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Does anyone go to a theatre that uses real butter anymore?? All I see is that jive canola crap!!! It seems the food police Nazis have screwed with the last place on earth you can escape from reality......
First, "real butter" in the theatres is actually clarified butter, AKA ghee, or anhydrous butterfat. It has always been seriously expensive compared to butter from a store.
The kicker though, if you want to make ghee at home for your own popcorn, the unsalted butter that you used to be able to use now has "added natural flavor" from cultured milk solids that make it impossible to make a proper clarified butter.
Even if you want to make your own butter from cream, look at the box of cream and you will likely find "contains guar gum" as a thickener.
The gross adulteration of dairy products by profit motive and eco-nazis continues to get worse. Ever try to find a container of NON-homogenized normal milk? You used to be able to at least buy skim milk and cream. Now, no way.
First, "real butter" in the theatres is actually clarified butter, AKA ghee, or anhydrous butterfat. It has always been seriously expensive compared to butter from a store.
Is this why is always ridiculously expensive to buy what is basically a bucket of fat in a cinema? I stopped buying popcorn years ago! Firstly, it tastes disgusting and secondly, when I go to a movie I want to listen to the dialogue, not the lardass in the row in front of me guzzling his way thro a supersize.
Lack of real butter is primarily a greed thing for big movie chains.
Real butter is expensive and requires refrigeration, two costs that theater chains can avoid with jugs of cheap flavored oil.
Cheapness rules. Making the popcorn concession a no-brainer avoids the cost of training a workforce that is constantly turning over.
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"Greed" might be overstating the case. "Survival" would be a better word.
The lion's share of the money you fork over for your ticket does NOT go to the theater. It goes back to the studio, distributor, etc. And for the big tentpole movies, many theaters have to pay a huge amount up front, just to get the movie, to which they then have to recoup their investment --- which they can't do on ticket sales.
Which means the only way left for them to finance their business is the concession stand. Which explains why you're paying $4 for a $0.55 box of candy or $5 for a soda that has a 2 cent cup, 3 cents woth of carbonated water, and about 10 cents worth of syrup. From that, the theater has to pay their lease, pay their monthly utilities, insurance, and pay their employees.
So if you we want to be mad at anyone, we need to be mad at the studios and movie distributors, not the theaters. If movie theaters still exist at all in 20 years, it will be a minor miracle.
I remember one time many years ago watching the guy behind the counter pour this yellow thick substance into a container and I asked, "WHAT. WAS. THAT???" and he said, "The butter flavor topping for your popcorn." Since then I do not ask for that stuff. Another time while we were actually in the theater watching the movie, a few of the staff were walking down the aisle with bags on their shoulder. Apparently there was a storage room behind the screen. The bags were pre-made popcorn. They tossed the premade popcorn in the case with the heat lamp on it and the air so that it moved around and didn't burn. I basically stopped buying popcorn until I saw it a few years ago actually being popped in the theater. I still don't put that yellow "butter flavored" goop on it though. The theater by my house has powdered popcorn toppings you can shake on to your popcorn. It's out in public so anyone can just open the top and do whatever they want to it. We've become one of those families that sneaks stuff in LOL
Years ago I dated a girl who had worked in a major multiplex. I remember what she told me word for word: "Do not eat that stuff, You do not want to know what's in it." Never did, Following her advice.
Plain popcorn with some salt is healthy though, Good source of fiber and antioxidants.
First - the butter that you buy in a store has a water content. Spray some of your popcorn at home with water and take a big sniff. It'll make a lot of people (including me) gag.
Ghee or anhydrous (without water) butterfat does NOT need refrigeration. The milk solids have been removed and it is shelf-stable. Back in the 1970s ten pounds of the stuff was well over twenty-five dollars and butter was going for about $1.50/lb. retail.
Pre-popped corn. In a true taste test, I have repeatedly shown customers that the corn coming fresh out of the kettle TASTES more stale than the corn in the warmer. Remember the spritz with water smell? Corn right out of a kettle still has residual steam in it. The warmer drives off that last moisture, which makes the popcorn crisper and crunchier. Popping in front of customers is primarily showmanship. If you like the smell and the action, it is great. If you don't, you don't.
Costs and retail prices have been amply covered in other threads. If you have ever purchased a bottle of water, you have purchased a product with a far greater mark-up.
As for the girl in the multiplex, if that is when they were popping with canola, she was spot on. Coconut oil has been the traditional french frying oil, and it has positive health benefits. Theatre popcorn has popcorn, the frying oil, salt, and a beta-carotine coloring (same stuff that colors carrots). In every theatre I ever worked or supervised, with one exception, that was all the ingredients. The other theatre used some celery salt in the popper to add a different flavor.
Do a search on my username and canola, and you'll see why that girl was right about not eating canola cooked corn.
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Glad I saw this!
