Microwave Popcorn: Home made, cheap and easy

Go to the supermarket and look at the boxes of microwave popping corn. $1.99 to $3.00 a box and the odds are you won't find one seasoned to your individual taste. You just have to settle for what they offer.

HAH!

Not anymore, my friends. I am here to liberate your palates form the work-a-day microwave popcorn. Today, you will learn that which they don't want you to know. You will learn how simple and cheap it is to make your own popping corn. Lets get started.

First you will need the following ingredients:

1/4 cup of popping corn (generally $0.99 for a pound bag. This is enough to make at least 50 bags of microwave corn)
1 Teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
To taste - popcorn salt (it has finer granules than table salt with the same taste)

And the following tools:

A stapler
A teaspoon
A measuring cup
A brown paper bag
and
A microwave

Step 1 First...

Open the bag and pour the popping corn in. Carefully add your seasonings and salt. Shake gently. Now add the teaspoon of olive oil.

Comments

[td80]

Just wondering if you can use the white paper bags?
I have a bunch of them....
As much as hubby likes to sit and eat popcorn, this should make him happy. I'll let him eat to his heart's content!

[jimisham]

Are those regular lunch bags being used in the instructions?

[sunshiine]

What an awesome Instructable! Thanks for sharing your hard work! Have a splendorous day!
sunshiine

[Javin007]

Best EVAR. Just tried this tonight, and I'm amazed at the results, though I did two bags and found that it works better if you mix the oil with the kernels before putting them in the bag. (I assume the more even coating helps them pop better.) I found that I had LESS unpopped popcorn than with the expensive microwaved popcorn, and the prep time was only slightly longer than the process of opening the purchased popcorn box, and unwrapping it from the plastic. Finally, the end result is COMPLETELY preservative free and somehow seems "lighter" than the microwaved popcorn.

I used the "fold over" method, and when the bags get too full, a corner opens to allow them to vent but it doesn't change the rate of popping at all.

Summary:  There's simply no reason what-so-ever to buy microwavable popcorn.  Seriously.  Wish I could give more than 5 stars.  Stuff like this is what this site's all about. 

[skinbuckle]

I fold the bag too - no staples. I personally find the taste is better when oil or butter the corn after popping. There's a few more kernals in the bottom of the bowl but I just repop them. Let me know what you think.

[santy22]

Any chance i can use a microvave-able bowl instead of the bag?

[skinbuckle]

the only problem I've found is covering the bowl - you don't want soft plastic wrap heated on your food.

[Azayles]

Is the olive oil necessary for this? I want to make small batches of pop corn for my hamster.

[skinbuckle]

I make a version of this - I don't use any oil or salt or anything in the bag. Just plain corn, brown paper bag, hit the popcorn button. Then personally I pour melted butter and salt on it, but I've found if you're going to add fat, do it after it pops, there's much more flavor.

Here's the kicker - when you're done and there's left over kernals - pop them in the same old bag you just used. They don't take as long so listen after a minute or so for the delay in pops.

[emcbride]

I have been putting corn in a paper bag with NOTHING else and putting it in the microwave for over a year. listening to the popping and pull it out the instant 4 seconds go by without a pop. WHEN DONE EATING COLLECT THE UNPOPED KERNALS AND DO IT AGAIN! EMIL T

[skinbuckle]

amen

[Azayles]

Over a year? Wouldn't it be burnt by then? :P
I managed to get some plain popping corn from Sainsbury's in the end. I really didn't know I could get it that easy lol. Millie loves it!

[Hoopajoo]

Only if you want to salt it. If you want to make it plain, you can skip it.

[Azayles]

In that case, excellent :-D I just need to find somewhere now that sells the plain kernels. Thank you for the quick reply!

[Capt Fritz]

any grocery store has some with the other popcorn bags. I got mine at walmart. I'd suggest getting the very basic kernel bags. I've seen colored and other stuff out there, but your hampster might end up with epilepsy with multicolored corn!

[Azayles]

It's ok, hamsters have very poor eyesight anyway. It's actually a defence mechanism against the garishly coloured hamster cages that seem to be the staple of small pet stores.

[skinbuckle]

I bought a bag for $.99 at Trader Joes. It's organic, non-gmo and I didn't have to support a big box store.

[piccolo1979]

Found & tried this instructable a few months ago & have not bought a single box of microwave popcorn since. So far my favorite flavor that I've attempted used lemon pepper seasoning. Mmmmmm! :)

[Hoopajoo]

Glad you liked it. Thanks for the idea on the lemon pepper seasoning. I've used IGA Seasoning salt and even Montreal Steak Seasoning, both were yummy to the max! Your imagination is the limit with this method where it comes to seasoning. My niece loves to put powdered cocoa on it.

