I've never fully understood how the 'popcorn' button on microwaves work
Say no more. Must watch
this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2024
57 points (96.7% liked)
Mildly Infuriating
35779 readers
156 users here now
Home to all things "Mildly Infuriating" Not infuriating, not enraging. Mildly Infuriating. All posts should reflect that.
I want my day mildly ruined, not completely ruined. Please remember to refrain from reposting old content. If you post a post from reddit it is good practice to include a link and credit the OP. I'm not about stealing content!
It's just good to get something in this website for casual viewing whilst refreshing original content is added overtime.
Rules:
1. Be Respectful
Refrain from using harmful language pertaining to a protected characteristic: e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability or religion.
Refrain from being argumentative when responding or commenting to posts/replies. Personal attacks are not welcome here.
...
2. No Illegal Content
Content that violates the law. Any post/comment found to be in breach of common law will be removed and given to the authorities if required.
That means: -No promoting violence/threats against any individuals
-No CSA content or Revenge Porn
-No sharing private/personal information (Doxxing)
...
3. No Spam
Posting the same post, no matter the intent is against the rules.
-If you have posted content, please refrain from re-posting said content within this community.
-Do not spam posts with intent to harass, annoy, bully, advertise, scam or harm this community.
-No posting Scams/Advertisements/Phishing Links/IP Grabbers
-No Bots, Bots will be banned from the community.
...
4. No Porn/Explicit
Content
-Do not post explicit content. Lemmy.World is not the instance for NSFW content.
-Do not post Gore or Shock Content.
...
5. No Enciting Harassment,
Brigading, Doxxing or Witch Hunts
-Do not Brigade other Communities
-No calls to action against other communities/users within Lemmy or outside of Lemmy.
-No Witch Hunts against users/communities.
-No content that harasses members within or outside of the community.
...
6. NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.
-Content that is NSFW should be behind NSFW tags.
-Content that might be distressing should be kept behind NSFW tags.
...
7. Content should match the theme of this community.
-Content should be Mildly infuriating.
-At this time we permit content that is infuriating until an infuriating community is made available.
...
8. Reposting of Reddit content is permitted, try to credit the OC.
-Please consider crediting the OC when reposting content. A name of the user or a link to the original post is sufficient.
...
...
Also check out:
Partnered Communities:
Reach out to LillianVS for inclusion on the sidebar.
All communities included on the sidebar are to be made in compliance with the instance rules.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
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.
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
Deep cut, and I appreciate the hell out of that!
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.
I have watched this man explain the refrigeration cycle, where he dicusses what latent heat of vaporization is in so many videos, so many times over, and I still could not tell you how it works.
But that doesn't mean he's not good at explaining it, it just means I have too much of a caveman brain to understand it.
If you haven’t watched the dishwasher one, drop everything and go do it now!
This is definitely one of the best YouTube channels. I should probably consider being a patron, tbh.
He is also really active on the fedis so that's a plus
I'm sure others have linked to Technology Connections' video on the subject below, but there are two general ways it works:
-
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.
-
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.
It's not quite as convenient, but I switched to making popcorn in a wok. It's faster and way, WAY cheaper.
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
In a wok?
I just use a pot with a lid
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.
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.
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.
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...
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!
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.
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.
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.