Yikes!!

I love this bowl and this popcorn recipe.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Anchor-Hocking-Presence-11-Large-Serving-Bowl-Glass/35275886

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_popcorn/

The 30 seconds off the heat really makes the difference. Yes, it is on the stove, but it is as fast as microwave. I cook it in my 3 qt saucepan and dump into the bowl for serving.

Glad no one got hurt. Unless it is the ancient stuff, Pyrex is so known for cracking and shattering I wont use the stuff.

Sherry, that's exactly how I make popcorn on the stove. I wait until the 3-4 have popped then I add the rest.

There was a thread a few months ago about using paper bags in the microwave. I do that as well, but again, there's a fine line between too many old maids, and burned popcorn.

A recent thread talked about some members using a bowl with a plate on top which is what I did last nite. I've ruined my favourite storing bowl. My largest one, that had a plastic cover. It was a set of 3.

Gyr_falcon, I won't use it in the oven, even though it's supposed to be oven-safe. Same as my Anchor-Hocking, I don't trust it. But I have microwaved both.

Jasdip, I always made it that way also, but had forgot the amount of oil and popcorn, so I Googled. The thing that helps is the 30 seconds off the heat.

Check here, you might find the replacement.

http://www.shopworldkitchen.com/pyrex/

My goodness! Sorry about your bowl, but glad it didn't shatter in the microwave.

Three years ago at Christmas time, I was pulling out a pyrex dish from the oven, when suddenly it literally burst in my hand. I was left holding the two handles whilst the base hit my glass oven door. It certainly gave me a scare. I had glass shattered in my oven, on my oven door and all over my floor. Hot shattered glass. I won't use them for cooking anymore.

Holy cow!

I had no luck with the bowl in the microwave method either. Not as bad as your result but it just didn't do anything as I recall. I will stick with the lunch sack method. I remember many years ago, someone gave me a microwave bowl just for popcorn and I didn't care for it then either, it went to the thrift shop. 1/4 cup for 2 minutes does an adequate job in the paper bag. I've found laying it on its side is the best.

I made popcorn yesterday too... in my fav. pot, with a lid on it. Stainless pot. Sherry, I broke my favorite stoneware pot a few years ago, trying to make popcorn in it, in the MW.

Moni

It has got to be the oil getting too hot. I'm glad I missed that hint and haven't made popcorn in the microwave except for the kind you buy for that. I quit using that when it came out about the chemical in it that was making the people at the popcorn factory sick. (Not to mention the day the guy at work set the microwave wrong and burnt his.) It had all the customers thinking the store was on fire. You couldn't breathe in the break room!. I haven't seen black popcorn before.

Hot air popper - very easy, fast and safe.

I should get a air popper since hubs loves popcorn and eats it at least most nights.

Jas I'm sorry about the loss of your favourite bowl. I think what happens with some of the exploding Pyrex (not yours Jas) is that the room temp is so much cooler and when it hits the screaming hot bowl that causes it to break or explode. I had this happen with a Pyrex casserole dish. Hot glass everywhere and melted into my lovely floor.

I'm very sorry to hear about your mishap, Jasdip. That must have been very shocking to you and I am thankful that no one got hurt. I always use the same sturdy glass bowl for popcorn and fortunately have had no disasters.

We don't eat a lot of popcorn but when we want to have some around we get it at Trader Joes. There are a few choices, all are pretty good and certainly very convenient. We try to limit the microwave use to gentle reheating of foods that are cold from the fridge. I don't like using it for "cooking".

I'm sitting here eating my freshly popped corn and checking the forum and came upon this thread. Popcorn is one of our favorite snacks. I'm sure I pop corn five or six days a week. I have Mom's heavy old aluminum pot that is older than I (I'm 62). Up until about three years ago it was known as the popcorn pot, even though it was also used for other things. It's still a great pot, but I bought a stainless steel popper from the Great Northern Popcorn (sort of like the Whirly Pooh, with a heavy bottom and it makes great popcorn. I use coconut oil for the pan, and clarified butter for the topping, along with whatever seasonings we feel like at the time. No more shaking the pan, just a slow stirring once the popping starts and that's only for a minute or two. No burnt popcorn and fewer old maids.

my dad was a hard-headed man. took forever to get him to want a microwave. we went shopping for one and i brought along a few packs of microwave popcorn as a "teaching tool" he was immediately impressed and popcorn became his new favorite snack. when he had a bag with a lot of unpopped kernels he decided to re-pop them. NOT an insane idea if he had used a brown paper bag or some sort of container. he put unpopped stuff in a plastic food bag. by the time the kernels reached temp to pop, the plastic was MOLTEN in the microwave and quickly proceeded to crack the glass plate in half. i think he had the microwave less than a week.

made popcorn stove-top when niece was over... she was about 12. i was able to find a glass lid that fit my cast iron dutch oven. you'd have thought she was watching the latest movie... mouth hanging open watching popcorn pop.

OH, try making with bacon fat instead of oil... yum!!

I was just looking at Rancho Gordo popcorn and then came to GW to catch up. Their popcorn gets rave reviews, but no matter what popcorn I use, I always use our lightweight aluminum Whirly Pop. We are most recently enjoying it made with bacon grease or macadamia nut oil. Here is an article from Serious Eats about making corn in the WP.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2016/11/why-i-love-my-whirly-pop-popcorn-maker.html

I pop in a glass bowl in the microwave with a little bit of oil and use the popcorn setting. It often takes pushing the popcorn button again after it turns off (I do it immediately when the first cycle ends). I've never had any of it burn. How many kernels did you use? I use about 3/4 of a cup or so; if you used too few there may not have been enough "food" in the microwave to absorb the waves (or whatever it does). More like turning an empty microwave on, which we all know is not good to do.

