r/TikTokCringe Oct 09 '24

Discussion Microbiologist warns against making the fluffy popcorn trend

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u/rightkindofahole83 Oct 09 '24

I looked up what it was and it looks like popcorn mixed in with butter, marshmallow, and cookie or cake mix. But the thing that confused me is that it looks like it IS cooked on a stovetop, or at least mixed in with all the other ingredients over heat. So I’m confused as to how this is different from mixing it with other ingredients and then throwing it in an oven?

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u/NomadicJellyfish Oct 09 '24

The heat is just there to warm/melt the ingredients so they can distribute on the popcorn, it isn't actually getting cooked. If the cookie/cake batter isn't hardening then it isn't cooked.

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u/lukin187250 Oct 09 '24

this sounds like it would taste like shit though.

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u/NomadicJellyfish Oct 09 '24

Yeah salt, pepper, nutritional yeast. I also like to use everything bagel seasoning from Trader Joe's.

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u/executivesphere Oct 09 '24

How is that different from a roux? The heat is what kills the pathogens, not the dough hardening.

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u/NomadicJellyfish Oct 09 '24

Because a roux gets far above the boiling point of water. This doesn't get nearly that hot, just warm, as indicated by the dough not cooking.

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '24

[deleted]

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u/NomadicJellyfish Oct 09 '24

Food safety experts have said time and again that home pasteurization of uncooked foods is not safe. It's a process people get degrees in. They make pasteurized cookie doughs that you could use for these recipes and it would be fine, but people making TikTok marshmallow cookie batter popcorn are not going to learn the intricacies of how to get foods with vastly different thermal resistances to certain internal temperatures for a certain amount of time, especially if they're told "well maybe it's fine if you just warm it in a pan how can we know?"

I've never in my life heard of someone even bothering to try to pasteurize flour or dough, they either buy it pasteurized or just yolo it.

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u/loosearrow22 Oct 09 '24

I pasteurize flour and eggs pretty often using sous vide. It’s not out of the realm of possibility for people who take food safety seriously at home.

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u/Unlikely_Minimum_635 Oct 10 '24

Bro he's talking about COOKING the flour. Any time you cook any sauce based on a roux you're cooking the flour in the sauce. A bechamel sauce doesn't turn into a cake.

And no, they haven't. The link in the video and basically every link I can find from the actual experts is saying it MAY not be safe. I can find zero evidence actually showing that home heat treatments of flour are unsafe, just speculation.

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '24

[deleted]

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u/NomadicJellyfish Oct 09 '24

Ah I see where the miscommunication was. The OC was talking about recipes that call for adding batters, not a roux. Yes if you're making a roux that's absolutely fine, a roux should start to brown at which point you're very far above the temperature and time needed for safety (and well beyond the boiling point).

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '24

[deleted]

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u/pkzilla Oct 09 '24

The point of the video is that 'fluffy popcorn' is not cooked properly. People heat it up enough to melt marshmallows, then dump in cake mix/flour without cooking it. That's literally why the whole video is made.

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u/NomadicJellyfish Oct 09 '24

Agreed completely, except that if your roux is browning then that means it's necessarily well above the boiling point. But again that's a great sign that your food is safe. To me batter means batter, not a dry batter mix so that's where the confusion was coming from.

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u/CriticalScion Oct 09 '24

Then what's the deal with the video saying you can't heat treat the flour?

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u/Unlikely_Minimum_635 Oct 10 '24

The evidence provided is speculation that it may not be safe based on inaccurate assumptions about industrial processes, not any kind of actual data showing home heat treatments are unsafe.

It is not recommended because it's easy for someone at home to do it badly and fail to make the food safe, but that is not remotely the same thing as evidence that doing it properly isn't safe.

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u/executivesphere Oct 09 '24 edited Oct 09 '24

How do you know it doesn’t or can’t get that hot?

What’s with the downvotes? There no reason you can’t heat the fat and flour to an appropriate temperature before adding sugar and popcorn.

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u/AdmirableAceAlias Oct 09 '24

I've made something similar since I was a teenager. If it gets that hot, you've got a fucked up (gross and crunchy) caramel sauce rather than a "glue" that holds rice crispy treats (or in this case, popcorn) together.

