Not popping the corn

You cannot. All poppers of that style will a some "fall out". The better commercial machines have very little as the kettles are deeper, but you cannot eliminate it. The unpopped kernels are not reusable.

Hi pdfive...

Put one cup of unpopped corn into the machine, turn on and it will auto eject the popped corn into a waiting pan.
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Your power level should be on high, but you shouldn't rely on the oven to time the cooking. I have yet to find an oven that won't burn popcorn if it has a preset POPCORN button. Press it and walk away and next thing you know, you've got charcoal. You should always stick around while making popcorn. