Can Popcorn Be Made In A Pressure Cooker?
Yes, you can. Popcorn, a must-have food when watching a movie or a super bowl game. It’s easy to make but does making it inside a pressure cooker make it easier? Well, it’s something that is up for debate, but one thing is for sure, making popcorn inside a pressure cooker doesn’t make the process a lot easier. It’s either the same or a lot harder.
There are a few things you have to make sure of first, the pressure cooker you are using can get to high enough temperatures, you have a high smoke point oil, and lastly making sure that you are using fresh kernels.
High smoke point and high temperatures go side by side. To cook popcorns, you need high temperatures, temperatures above 400 degrees Fahrenheit and only high smoke point oils such as coconut oil, refined avocado oil, almond oil, corn oil, etc.
Low smoke point oils are mostly unrefined, using them at high temperatures causes burning and will impart your popcorn a burnt taste.
Also, it should be kept in mind that you cannot use the pressure cooking function of a pressure cooker to cook popcorns. You will be using it as a heated pot.
Following these steps will allow you to cook a batch of delicious popcorn using a pressure cooker:
- If you have a fully automated multi-cooker like an instant pot, plug it in the power socket.
- After your Instant pot turns on, look for a button called sauté or if you have a Ninja Foodi the button will be called Browning. Press the sauté/Browning button.
- Look for the adjust button and make sure to turn the mode from low to high. As previously mentioned, you need high temperatures.
- Put 3 to 4 tablespoons of a high smoke point oil. Add more or less depending upon the portion. This amount of oil is enough for a cup of corn kernels. Also when adding the kernels make sure you are not overcrowding the pot. Overcrowding will leave a lot of corn kernels uncooked.
- Put your corn kernels inside the pressure cooker and cover each kernel thoroughly with oil. Add salt and butter according to taste.
- Close the lid and wait for a few minutes.
- When the corn kernels start to pop, grab the pressure cooker from the sides and shake it a few times. This will help the cooking process.
- Turn off the pressure cooker when you don’t hear popping for 20 to 30 seconds.
- Dump your popcorn into a bowl and enjoy it.
According to some people, this method of cooking popcorn inside a pressure cooker is either impossible or difficult to achieve. They claim that using a pot is a much better alternative. But as far as our experiences go, as long as you follow all of our instructions, you will always get a batch of delicious popcorn with little to none uncooked corn kernels. Anyway don’t ignore the precautions and experiment, you will soon find out that using a pressure cooker for cooking popcorn is a lot more convenient and easy.