Surely everyone knows the proper way to microwave popcorn, right? Set to 2 min, at around 1:30 listen for the pops, and if there aren’t any for 3 sec, stop the microwave (don’t force open, hit “cancel” or whatever). For my microwave, it’s usually around 1:45-1:50, but each bag is different.
Boom, you should have <10 unpopped kernels (probably <5) and no burnt popcorn. Oh, and if you forget to turn it off, no fire risk either, but it might have a little bit of a “roasted” flavor with a couple of the popped kernels burning, but it should be mostly fine.
Or just set it to 1:45 or 1:50 and accept that it’s non-optimal. But you’ll want to get the popcorn out of the bag quickly, so I don’t see the point.
Depends on how shitty of a microwave it is. If it’s a cheap low power microwave it might not even start popping till 3+ minutes.
Bottom line, whatever you’re microwaving just stick around and pay attention. I was working at a school and overheard students talk about how much better warm chocolate chip cookies are, and one girl said she always warms them in the microwave if they’re room temp. One of her classmates was intrigued and said he’d give it a try. At some point in the evening he threw a few dry ass Chips Ahoy in the microwave and set it for 5 minutes.
The smell of burnt cookies is almost as bad as burnt popcorn. At least there wasn’t a fire.
it might not even start popping till 3+ minutes.
Sure. The first time you make popcorn, hang out until you know roughly how long it takes. The 3 sec rule works on pretty much anything though.
Once you know the rough timeline, then set it to just a little longer (10-20 sec) and then you can go to the restroom or something while waiting (or prep other snacks). Then you’ll never have to worry about burning popcorn.
don’t force open, hit “cancel” or whatever
I don’t think the timer on the microwave at my job has ever been reset. People just push the “start+30” button and jank it open when they’re bored of waiting. It never reaches zero and nobody presses stop.
Yep, I can’t think of a microwave that doesn’t immediately auto-shutoff when you open the door. No difference in just opening it vs shutting it off unless the parent comment has a reason I’ve never heard of.
I also immediately pick it up and shake it when I stop it. That seems to help it pop more.
They probably know.
However, college students (at least in the US) usually don’t know how to handle being intoxicated. This being the first time they are allowed and all.
That’s why the dorm popcorn alarm (aka fire alarm) goes off in the middle of the night, not early evening when people would be watching movies and such.
Or burn like 10 bags in a row, like my little brother and 2nd cousin did when my parents were vacationing… They kept putting the bag after bag upside down, so it couldn’t expand, and never read the instructions. I was grounded, and missed out on the fun.
Well, that same younger brother is now married with 4 children, and is very anti-vac, saying it has cancer in it. Also, he thinks it is legal to shoot someone in self defense, which is illegal in Canada. You can’t fix stupid sometimes.