Microwave popcorn needs no oil or fat. I used to have a microwave popcorn bowl which was plastic with a vented lid. There was also a little domed bump in the bottom of the bowl which I guess helped circulate the kernels as they popped. It worked appreciably better than a standard bowl.

I believe that your damaged bowls were not true Pyrex, a vintage borosilicate glass, but was a recent version made of soda-lime glass bearing the name Pyrex. Corning Consumer Products introduced the name Pyrex in 1915. (Borosilicate glass was invented before this date.) The division was spun off of Corning Glass Works in 1998 and renamed World Kitchen LLC in 2000. The glass was changed to a soda-lime glass that was stronger and cheaper, but did not have the low thermal expansion and heat shock resistance of borosilicate glass, thus it can burst with dissimilar temperatures. Sadly, it still carries the name, Pyrex.

When shopping estate sales, remember that the good Pyrex was made before 1998. However, the trade name, PYREX (all caps) has been licensed in regions of Europe, Africa, and Middle East for use on their borosilicate glass products, and those pieces should perform the same as vintage Pyrex.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrex

For popping corn, I use metal pans or skillets.

Plastic and food in the microwave are a very bad idea. I too only use the microwave sparingly and always cook on glass or paper.

Air popper for the win. We have one that is at least 30 years old, still works fine several times a week. Popcorn is one of DH's favorites.

Jemdandy, I saw that article also. The French White casseroles have also changed. The new ones are no longer smooth on the bottom. They need to be purchased at estate sales if you need replacements. The are ironstone not the glass.

The Corelle dishes are still made in the United States and are the same, except for the coffee cups. They are now an ironstone mug.

We had a Whirly pot that I bought off Kijiji (they're expensive otherwise). We used it until the gasket/gear thing broke that turns the paddle.

We also had an electric one (from Freecycle) with the revolving wire to stir the popcorn. Both worked okay, the plastic dome cracked on the electric one.

I'll stick with the pot and stove method from now on.

I've switched to an air popper and like it very much.

Another vote for the air popper.

I just had some awhile ago in my air popper.

Lynn Wheeler, I too have one of the Presto Poppers. I have had it for some years. It takes the little heavy paper disks for the bottom. It does a great job of popping corn also. Somewhere, I do have one of the stove top whirly popcorn poppers. If I could find it I would try it out again. I really do like pop corn I just don't fix it often enough.

Sue

I bought a set of 3 clear glass Pyrex bowls with lids on Amazon recently. They were listed as mixing bowls. I haven't cooked in them. I love the clean clean look of clear glass and got rid of all my oddball mixing bowls. After reading this, I will stick with my vintage CorningWare for the oven & microwave.

Orville Reddenbacher popcorn is just fine for us in the microwaveable bag.

To me the popcorn from an air popper is very bla and lacking flavor and I don't like the texture. I had one years ago and gave it away. Currently we are using microwave popcorn. My absolute favorite popcorn is from the movie theater fresh popped in their big professional popcorn popping machine. With the butter topping and butter salt. I have not had any in years. The RV resort we have looked at to move to has a huge community gathering room with pool tables and tvs comfortable furniture and a big professional popcorn machine that the make popcorn in daily. I will be visiting it lol.

I buy the little flavored shake on flavorings. I like the butter one, the nacho and the kettle best.

Jasdip that is very scary! I have heard of the Pyrex exploding. My friend has a very expensive set of cookware that has the glass lids, we were making dinner one night when suddenly the lid exploded on the pot on the stove and glass went every where. Every bit of our food was full of glass. There was glass all over the kitchen and the neighboring rooms. She said it was the 3rd on in the set so far that had exploded. We took lots of pictures to send to the company.

The presto electric skillet I bought has a couple of reviews that said the glass lid exploded on it. I am seriously hoping that doesn't happen to mine. Both I read happened in the dishwasher. I won't have to worry about that because I don't have a dishwasher now.

I always pass on air-popped. Besides being obnoxiously noisy the salt won't stick to the popcorn. I'll stick with my little old electric popper, looks something like this but mine has a larger bowl and a smaller base. Works the best of any system I've used short of the commercial systems like you see in theaters and bars.

Guess it actually looks a little more like this one although mine has a handle on each side rather than the coffee pot type single handle. It times out by itself and cuts off the heat. Perfect popcorn.

I prefer air-pop because I can choose real butter and plain sea salt as the only flavorings. I used to eat microwave but who knows what chemicals are in that stuff. Stove top requires oil and I don't use that anymore either.

I use a microwave popper, no oil or butter and then I use spray butter very lightly to get the salt to stick.

Back in the old days when the air popper first came out, that I remember anyway, I had one and I did not care for the texture of air popped corn...it's tough. So fast forward to a couple years ago when I found one at a garage sale(a new version) and tried it again and found the results to exactly as I had remembered. I know everyone's tastes are different but I do not care of air poppers in the least. I'd rather not even eat popcorn if that's all there is. I find microwaved popcorn to be light and fluffy. My Ex used to fix popcorn almost every night cooked in a pan on the stove top, again, it has a different texture and I'm not too crazy about it.

My Cuisinart air popper makes very light, fluffy popcorn. I would think the problem would be due to the quality of the popcorn, not the cooker.

Microwave popcorn has a weird texture, but it's not the kernels. It's like, the "butter" topping or something. Makes my tongue feel funny. I'll eat it if it's the only option, but not my first choice.

Just microwave plain corn kernels then. You don't have to restrict yourself to the single serve bags with all the fake stuff on them.

I put plain popcorn into a brown lunch sack without any oil at all. You fold the top down and put a piece of tape to hold it shut. I had tried to use a microwave bowl for popcorn but it didn't work as well. With the bag, you don't have to use a whole lot either, only 1/4 cup is all you need and that's plenty for one person.