I’ve never fully understood how the ‘popcorn’ button on microwaves work (I’ve read different things that may or may not all be true depending on make/model), but my current one always runs for exactly 3 seconds too long and ever so slightly burns the popcorn.
It’s not burned enough to throw it out, but it does give a noticeable “burnt popcorn” smell that kind of ruins my day.
So instead of pressing “popcorn” and doing something else, I have to stand there and watch it to hit ‘cancel’ in time.
That’s just how microwave popcorn is. I just put the microwave on for 9 min or whatever large number is easy to start and wait until the popping slows to a second or two between pops. There’s no way to have a perfect amount of time for all brands and packages of popcorn. Not to mention shrink-flation has made the time need to be shorter and different altitude changes how long it takes among other things. I have heard that some microwaves actually have been made with a microphone to listen for the time between pops, but I’ve never used one. But since they can’t be adjusted for your preferences, I’ve heard they usually burn it anyway. It’s always better to have it a little under popped than a little burnt IMHO. Once you do it a few times for a particular brand you’ll find the right amount of time if you need to walk away.
I’m sure others have linked to Technology Connections’ video on the subject below, but there are two general ways it works:
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There is a humidity sensor in the microwave that will sense when food is done. In the case of popcorn, it senses when there’s a burst of steam inside when the bag inflates enough to open the vent, and then given how long that took it calculates how big the bag of popcorn is and thus how long to keep running the microwave for. The other sensor cook buttons look for trends in humidity that have to do with other foods. The microwave will likely indicate that it has this feature with the word “Sensor” or similar branding on the control panel, and when you press the Popcorn button, it just starts running because it can figure out everything it needs to know for itself.
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Small, cheap microwaves probably just use a timer. If it asks you if the bag of popcorn is small, medium or large at the beginning, it’s just a timer and you should just go with the instructions on the bag instead.
It’s a damn shame that we haven’t built a microwave that actually listens to the pops and stops when the pops slow, just like every bag of popcorn instructs you to do. We’ve got gun shot detectors; you’d think we could build a chip to analyze popping popcorn.
A peak detector that resets a timer is within the realm of possibility, maybe combine it with the moisture sensor so that you start listening for the pops to slow down after you detect the burst of steam.
Want to go half on the patent?
Yes. How to keep the humidity sensor clean and accurate over time may be tricky though.
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I’ve never fully understood how the ‘popcorn’ button on microwaves work
Say no more. Must watch
Sometimes I think the internet needs an Alec symbol to shine anytime Technology Connections needs to be invoked.
I imagine it would be like the bat signal, but look like hand painted LED Christmas lights or something.
Deep cut, and I appreciate the hell out of that!
I don’t know what it would look like but I know what it would sound like – a heat-pump compressor starting up.
It could be the silhouette of a sunbeam radiant control toaster
TLDW: The moisture sensor might be on the right side of the microwave, and the bag was pointing left when the steam was released.
But that was definitely worth a watch.
Would that mean best practice is to point the most-likely-to-pop-open end towards the center of the rotating plate?
Thia is exactly the video I was thinking of. I only came across his channel recently, and it is an absolute pleasure.
If you haven’t watched the dishwasher one, drop everything and go do it now!
Granted that this isn’t microwave related, but it’s definitely popcorn related. Have you ever heard of a popcorn cannon? They’re designed to even be able to pop regular corn right off the cob…
I’ve seen those both on YouTube and at festivals. They’re pretty cool.
Personally, I don’t even like opening a can of biscuits because of the ‘pop’, so I don’t know how I’d feel about using one of those at home. lol
I do prefer to pan pop, but sometimes I’m just lazy and want to throw it in the microwave and only press one button.
It’s not quite as convenient, but I switched to making popcorn in a wok. It’s faster and way, WAY cheaper.
In a wok?
I just use a pot with a lid
Where’s my air popper gang at
I’ve got that and a whirly pop. The whirly pop does better popcorn, but all I have to do to clean the air popper is shake it upside down. So we run about a cup of kernels through the air popper every night.
