The microwave that came with my house is the first time I’ve ever had a microwave that had perfectly working popcorn setting. It has never burnt a bag of microwave popcorn.
There are many buttons on my microwave. I have paid no attention to any of them but I know hitting the one at the bottom-right makes numbers go up by 30s per boop, while food go warm.
My microwave popcorn recipe is:
- Put in
- Boop liberally so you know it’s over 5 mins, probably 4–5 days
- When popcorn pops average about one every 3s, start counting to five
- If you reach five, serve
I see we share the same brain cell.
That’s an ominous “if”…
There’s two popcorn buttons. One setting is just an average of time to pop the standard popcorn bag.
The other is a humidity sensor that stops the microwave once it senses a whiff of steam from the bag.
Great video on it below.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Limpr1L8Pss
If someone has a non YouTube link I’ll edit my comment to post that one.
Technology Connections is the best. I was hoping to see this video here.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t work well in either a) dry climates and/or b) high altitude. We have to add about 45 secs to the popcorn mode or it stops short for us. Took a while to get that right.
Fortunately, this is normal at high altitude. Normal cooking rules don’t apply and always have to be modified. Lol.
No idea what your talking about. I live at 6,000 feet in a place with low humidity and the popcorn button on my microwave works perfectly.
Not all popcorn buttons are alike. Per Alec at Technology Connections, some microwaves merely engage a timer and in those microwaves following the instructions on the bag are probably better,. Others have a sensor that looks for the poof of steam that comes from the bag opening its vent. Based on how long it takes for that poof of steam to occur it can deduce the size of the bag and thus how much longer to cook for. On these microwaves I use the popcorn button.
Ah, a fellow Alec connoisseur!
One of the best channels out there
No. I buy kernals dirt cheap and make it on the stove with ghee
Same, stopped doing microwave stuff years ago, it’s really easy in the stove and you can completely control the amount of salt/butter or whatever flavour you like.
I use peanut oil and often nothing else.
I hit a random number of minutes then pull it based on the sound
How do you know the number you choose is truly random?
I agree I have watched him every single time it has been 666 minutes.
Because if it wasn’t random it would be that other number
Do you not keep a 6-sided die next to your microwave? I thought everyone did that…
You should check out this video, it’s very eye-opening when it comes to how microwaves work (only linking to YouTube because I couldn’t find a decent Invidious source): https://youtube.com/watch?v=UiS27feX8o0 (edit: https://materialious.nadeko.net/watch/UiS27feX8o0)
It depends on your model of microwave.
Personally, my wife and I intentionally deprived ourselves of a microwave in the house because we recognized that it makes us more prone to heavily processed foods (we’re not crazy “5G/microwaves give you cancer”people or whatever). We just recognized that we like eating whole foods and having one on hand makes it tempting to start buying a lot of garbage foods.
I came to upvote the TC link comment and my mission was a success
Interesting …. I had a similar thought process for an air fryer. When I first got it, it was true: I rationalized that I got chicken strips rather than nuggets so they were less processed. However over time I started to use it better. While I still cook frozen fries occasionally, most of the time I use it for actual chicken
Air fryer is convenient for roasted or hasselback potatoes
I also got tired of manufactured marinara, so making pasta is usually in a lemon butter garlic or pesto sauce, and I’ll cut chicken into strips, marinate, and throw in the air fryer
Looping back to the microwave, same deal. There were times when it just facilitated over-processed food but now I probably use it most for defrosting. This morning i used it to soften some apples in cinnamon and brown sugar to put in pancakes.
I’ve definitely had major changes in my approach to cooking, so hopefully I can stay on my current path
So there are two kinds of microwaves:
- those that use sensor for popcorn (typically it is on top, there are some that use audio)
- those that have no sensor and just use a timer (those ask you how big is the popcorn bag)
You should use the popcorn button on the first ones, with the second type it is better to follow the instructions on the popcorn bag.
I need to know where I can get one of the former I have never seen that before
(I have also only ever owned cheap low power microwaves)I think you need to look for a microwave with a moisture sensor
When I want a quick bag, sure do. Kirkland (Costco) popcorn is great and dirt cheap.
But when I want great popcorn we use our popcorn popping machine with some coconut oil, flavocol, and butter topping. This is the recipe the movie theaters use.
This … This is the way
The Flavacol is key. More important than anything else if you want theater-style popcorn.
I use a whirly pop with a little oil and then just the butter salt (Flavacol I guess?)
Still tastes good, but much healthier.
It’s gotta be Flavacol or nothing if you want it to actually taste like theater popcorn.
Is that different than “Butter flavored theater salt”?
Completely different. Flavocol is a commercial product and a trade secret. You have to buy it online.
The only difference I can tell is that it’s the commercial version.
Ok
I used to have a microwave that the popcorn button worked perfectly in and it was amazing.
After it died we replaced it with the same make and model and the new one’s popcorn button is crap. I’ve now timed how long the bags need to be in, so I just put that in instead. Never use the popcorn button anymore. It’s annoying but effectively it just is two extra buttons before starting so it’s not horrible.
Although now I have one of those electric kettle popcorn makers like the movie theater and pretty much only use that now. But it definitely can’t match microwave popcorn for convenience.
[My microwave is] full of esoteric lights and dials and meters that I would never understand.
Mine has only 1 button, to open the door.
And I like it this way.
So, it turns on automatically when you close it? Should be a switch somewhere as well
These are 2 turning knobs. One for the strength (nearly always full on), one for the time.
Ah, right
My microwave’s popcorn button works perfect 100% of the time so far
Yeah I’ve never had a microwave with a popcorn button that didn’t make perfect popcorn every time. So long as you enter the weight properly, it’s impossible to fuck up. Gets even easier if you have a microwave with a sensor cooking option, cause then it’s just a single button push to get perfect popcorn every time.
Yeah, I don’t have a piece of shit microwave, the button makes perfect bags every time, regardless of brand or type.
The quality of the button is almost directly proportional to the quality of the microwave. Basic ones just are a timer, which is useless. As you work your way up you get various sensors for things like humidity and even microphones to determine kernel pop timing.
The quality of all of those programmed buttons is directly related to those more advanced sensors.
I do popcorn at 30% power until the first pop and then switch to full power until the popping is really slow; it really cuts down on unpopped kernels.
You can do 50% power, but I feel that the slower 30% power really helps to get every kernel up to a nice baseline before you go full power.
If you read the manual for your microwave you’ll learn a lot about what it is capable of. My Panasonic microwave not only has a sensor cook mode for popcorn, but you can specify the weight of the bag and you can even add or subtract 10-30 seconds to dial it in prior to starting.
I recommend microwaves that have inverters in them, as well as moisture sensors.
