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.

  • weew@lemmy.ca
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    4 hours ago

    My microwave’s popcorn button works perfect 100% of the time so far

    • Psythik@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      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.

  • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
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    21 hours ago

    When I want a quick bag, sure do. Kirkland (Costco) popcorn is great and dirt cheap.

    But when I want great popcorn we use our popcorn popping machine with some coconut oil, flavocol, and butter topping. This is the recipe the movie theaters use.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    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.

  • grasshopper_mouse@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Yes, but I never let it run for the full amount of time. I have to stand there and listen for when the kernels stop popping, otherwise it will burn.

  • undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch
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    1 day ago

    You should check out this video, it’s very eye-opening when it comes to how microwaves work (only linking to YouTube because I couldn’t find a decent Invidious source): https://youtube.com/watch?v=UiS27feX8o0 (edit: https://materialious.nadeko.net/watch/UiS27feX8o0)

    It depends on your model of microwave.

    Personally, my wife and I intentionally deprived ourselves of a microwave in the house because we recognized that it makes us more prone to heavily processed foods (we’re not crazy “5G/microwaves give you cancer”people or whatever). We just recognized that we like eating whole foods and having one on hand makes it tempting to start buying a lot of garbage foods.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      4 hours ago

      Interesting …. I had a similar thought process for an air fryer. When I first got it, it was true: I rationalized that I got chicken strips rather than nuggets so they were less processed. However over time I started to use it better. While I still cook frozen fries occasionally, most of the time I use it for actual chicken

      Air fryer is convenient for roasted or hasselback potatoes

      I also got tired of manufactured marinara, so making pasta is usually in a lemon butter garlic or pesto sauce, and I’ll cut chicken into strips, marinate, and throw in the air fryer

      Looping back to the microwave, same deal. There were times when it just facilitated over-processed food but now I probably use it most for defrosting. This morning i used it to soften some apples in cinnamon and brown sugar to put in pancakes.

      I’ve definitely had major changes in my approach to cooking, so hopefully I can stay on my current path

    • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Same. Haven’t had one for over 3 years now and I’m not sure I’m missing anything good. I make popcorn in a stock pot with ghee, powdered salt, and a little turmeric for color. Sometimes a little nutritional yeast or jalapeno powder. My popcorn game has never been better.

      • Max@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        How do you handle leftovers? Probably about 80% of the food I eat wasn’t cooked on the day I eat it

        • The Snark Urge@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          This is gonna sound silly but I use my instant pot as a bain marie with the warm function or as an air fryer, depending on the dish. My lunches are in tupperware and I just leave them to warm around 10 am, or I throw on the oven lid and roast it up.

          Pretty much the only thing I think I’d use a microwave for is to reheat old coffee. Instead I just make it new.

    • Zier@fedia.io
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      2 days ago

      Funny you should say that about whole foods. I only use my microwave to cook (steam) fresh or frozen vegetables (not in a plastic bag), and to reheat meals I cooked myself. I never buy microwave foods because they always come out nasty, cook unevenly, taste horrible, and the box is 10 times the size of the contents. I do sometimes pop popcorn in the microwave, but I use a paper lunch bag and regular popcorn. WARNING: NEVER walk away if you use this method, it will start on fire if you don’t watch it.

      • undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch
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        2 days ago

        Yeah, I’m not 100% “microwaves are bad.” I actually miss it sometimes because it was easier to make breakfast burritos in bulk then reheat them in the microwave.

        But yeah, microwaveable dinners and the like are pretty gross.

    • MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Exactly my feelings. Yes, you can quickly blitz veges in a microwave, but it’s just as easy to pop in a plastic pack of lasagne. And from-scratch meals taste so much better.

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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    20 hours ago

    Vast majority of bag instructions state “DO NOT USE POPCORN BUTTON” so no. Also I don’t eat much popcorn.

  • saltesc@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    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:

    1. Put in
    2. Boop liberally so you know it’s over 5 mins, probably 4–5 days
    3. When popcorn pops average about one every 3s, start counting to five
    4. If you reach five, serve
  • Drusas@fedia.io
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    20 hours ago

    I try to, but it doesn’t seem to work in any logical kind of manner. You just kind of have to push it and some other buttons randomly before it starts to do something.

  • Zier@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    The only preset button I use is the +30Seconds button, the rest are useless to me.

      • Zier@fedia.io
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        13 hours ago

        Babies get roasted in the oven so they get crispy. And I am allergic to snakes, plus it’s not a full meal anyhow.

    • khannie@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Try the numbers if you have them. I recently discovered that hitting 2 instantly starts 2 minutes then +30 saves me having to press +30 five times for the equivalent.

      I was starting to worry about how much abuse my +30 button could take.

      • AA5B@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        My last microwave was like that. However my current one has low contrast labels on the button pad, so it’s too much work to find where to press. However +30 is conveniently in the bottom right corner

        I do use the auto-defrost a lot, which is annoying to find, but in that case I need to press multiple buttons so I need to get extra close anyway

        • khannie@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          4 times extra but five times total to reach the equivalent.

          Edit: just to be extra clear in the comment I’d be getting 2:30 with just one press of the +30 button

  • horse_battery_staple@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    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.

    • QuarterSwede@lemmy.world
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      21 hours ago

      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.

      • Buelldozer@lemmy.today
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        21 hours ago

        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.