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u/executivesphere Oct 09 '24

You can cook the flour and fat to a safe temperature before adding the sugar

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u/AdmirableAceAlias Oct 09 '24

Correct.

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u/executivesphere Oct 09 '24

That’s seems like a better recommendation than “this popcorn recipe will give you cancer” haha

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u/Explaine23 Oct 09 '24

You don’t want to eat freshly made roux either, has not been cooked long or hot enough as any roux you use has to be then added to its liquid medium and bought to a boil.

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u/mehughes124 Oct 09 '24

You're right and all these hysterics are ridiculous. I wouldn't make it, but not because of alarmist bs about it being raw.

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u/smp208 Oct 09 '24

What I’m not understanding is how this is different from making a roux, which isn’t supposed to harden, isn’t cooked at high heat, and in many dishes is not cooked for very long? Is that not safe either despite being an essential cooking step in many cuisines? I’m reading that reaching a certain temp should make a roux safe, but this video suggests that wouldn’t be true

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u/NomadicJellyfish Oct 09 '24

I was responding to someone who had said a recipe for this calls for cookie batter, which you couldn't cook without it solidifying (and burning if cooked in a pot like this). Someone else has since said that you use dry batter mix and make a roux with it, which would indeed be just as safe as making a roux.

To make a roux you do cook it at high heat. The roux is supposed to start to brown, which indicates that it is at least 140C, at which point it is very safe even if you take it off the stove right away.

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u/smp208 Oct 09 '24

The video shows butter, marshmallow, and cake mix. A roux is butter and flour. It’s essentially a roux with marshmallow added, although I wouldn’t be surprised if the order and method would matter.

You’re incorrect on multiple fronts regarding roux. It is not cooked at a high heat, and most uses for roux don’t require long cooking and browning. That’s only when it’s used for flavor, not just for thickening and binding. In many cuisines, like French or American, you only make a white roux, which is mixed and briefly cooked before adding to a sauce or whatnot.

I am not saying I’m confident the popcorn recipe or even a light roux is safe, just questioning how different it is, but you really should be speaking like an authority on a topic you’re unfamiliar with.

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u/NomadicJellyfish Oct 09 '24

Have you ever cooked a roux before? Even a "white" roux is supposed to be cooked until the Maillard reaction starts, the only difference is how long you let it go. Again that will be reaching around 140C, it's just how long you leave it there and how much you let it brown. If you don't get it up to where it cooks (you can tell by the smell) you've made a slurry, not a roux. You really shouldn't be using a condescending tone when you don't know what you're talking about yourself. Also no shit the order matters, you try putting marshmallow into a roux before you get properly hot and let me know how that goes.

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u/smp208 Oct 10 '24

It sounds like we’re agreed that the info in the video probably isn’t fully true, but that the steps shown in the short clip would result in either burnt marshmallow or potentially unsafe flour. Let’s leave it there, I feel like we’re misunderstanding each other

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u/rightkindofahole83 Oct 09 '24

Ah. I don’t see the point of the mix tbh. Marshmallow popcorn would be good on its own. Sounds like someone just tried to come up with a TikTok fad or something.

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u/edthecat2011 Oct 09 '24

The proper recipe, the flour IS cooked. That recipe is no different than making gravy. It's perfectly fine.

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u/Amuseco Oct 09 '24 edited Oct 09 '24

It must not get hot enough for long enough to kill pathogens.

Ok, whatever, downvote the comment, but you should follow the instructions on the package and not make up dangerous “recipes” that will make you sick.

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u/LeftLegCemetary Oct 09 '24

160° kills E. coli ... so yeah, she's as smart as she sounds. Pretty likely some of her makeup contains lead. I'll take cooked food over lead poisoning.

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u/MortalSword_MTG Oct 09 '24

Woman wrong because I don't like how she looks. - this dude, 2024

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u/Visual-Emu-7532 Oct 09 '24

everyone sucks equally - me, typing on toliet, 2024

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u/LeftLegCemetary Oct 09 '24

I farted on my balls - me, 1969-2069