You inherited or bought a ginormous kettle corn popcorn making stainless steel bowl/wok looking thing.  The good news is you can make almost anything and the amount of heat involved will accept most any flavoring, whether it is water or oil based.   Stirring fast is the main ingredient in making great kettle corn.  Adding your flavor when you add you sugar is also important since the flavor attaches to the sugar.  If your flavor is truly oil based (floats on water) then add it in the oil part.

Your oil ratio will also be one part to two parts popcorn kernels.  So 1:2, as in one cup of oil to 2 cups of popcorn kernels or for a larger batch 4 cups of oil to 8 cups of popcorn kernels.  Sugar will mimic the oil ratio.  So, if oil is 4 cups, the sugar to add later will be four cups.  This also means your popcorn kernels for this recipe would be at 8 cups. PHOTO Courtesy of JeffLindsay.com

Throw three popcorn kernels in the oil.  When they pop you know your oil is ready.  At that point you stir in your sugar, flavor and kernels stirring swiftly to keep the sugar from burning.  You could be moving very quickly for 2 to five minutes.

Head gear and full clothing is so important because hot balls of oil sugar can missile out of the bowl very easily.  Nothing can burn like a hot sugar oil combination.  Because of that it is also wise to keep onlookers as safe enough away as possible.  Most makers throw 3 kernels in the oil and when they have popped the rest goes right in and the stirring begins.

Kettle Corn Flavoring - Flavoring Kettle Corn

Because of the heat involved you can use water based or oil based flavor to flavor Kettle Corn.  Water based flavor would be added with the sugar because that is a water based ingredient.  Oil based flavor would go in with the oil part, but again, it almost does not matter when working with such high heat.  Never throw very cold cold flavoring onto hot oil.  This is why you need to add it on top of the room temperature sugar mass of sugar going in.

Flavoring kettle corn can get very creative.  Caramel Apple flavoring can be added, Candy Apple flavoring, and even cotton candy flavor can be added.  I have heard of chocolate and cheddar as well as cheddar and caramel.  They sounded intriguing but were far too rich and complex when I, as a flavors made them up.  I am sure they sell because of the novelty and uniqueness, and they tasted wonderful - but the kind of post stomach ache afterward wonderful. 

Two of my other favorites happen to be Bit-O-Honeee I invented for the popcorn market and Rain Forest Crunch.  The Bit-o-Honee has the wonderful straight forward almond nugget honey taste and the Rain Forest Crunch has definite coconut, hazelnut and butterscotch notes.  Popcorn salt definitely begins these two flavors "home" as salt in not a flavor in my laboratory.

Popular flavors for up and coming Fourth of July are always Strawberry, Blueberry and Vanilla.  I suspect the vendors make the three different colors and then toss bag them together.  Well, two different colors if vanilla remains white.    In Greggs video below he is using just standard coffee syrup as flavoring which kind of shocked me.  The flavor value is really really low for the price - but when you are in a total pinch it will work.  Sam's Club sells these for the best price.  Even then the line is usually limited to Amaretto, Chocolate, Coconut, Hazelnut and French Vanilla.  To secure much beyond that is usually a miracle.  As Gregg points out below these are most water.

We like to watch Greggs videos - you get a feel right away for what to expect and how it all works. 

For a homemade Kettle Corn Recipe click here. For my blog on all about flavor click here, Flavor Laboratories also known as Mabel Flavor.  More content at OpenSalon.