• sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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    1 day ago

    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.

    • Duranie@leminal.space
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      24 hours ago

      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.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        20 hours ago

        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.

    • bstix@feddit.dk
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      24 hours ago

      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.

      • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
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        21 hours ago

        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.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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          20 hours ago

          They absolutely should, but that mechanism usually works with a little switch, and those can get sticky. Just build a habit of hitting cancel first and you won’t have issues.

    • kn33@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I also immediately pick it up and shake it when I stop it. That seems to help it pop more.

    • SolarMonkey@slrpnk.net
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      24 hours ago

      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.

      • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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        20 hours ago

        And that’s why habits are so important. If you just set it to 5 min and turn it off at the right time when sober, you’re going to screw it up when drunk. If you always set it to 2 min (or whatever is good for your microwave), you’ll likely do the same when drunk.

    • Piemanding@sh.itjust.works
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      24 hours ago

      I feel people who say they aren’t good at cooking are just bad at watching it. Too many people try to multitask it.

    • Carl@sh.itjust.works
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      17 hours ago

      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.

        • Carl@sh.itjust.works
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          15 hours ago

          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.

          • Hathaway@lemmy.zip
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            15 hours ago

            Well, I’m not going to argue with anything except one thing, from talking to Canadians, my understanding is that while you don’t have a stand your ground or castle doctrine/law, it’s not illegal either. It seems to be very much case dependent and as a Canadian you’re expected to respond with “reasonable and proportional” force, which, is very subjective I guess? Idk, if you’re going to try to do it in Canada, you better be in your closet and the other person better be coming with a gun.

          • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
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            13 hours ago

            The first part is idiotic, but the second is completely reasonable. Here’s what the law states in Canada:

            Defence — use or threat of force

            34 (1) A person is not guilty of an offence if

            (a) they believe on reasonable grounds that force is being used against them or another person or that a threat of force is being made against them or another person;

            (b) the act that constitutes the offence is committed for the purpose of defending or protecting themselves or the other person from that use or threat of force; and

            (c) the act committed is reasonable in the circumstances.

            If someone is trying to kill you and you have a gun, I think you’d have a strong defense for killing them. However, if they obviously don’t have a deadly weapon, you’d have a much weaker defense.