January 31, 2002
What is the minimum watts required in microwave ovens to cook bagged popcorn? Seems like all microwaves have different time limits. Believe I read somewhere that popcorn cooked with an oven having 900 or more watts was optimum, is that correct?
Thanks, Bill
Hi Bill,
Excellent question. I doubt there is a minimum wattage required for popping corn. Wattage is a factor in the amount of time you would cook something. The higher the wattage, the less time you cook.
I just happen to have a bag of microwave popcorn in my cupboard. I have a 1000-watt oven, with a popcorn setting, so I never read the instructions before. I just put the popcorn in press the pop button, and in two minutes I have perfectly popped popcorn.
The instructions on the bag are dubious: "Microwave on high (full power) until bag is expanded and popping slows to 2-3 seconds between pops. Normal popping time is between 1-5 minutes. Do not overcook, popcorn may scorch. Do not leave microwave unattended."
Those 1 to 5 minutes represent a large time span for microwave cooking. Fortunately, my mother designed the conversion charts for microwave cooking. Since we know that popcorn pops perfectly in a 1000-watt oven in two minutes, it is a simple process to calculate the amount of time it takes in other wattage ovens. Since you did not tell me what wattage oven you have, here are the popcorn cooking times for all the wattages I'm currently aware of:
Now we know that 5 minutes refers to a 400-watt oven, and 1 minute refers to something higher than a 1600-watt oven. So, there is no optimum wattage oven. You just need to know the correct cooking time for your wattage oven. Since I opened the package, I guess I better pop this popcorn now.