1/2 Cup Unpopped Popcorn Equals How Much Popped?
Popcorn is one of the most beloved snacks. It’s easy to make and it can be a low-calorie treat depending on how it is popped. Whether you want to have popcorn for a theatre, to offer to your employees as a special treat, or even to sell in your convenience store, it’s always important to know how far the kernels will go.
½ cup unpopped popcorn equals how much popped? When you look at that small amount of kernels, you wouldn’t think it will result in a lot of popcorn that is ready to eat. There are a few things to consider to know how much it will yield.
How Much Does ½ Cup of Popcorn Get You?
A ½ cup of unpopped popcorn is equal to approximately four ounces of popcorn kernels. Depending on how you pop the popcorn, you can expect to get approximately 14 cups of popped popcorn.
Consider the different ways to pop your popcorn:
- Air popper
- Commercial popper that uses oil
- Microwave
The goal should be to pop the popcorn with as few unpopped kernels left as possible. Typically, air poppers and oil poppers will provide you with the best results. You also don’t want to use too much oil as it can burn and even saturate the popcorn too heavily.
How Many Kernels are Used in a Commercial Popper?
Whether you’re supplying popcorn for an entire theatre, a convention center, or anywhere else, you have to consider what the average batch is going to be.
Most commercial popcorn makers will hold 8 ounces of kernels, which equals one cup of unpopped popcorn. It will produce around 7 quarts (28 cups) of popcorn per batch. Depending on the popcorn maker that you have, it will take 6 to 8 minutes to produce that amount of popcorn – and around 120 quarts of popcorn can be popped in an hour.
An 8-ounce kettle will be able to meet the needs of a small concession stand or a home theatre. If you are feeding 100 or more people an hour, then you will want to consider choosing a kettle that holds even more.
Creating Flavored Popcorn
There are many needs for popcorn kernels – and you may have the idea to create flavored popcorn. It can be offered up in a retail setting, at a fair, or anywhere else where you want to offer people delicious flavors.
½ cup unpopped popcorn equals how much popped will depend heavily on the flavor that you want to create. The numbers provided above are based on your basic air/butter popped popcorn. As soon as you begin mixing in different flavors, it can increase the amount of product that you produce, especially when you are using bulky ingredients.
For example, ½ cup of popcorn kernels will result in approximately 15 cups of kettle corn. One of the reasons for this is that you are creating a relatively heavy coating for the popcorn. In order to make delicious kettle corn, you will need vegetable oil and white sugar.
½ cup of popcorn kernels used to make cookies and cream popcorn will result in approximately 14 to 16 cups of flavored popcorn. The reason for this is because the popcorn is even thicker because of the use of candy melts (or almond bark) as well as crushed Oreos (or any other sandwich cookie). You will get the same 7 cups of popcorn when you air pop it, but by the time you’re done creating the candy mix that will surround the popcorn, you’ll have more than the 14 cups when you begin distributing out into individual serving sizes.
Of course, there are plenty of flavorings that are extremely light. This means that you’ll still be able to turn ½ cup of unpopped popcorn into around 7 cups of popped popcorn.
Some of these flavors include:
- Salted
- Dill pickle
- Cheese
- Chili lime
- Ranch
In order to achieve any of those flavors, it’s usually a dried mix that you sprinkle onto the popcorn. It doesn’t add much weight to the popcorn, so you will still end up with 7 cups by the time you’re done tossing it around in the desired flavoring.
Serving Size of Popcorn
As you begin to calculate how many popcorn kernels you need based on how ½ cup of unpopped popcorn kernels will pop up, you need to pay attention to serving sizes. Most health sites will agree that the average serving size of popcorn is 4 to 5 cups if it is air-popped. The calorie count will vary from 120 to 150, depending on how much popcorn you’re actually consuming.
As you start to get into the various flavors, the serving size may be reduced because the calorie count increases. For example, buttered popcorn is typically listed as a serving size of 3 cups and, depending on the amount of butter (or buttery syrup), the calories can be between 160 and 300 calories.
Some of the more exciting flavors like kettle corn, cookies and cream, and others may have an even higher calorie count – and the serving size may be closer to 2 cups.
Consider the vessel in which you’re going to serve the popcorn. You can certainly offer individual serving-size bags. However, if you’re feeding a crowd, consider the sizes that are offered at movie theatres.
Most movie theatres around the country offer several sizes.
Small: 7 to 10 cups
Medium: 10 to 14 cups
Large: 17 to 20 cups
Obviously, if you’re only working with ½ cup of kernels, you’ll be able to produce a single medium bucket of popcorn. If that’s all you need, that’s great. But, if you plan on serving more than one person a medium bag of popcorn, you’ll need a lot more kernels.
Buying Popcorn Kernels
Once you decide how many popcorn kernels you need based on how many cups of popped popcorn you plan on serving, you need to find a distributor that you can rely on. Choosing a high-quality farm will offer you the flavorful popcorn that you need while being able to get the quantity that you demand.
Shumway Farms, for example, is a bulk popcorn supplier out of Tekonsha, Michigan. They sell bulk quantities all across the U.S. and around the world.
Wherever you decide to buy your popcorn, you want to make sure that they can provide you with the bulk quantities that you need. Do the math. How far is ½ cup of kernels going to get you based on how you plan on popping or distributing the popcorn? Once you can answer that, you can start to place your order.