Strangely, yes. I was dubious myself, but tried it after a friend assured me repeatedly that it would be fine (with my finger paused over the Cancel button) and there was no sparking or anything. I am not a microwave expert but I guess the metal is the wrong type or not enough metal or… I don’t know why it works, actually, but it does.
A. Brown addressed the question of staples in the bag - there are only two, and they’re very small. There should be no problem with sparking with only two tiny staples. The more important thing is opening the bag - just cut off the bag right under the fold, and throw away the strip containing the staples before dumping out the popcorn. Don’t want bits of wire falling in.
My wife does the brown bag thing and the result tastes fine to me and much better than pre-packaged microwave popcorn. Grew up on air popped via a popper that had a tray for butter on top that melted and dripped down as it popped. Love it, but haven’t had it that way since I was 12 or so.
And the problem with an air popper is that is a lot of space for a specialty item. So either you plenty to spare or you should be planning to eat an awful lot of popcorn.
Stove-popped. Then butter, salt and a little bit of MSG (because I’m evil).
Those who are complaining about the taste of hot-air popped popcorn (even after dressing it up) are missing a key factor – the popcorn.
You can’t buy a massive bag of Redi-Pop for 99 cents and expect it to taste good when popped. Spend the five bucks on a canister of Redenbacher’s!
My favorite popcorn is that which I make with my Stir-Crazy oil popper. It is wonderful and always turns out great.
But my air popper is second on the list, followed by microwave popcorn last.
Definitely oil popped in a popcorn popper. Stir Crazy, like noonespecial mentions makes a good corn.
Have to disagree about air popper being second. Yuck. Might as well eat styrofoam packing peanuts.
Microwave, I used to like, but ever since that one guy who ate like 50 bags a day got lung cancer or something, I think they’ve reformulated the butter like substance they use, and just the smell makes me want to barf for many brands now.
If you balk at buying a single-purpose appliance, some air popper models can be used for roasting your own coffee beans. http://www.sweetmarias.com/airpop/airpopdesign.php
Yeah, I remember getting excited as a child when we got an air-popper, Yay popcorn!", then it got put away after like 2 uses, never to be seen again. Styrofoam.
+2
I love airpopped. Stovetop is marginally tastier in some cases but the clean-up takes away the advantage. I have been using the same air popper my sister got me for my 16th birthday (35 years ago today!) and I sill use it.
Stove-popped with olive oil in one of those Whirly-Pop pans, or using the Alton Brown plain brown bag method as a fallback.
I’d say Orville Redenbacher is the one who is responsible for removing the flavor from popcorn. Yeah, the stuff he developed grows around a zillion pounds per acre and almost all the kernels pop, but it has next to no actual flavor.
Check out some heirloom popcorn to find out what the stuff is actually supposed to taste like. I buy it from a local Amish farm stand but it is easy to find on the net if you don’t have one of those nearby.
We eat a lot of popcorn. Can you point us in the right direction for a good brand or online retailer?
Staples in the microwave work (although, pace A Brown, only small staples have worked for me, and I think I’ve lost my little stapler which discharges the tiny staples). They are sharp, but on the plus side, they make excellent little tiny toothpicks.
When I make popcorn I make it in a four or five quart pot on the stove, and drown it in butter – it works fine. To me popcorn is just a vehicle for eating butter. I’ve had the microwaved, and usually “need” to augment it with more butter.
Sorry, Motorgirl. I buy locally so can’t really tell you about online vendors. A quick search for “heirloom popcorn” brings up a lot of hits. The stuff is only a couple dollars a pound, so you’re not really risking much. The difference in flavor is big.
Air-popped works just fine for me. Microwaves are for melting butter.
Oil-popped is fine too, but I just don’t want to do the clean-up afterward. And an air-popper and an oil-popper take up about the same amount of space, so that’s a non-issue. Air is fast, too; you can make batch after batch without pausing to clean. Great when you have a bunch of kids over.
If you like your popcorn unbuttered but salted, just get some popcorn salt. The tiny grains will stick in the nooks and crannies of air-popped kernels better than table salt.
On the side issue of staples: take a peek inside your microwaves, people. What are the walls made of? heh. A couple of tiny staples are nothing compared to that.
I call shenanigans. Have you ever put a fork in a microwave? Or something like that? My ex-FIL bought me and “mine” a microwave when he came to visit years ago, and now I have one that came with my apartment. You don’t fuck around with those things, is my conclusion.
Although a gallium arsenide wafer, fresh from the fab, leafed with aluminum, would make an interesting experiment.
Yeah, yeah, it has to do with the wavelength and so forth. Indulge me! I have seen sparks fly (pace ZZ Top) from regular staples, though.
ETA to above. I thought that Orville cat pretty much was the king of getting good strains of corn for popping. I wouldn’t know from taste, but (more reasonable dopers) is the situation really that dire?
I’ve bought from amishcountrypopcorn.com several times. (I like the purple and blue varieties the best.) They have a “fill the box” offer that saves money on shipping and lets you try various types.
Here’s a tip: don’t close your popcorn bag with a fork.
Not at all.
Lab Do you mean that the Orville situ is not that dire? Ever since I saw Twin Peaks I know what good corn tastes like, but I’m still not sure Orville isn’t it. Not a connoisseur, believe it or not.
(And, no, you’re right. A fork is the best way of closing a paper sack. My bad.)