A Mother's Dumping Ground

So, a couple of years ago, the big popcorn companies have stated that they have banned the chemical ingredient added to give microwaveable popcorn that buttery taste, which ended up giving some factory workers and a two-bag-a-day popcorn enthusiast a disease called "popcorn lung." No joke. Google it. However, they have replaced it with another chemical that may cause symptoms of "popcorn lung." There is also concern about a chemical used in the bag itself to make it sticky-proof.

Here are a couple if links, if you'd like to read more about it:



Microwave Popcorn's Health Problem: It's In The Bag



The Chemical Marketplace: Popcorn Lung -- The Perils of Microwave Popcorn Return



Why bother? Here's an easy (and budget friendly - yay!) way to microwave popcorn without all the hazard:

Grab a good old brown paper lunch bag and throw in 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels. Fold the top of the bag over two times. Microwave, but stand by to listen closely to when the popping slows, then stop the microwave. When I first started, I set the microwave to 3 minutes until I learned that it takes 1 1/2 minutes to pop corn in my microwave. When it's done, butter, salt, and/or season to your liking.

There's another method that involves pouring the kernels into a glass bowl with some oil and covering it with a glass dinner plate, but after 6 1/2 minutes of sporadic popping, I had enough. I lack patience nowadays. And the popcorn...not very fluffy and the popcorn that popped at 2 minutes were burned by the time the rest of the popcorn started to come around at the 6ish minute mark. I'm not going to stop you if you want to try it. It just didn't work for me.