Why do you always have to microwave popcorn on a certain side?? Why can’t you just choose a side to your heart’s content??
You must be truly bored!
Try it and find out. Let us know.
The bag needs to unfold while popping, otherwise, it won’t be large enough to hold all of the popped corn. If placed the wrong way up, the bag won’t be able to unfold itself.
Have you ever made microwave popcorn and torn the bag apart?
There’s a grease slick in the bag to cook the popcorn in. It’s on the side of the bag that goes down.
Myron’s on the right track, but it’s not a “grease slick” (though oil may be added, it’s usually coated on the kernels), it’s a metalized polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film laminated to paperboard which serves as a heat suscepter. Metal in a microwave is generally a bad thing, but humans figured out how to metalize non-metal materials to eliminate the arcing but still “amplify” the heat. Many microwave food packages contain this technology, especially those that fry or brown food.
Popcorn pops because the water content expands when heated to 300 degress F or greater, violently splitting the hard kernal and allowing the starchy inside to be exposed to air. The kernels would not reach a uniform 300+ degrees without some sort of “boost”. On a stove cooking oil serves to conduct the heat, in a microwave it’s the PET film.
Grease slick, metalized polyethylene terephthalate, what’s the difference (envision smilie here).
If you pop the popcorn with the bag inverted, you have to watch the movie standing on your head or it won’t taste right-side up.
Sheesh, do we have to explain everything?
Thanks Tim. I guess you’re the only logical one here…