[goicoechea]

What is Montreal Steak Seasoning? Can you buy that is supermarkets in Montreal? I live in Montreal...

[Toxictom]

Costco has it.

[huddlehouseninja]

You are a genius! I just did this. The popcorn is yummy! I used some butter flavored popcorn oil and waited patiently by the microwave (armed with bacon soda to extinguish any crazy fires). Popcorn perfection! Thanks!

[Zephyrsent2]

Can you get butter-flavored popcorn oil at the grocery or do you have to go to a specialty store?

P.S. It's BAKING soda. I wouldn't recommend throwing anything made of bacon on a fire!

[Hoopajoo]

Genius? Nah, I'm just plain ol' Hoopajoo. But thanks very much for the kind words and thoughts. I honestly appreciate it and am happy that you like it.

[dtshumaker]

My coworker knows I eat a bag of popped corn a day so she sent me an article about the carcinogens from the teflon-like lining in most commercial popcorn, etc. Nothing like Debbie Downer information, right? But then she sent me the link to this page, and WOW! Great idea! Can't leave well-enough alone, though, so I needed to come up with a way to take it to work. Packaging the ingredients in the paper bag ahead of time would leave an oily mess in my lunch bag BUT here's my solution. ... I'll try mixing all the ingredients (measured appropriately with the whole bag of popcorn) in a large mixing bowl, then measure out a 1/4 c. of it per snack-size zip-lock bag, stirring the mixing bowl often to keep the kernels coated. I can store all the snack bags in a gallon zip-lock bag. When I pack my lunch, I can toss in a snack bag of the ingredients with a brown bag, then pour the ingredients into the bag right before nuking!

[qfe0]

WARNING this can start a FIRE. I'd recommend doing this without the staple, find another way to secure the bag.

One of times we tried this there was oil on the spot where the staple was, and the bag caught fire in the microwave, we were fortunate that we had a fire extinguisher at hand. It could have been a real disaster.

[marabiego]

fold over bag twice and secure with a piece of masking tape instead of stapling it.
no fire worries.

[Hoopajoo]

Sorry you had such bad results. I've commented earlier that if you are nervous about using a staple, just fold the top of the bag down about an inch, then fold again and press the folds.

What do you think made the bag catch fire? In all the times I've done this, the staple never sparks or even gets warm.

[stringfellow]

How do you make Kettle Corn in this fashion?

[ttaylor10]

For kettle corn, after the corn is popped immediately sprinkle in about 3 to 4 tablespoons of sugar. re-fold bag and shake vigorously. if not sweet enough add a bit more sugar and nuke for 30 seconds longer and shake again. Enjoy.

[budloove]

Interesting idea, I always thought the paper bags would not be suitable for the microwave.Dunno why.:D

[myles136]

A suggestion was made to put a soup dish inverted, under the bag. My wife destroyed her favorite classic soup dish by doing this. The dish exploded, most likely from the hot oil.

[youcantoo]

Did you think that maybe that the dish was not microwave safe? I really doubt that it exploding was caused by the oil at all.

[bholton]

I'm a popcorn junky and have been taken advantage of by Orville Redenbacher for years until now.
I now have the ability to just say no to all the preservatives that our beloved FDA forces on our nations food industry.
I can add all I want or I can not, "MY CHOICE"!
;P

[allthegoodnamesaretaken]

Fantastic. I tried something very similar to this a few years ago, but couldn't remember exactly how to do it. The video is a great time saver!

[bobbelsekwol]

Mmmmmmmmmmm. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. I use cinnamon on my popcorn or toffee and mix in some nuts. Not very healthy but who cares!!!!!!

[Hoopajoo]

That do sound yummy!

[mahdifargai]

Looks good. I'll definitely have to give this a try. I'm allergic to preservatives so I can't eat store-bought microwave popcorn.

[kcls]

That's pretty cool, I didn't know you could make your own microwave popcorn. I've always wondered what made some popcorn microwave and some not, and now I know! 5 Stars!

[mz anne thrope]

From what i can tell the only thing that makes it "microwave" is that the corn is put in a bag that's coated with a non-stick chemical that's similar to the coating on a non-stick pan (and that's not considered that good for you-then it's in the microwave!) then there's the powdered oil that's in the bag, then there's that awful microwave popcorn smell that never comes out of your microwave. This is a great alternative. Saw my mom-in-law do this without the oil and she would take a bag of it with her to keep in the car while she shopped. Kept down on impulse buys when she got hungry.