All modern microwave ovens, other than the lowest of the low-end maybe, have a “Popcorn” button for automatic managing of popcorn popping.
Every package of microwave popcorn I’ve ever seen says explicitly to not use that button.
Why?
(Note: I just tried it. Spoiler: It worked just fine as far as I can tell.)
At worst, the microwave just has a preprogrammed in amount of time that the manufacturer thought was good for popping a bag of popcorn. At best, the microwave is using a humidity sensor to detect when the right amount of moisture is escaping the bag. But the amount of moisture might vary based on brand, bag design, and whatnot.
The popcorn makers don’t want to be blamed for too many unpopped kernels or even worse, the bane of human existence, the smell of burned popcorn permeating a house or workplace.
The thing is, the specific instructions given on the package are generally just about as vague. They always say use High power – but that varies from one over to another. My last oven was 1100 watts. My current oven is 1250 watts. (Yes, there is a noticeable difference!) The instructions on the bag say 1 1/2 minutes to 2 1/2 minutes on High, until popping slows. That’s pretty vague. Is it expected that the auto-popping function will likely be worse than this?
I have heard that using that button sends a message to the NSA disclosing your location. Your unwillingness to follow a simple directive makes you a potential security risk. They are leveraging their advantages in technology and cybersecurity, consistent with their authorities, to strengthen national defense and secure national security systems.
Microwave manufacturers actually intended that pressing that button would cause the microwave to play the eponymous 1972 chart-topping electronic song by Hot Butter.
As you can imagine, this doesn’t work well for getting kernels to pop, so its use is discouraged.
The fact that the instructions are vague is, I believe, actually the point. The idea is that the perfect amount of popping time is variable, and so you have to listen to how many pops you hear per second. (Those are the instructions I always get.)
In practice, however, the built-in time on the device tends to be accurate, given one specific thing: you chose the correct bag size. There are actually three different common sizes. I believe they are 3.5 oz, 3.0 oz, and 1.75 oz,
I know this for two reasons: I read my current microwave’s instructions, and an incident in college. I used my dorm floor’s common room to heat up some popcorn. I don’t remember exactly how it happened happened, but I know two things: I went back to my room for a bit for something, and the popcorn bags were the smaller 1.75oz size. I don’t know if I just was too distracted to notice that I didn’t set it for the right time, or if I just didn’t realize how the popcorn button worked.
What I do know is that I was sitting in my room when the fire alarm went off at 1:00 AM, and everyone in the dorm had to go outside. The staff came out and said they found the problem was a burnt popcorn bag. And my roommate realized what happened even before I did, and told me not to say anything or admit it. He said that people would get too mad, and it wasn’t worth it. Just learn my lesson and never do it again.
So I wonder if the instructions also exist for doofs like me, who didn’t stay and watch the popcorn like the instructions always say you should. I wonder if other things can go wrong, too, and having you not just push a button and instead listen to the thing popping makes is their way of pushing you to not run off and leave it.
I’ve never understood why the oven doesn’t simply “listen” to the popping kernels with a microphone, and use an algorithm to determine when to stop.
I’m sure they will in a few years, but before then, maybe Siri or Alexa could help?
Maybe the ‘popcorn’ microwave setting is only for making popcorn in a container, not in those microwave packages.
Which is the only way popcorn should be made in the microwave, IMO. Package popcorn is nasty stuff with diacetyl and the other chemical crap added. Whenever I smell someone nuking packaged popcorn these days it smells terrible to me now.
It’s almost as easy to microwave popcorn in a largish glass pyrex bowl, and way cheaper and better. Pour a single layer of popcorn kernels in the bottom of the glass bowl, mix with a tablespoon or two of oil, just enough to coat all the kernels (I like peanut oil since it handles high temps), and microwave until you only hear a pop every 2 or 3 seconds. Pour into a big popcorn bowl, melt some butter if you like, and shake up the popcorn with any seasonings you like. I like parmesan and garlic salt.
I thought I heard that’s how the popcorn button worked; by listening for the frequency of the pops.
It’s also a very specialized one-use only thing. I’d think a humidity sensor would also work and it could also be used for things like reheating foods.
Thanks. I thought the good ones probably listened to the popping. I am cynical and I assumed the cheap ones were really just a pre-set timer that assumed a standard bag and left a few kernels on the table for a safety margin to prevent burning. Thanks for confirming my cynicism.
Moisture sensors occurred to me as a possibility but I guessed that he internal moisture level wouldn’t change quickly enough and would be too affected by ambient moisture levels to be reliable. Shows you what I know.
If I understand my own microwave’s “sensor reheat” function, it judges cooking time in part by escaping steam.
The popcorn button on mine works fine as long as I choose the correct bag size.
When I was eating microwave popcorn regularly, I just learned over time for a particular brand and for my microwave what time worked best and just set the machine to the same time every time thereafter.
So that was you!
And what happens if you pop two bags in succession? When you put the second bag in the oven, the interior will already be at a very high humidity due to the first bag.
My guess is that when you open the door to remove the cooked popcorn and put the new bag in, the humidity level reduces to normal.
I’m no expert but I’m guessing Dewey Finn is basically right that opening the door gets the moisture level back to ambient almost instantly. However, I also assume the microwave algorithm is looking for the moisture level to rise to some minimum level at the active popping stage then drop as the popping slows down or stops. If the moisture dropped low enough to stop the last bag from popping, the new bag is starting at a moisture level no higher than that threshold.
Or maybe the algorithm looks for peak moisture from the most vigorous popping and factors in how long it took to get there to estimate how much popcorn was in the bag, then infer how much longer it should cook the rest of the kernels. In which case, the starting moisture is irrelevant. This would explain why ambient moisture doesn’t seem to be an issue. Now I want to interview a microwave designer to learn all the Pop Secrets.
For what anecdotes are worth, during the pandemic, Mrs. Charming and Rested has been hosting an outdoor movie festival with me. Our guests use the popcorn button on our little microwave to cook roughly 5-7 bags in pretty quick succession. They all come out fine. However the popcorn button fairies work, they work well enough.
This post teaches me both that the steam sensor is a lot more useful than my imagined noise sensor and that some microwaves have to be told the bag size. My popcorn button seems to work on any bag size within the normal range of “single size” to regular.
Oh, you mean like the Swedish Chef?
