5 Things To Know: Henry Towner Talks ‘Kettle Korn’ at the 2011 Florida Strawberry Festival

Henry Towner had a law degree and a steady job working for a legal placement company, but the one thing he did not have was more time to spend with his wife and kids.

He had a brother, though, a brother who sold kettle corn.

“I thought he was crazy,” Towner said. “But he did really well at it and I thought, ‘I could do that,’ and that’s how I got in. I thought it was going to be a good way to make an income and possibly to have more flexible time so I could spend more time with my wife and children.”

More than a decade later Towner can be seen at numerous fairs and festivals throughout the country each year at “Henry’s Kettle Korn,” serving up popcorn unlike the kind you rip out of bags and douse with artificial “butter” at the movie theater.

We caught up with Towner at the 2011 Florida Strawberry Festival and asked him to recite five things that make kettle corn what it is. Kettle corn, he said, is:

1. Subtly sweet,
2. Slightly salted,
3. Butter-free,
4. Cooked in a kettle and
5. Cooked over a high heat.

 “This dates back to the 1700’s, when they used to cook in a big kettle over an open fire,” Towner said. “The tradition was when they were rendering hogs they would use some of the lard to cook popcorn with molasses or sugar cane. That tradition passed down through several families here in the United States. It comes from Germany. If you go to Germany today and get popcorn it’s sweet. They don’t put salt on theirs.”

Towner said he adds a little salt at the end of the process in which he pops corn in soybean oil burning at between 620 and 650 degrees 

The key is in the timing, to hit the sugar just right, he said.

“The high heat allows us to melt the sugar in time for the popcorn to pop in that sugar,” Towner said. “It’s a timing issue. You want to get the popcorn to pop just as the sugar is melting because that’s when it’s at its sweetest point and at it’s clearest [color].”

Towner said the quality of the kernel is key, and it’s not the type of kernel that is easily purchased. As he put it: “You can’t go the store and buy that quality of corn.”

Towner said he never has to worry about whether people will eat popcorn and, like a lawyer stating his case in closing arguments, backs up his position with details.

“Popcorn is the number one snack food in the country,” he said. “About nine percent of the population eats it or would eat it every day. That’s about 30 million people in the United States. It’ an easy food. You can eat it out of a bowl. It’s not sticky or messy, like some snack foods can be.”

As for the three-hour trip it takes Towner to drive from his home in Jacksonville to the Plant City staging of the annual Florida Strawberry Festival, Towner said it is absolutely worth the drive.

“It’s a nice, family friendly event,” Towner said. “They don’t sell alcohol here and they have something for every age group. I heard this is one of the best events to do in the state of Florida and this is my third year here.”