Blackened a micro-burger creating billows of thick white smoke. Scrubbed interior alternately with vinegar, baking soda, lemon. Smell still unbearable - vents and interior stained yellow. FINALLY followed someone's suggestion to use pure ACETONE nail polish remover for yellow stains - worked like a charm and did NOT damage the metal enamel interior. I also boiled a solution of lemon and water, and another of vinegar, baking soda and water which didn't help much with the smell. THIS WORKED BEST: In a quart size glass bowl I added 1/4 cup cheap PURE VANILLA (Costco) and a few drops PEPPERMINT OIL mixed with about 1 cup filtered water. Bring to a boil in microwave, uncovered and leave inside to steam for an hour or more then wipe interior dry. I have repeated this dozens of times and smoke odor is almost totally gone, replaced by a faint pleasant vanilla mint smell. This post was edited by spinningfast on Tue, May 14, 13 at 12:34

Forgot to add, I've been using the "White Cat" brand popping corn--not because of the name (though that might have had some influence!). I had, had good results with Newman's Own in a jar when I was making popcorn in a large pot, but they stopped selling it around here. The other brands of loose pop corn in the local supermarkets were eh--either left a lot un-popped, or made less-than-crispy popcorn, or went "stale" too quickly. I saw White Cat in the cooking supply store and gave it a try (I like that it comes in a glass jar--seems to be fresher, and keeps longer, too). It left few if any un-popped kernels, and the popcorn popped up nicely. I think we're on our second jar (?). It's probably on the pricier side, but like I said above, we don't make it that often, and it seems to "keep" a long time, so it works out well for us when we decide to have a movie and popcorn night at home.

Tonight I have achieved microwave popcorn success!! I bought Orville Redenbacker's mini bags of lowfat popcorn. I think that maybe that other bag I made was very old (I know it was at least 3 years old) and maybe the kernels were too dried out to pop well. I'm glad to know it's not my microwave. I've had a thing for Orville every since I saw him on TV on the Merv Griffin show years and years ago. I believe he is no longer living. But anyway, back then Merv was having a show with the theme of self-made millionaires, and he had Orville on. He was such a down to earth, self effacing guy. He was a corn researcher at University of Nebraska or something, and he just decided to get into the commercial end of things. Merv asked him how he spent his millions, and he said, "Well, we had five children you know and we put them all through college." He was one of the first to get on the bandwagon of coming out with "gourmet" versions of things. It takes a bit of chutzpah to realize that a name like Orville Redenbacker could be used as a marketing device. Now I see on the back of the bag that "Orville Redenbacker's" popcorn is now produced by ConAgra. There a pretty hefty scoop of old maids at the bottom of the bag, but I was conservative on the timing this go round.

So I just tried stove top popcorn for the first time, and it was excellent! First I melted the butter on low, sprinkled in salt, then added my kernels and turned the heat up to medium. Some kernels that could have popped a bit more fully (too low heat? too old kernels? needed to vent the pan?) and I wish my salt hadn't turned dark & made the yummy popcorn ugly...but the butter & salt flavor was better than the theater, and I didn't have to drag out a giant, hard-to-clean appliance. Thank you rachelellen! Now back to try another batch. PS - I was wondering earlier this evening if bacon fat (I keep a jar of it frozen to add flavor as needed) would make yummy popcorn or a greasy mess, and a commenter on simplyrecipes.com said it's yummy. So, another option to try!