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.
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
I eat popcorn with glee
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.
My LG microwave suffered a major malfunction and broke the magnetron. I replace it but the humidity sensor apparently broke also so my popcorn button and with other features dependant on that sensor don’t work.
Just another example of the enshitification of consumer products. Now I have to cook my popcorn like a savage. I don’t know how many bags of popcorn I ruined because my attention span is shorter than the 1-2 seconds between pops.
My wife prefers the popcorn button and I prefer to mash +30secs. You have to hit the popcorn button three times to get the right setting, but then they’re both cooking for two minutes.
She gets there in four presses and it takes me five, but +30s is right next to Start so I’m not sure one is better than the other. I guess she’s causing less wear on the button
Don’t buy a microwave with just a dial. My last one had an actual keypad of buttons, I could just press 2 + Start and it was wonderful. Nowadays I have to scroll over hells creation to get the right setting, or change the clock, and it’s awful
My experience is very different. Sensor-based popcorn button, so I just have to press “popcorn.” I’m not sure I even have to press start.
I use the popcorn butter.
Unfortunately my fiancée does not like pocorn
And that’s something you can live with?
I’ve never had a microwave where the popcorn button doesn’t burn it, so no.
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
That’s an ominous “if”…
I see we share the same brain cell.
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.
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.
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.
Technology Connections is the best. I was hoping to see this video here.
Nope. 1,200 seconds for popcorn. No more, no less.
…20 minutes? I must be missing a reference.
Works great! Just make sure is a sensor microwave
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.
Edit: This fun channel already covered this topic: https://youtu.be/Limpr1L8Pss
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
No, I make my popcorn stovetop.
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.
