popcorn.
Let’s try it with some store-bought popcorn, too, because that’s when most people experience the pain of leftover popcorn letdown.
I’m using Amish red popping corn today, and some is buttered. I put a portion in a resealable bag, too, to see whether that helped, since some testers instruct pushing out most of the air before sealing up.
Just out of the freezer, the freshly popped is absolutely crispier than some I left unfrozen, and yes, it sticks in my teeth a lot less than fresh. The batch with a little butter on it feels the coldest because the frozen butter holds the temp longer than the airy popcorn alone, but the oiliness also tones down the crunch. The batch in the plastic bag with the air pushed out is noticeably crispiest. It makes an audible snap, like potato chips!
There is also a bit of a lean towards salty and away from sweet, and I think it’s largely the effect that temperature has on flavor perception. The effect doesn’t last long, though; it’s room temp within five minutes or so, and the extra bite starts to fade.
Interestingly, the pre-popped bagged popcorn was completely unchanged by freezing. It’s just nowhere near as good as just-popped. However, it seems likely that it might help keep your notoriously staling-prone bagged popcorn fresher for longer. Coming in and out of the freezer multiple times can have unpredictable effects, though. If frost builds up in the bag, it’ll leave your snack sodden as it melts while you’re trying to crunch it. If you try this, transferring the leftover popcorn into a sealing baggie and pressing the air out as best you can is probably necessary.
In all, I think this method works well for storing leftovers and for a few minutes of novelty, but I’m not sure it’s worth making and freezing a special batch. Also, this will never replace freshly popped popcorn for me; there’s just something about that warm butter scent that’s captivating and, once frozen, there’s not much aroma to popcorn even when it’s buttered.
I’d love to know where this hack came from, but it has been a bit hard to pin down. It may be that several lines of food content innovation popped up together, so that the idea seems to have sprung independently from more than one source. One possible origin is Japan, where liquid-nitrogen dipped candied popcorn has been around for a few years. Or, it may be the natural evolution of chocolate- or caramel-coated homemade popcorn, since many content creators suggest putting it in the fridge to set.
But the oldest version of all in homemade hack form is in the 2021 Reddit forum for unpopular opinions. User u/TheDiamondCastle notes that the method improves the flavor and texture, and that the frozen butter doesn’t get all over their hands. Most of the commenters at the time panned the idea, but one mentions this also works well for keeping another lower-fat and crunchy snack fresh — baked barbecue potato chips!
That gets right at a complaint I hear from a lot of nutrition clients — that lower-fat snacks seem to have a shorter shelf life. I don’t want to sound corny, but shucks, with tips like that? Unpopular or not, I’m all ears.
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