I have an air popper for work and I have a whirly pop at home. I love the ease of the air popper, but the whirly pop is far better and gives you a chance to play with different oil, temps, etc.
We should pop more often
just pop on by and have a bowl. it’ll be fun
I mean that I have a cabinet full of popcorn kernels at home
I always thought it was weird that they don’t just stuff a cheapo little microphone in against an interior panel and write a couple lines of code, when it detects 3 really loud sounds within 1 second disable the timer, and when it detects a sound after a 2 second gap, turn off if no new sound detected within 2 seconds
Because that takes infinitely more resources than not doing it.
Same can be said for the normally implemented popcorn button. May as well spend 9 cents on a shitty electret mic and 6 cents on a marginally larger IC
You’re way underestimating the BOM and engineering costs, and also eating directly into the shareholder value, communist.
Some do, in fact.
You have a button for popcorn?
You don’t? I feel like every microwave I’ve owned in the last 20 years has one of these buttons
I think that may be an American thing. I’ve never seen one here in Europe.
Interesting. I suppose we do love or popcorn over here in Hollywoodland
Mid 2000’s microwave. Has buttons for popcorn, pizza, potato, bacon, and beverage.
They are all trash buttons too.
The pizza button works pretty well (I think it varies the power kind of like defrost does), but civilized people should always either eat leftover pizza cold or reheat it in the air fryer lol.
I am occasionally civilized!
Air fryer is the best, although sometimes I have to cut them down to fit in the trays on mine.
Microwave can work for some types of pizza, but I find it works way better with a reduced power setting and a little longer so it heats more evenly.
Frying in a stovetop pan can work for hand tossed or thin pizza, but I haven’t had luck with pan or thicker crusts.
Microwave on high is the worst though. Edges of cheese gets hard if it is long enough tonwarm the middle.
I’ve thought about getting an air fryer just for this. I usually use the oven or toss it in a pan.
If I’m having leftover pizza for lunch while smoking a brisket or ribs I’ll toss a couple of slices on the smoker on an uncoated paper plate. That’s actually my preferred method but I refuse to crank up a smoker for leftover pizza.
It’s a little pricy, but we absolutely love this Cuisinart Air Fryer/Toaster Over thing for anything that was properly cooked elsewhere, though I’ve used it for halfway decent roasted potato wedges straight from the knife. Basket Air Fryers hold so little as to be more frustrating than anything, and stacking deep defeats the purpose half the time. I have no idea if the grill setting works well, though.
Bake setting, 325, 2-3 minutes is all you need for most pizza reheatings.
Air fryer is the best
It really is. I was late to the air fryer game assuming they were just another kitchen gimmick, but once I caved to peer pressure and bought one, I can’t imagine not having one.
but I find it works way better with a reduced power setting and a little longer
I think that’s what the “Pizza” button on mine does. You can hear it kicking on and off at a weird cadence similar to but more frequent than defrost, so I assume that’s how it works.
Frying in a stovetop pan can work for hand tossed or thin pizza
I’ve never tried that, but we have baked deep dish style in a cast iron frying pan.
On the stovetop I like to use a ceramic non-stick to reheat so I don’t need oil to keep i lt from sticking. The goal is evenly heating, so it doesn’t need to hold a lot of heat.
I’ve always wanted to do the cast iron pizza!
What I do for pizzas overloaded with toppings is start in the microwave, finish in the air fryer.
I’m also late to the air fryer game, because I didn’t want to keep making"fried" things… Instead I just kept frying things on the stove…
I’m gonna give you a culture shock! Try this.
Putting a tiny cup of water in with your pizza is a game changer. It helps rehydrate pizza that’s been dried out in the fridge and keeps the dough from hardening as much.
I did eventually learn that (read it somewhere), but by that point, I’d started using the air fryer. I’m also not above eating cold pizza straight out of the fridge lol.
The “beverage” one is a trap. It absolutely ruined my Pepsi.
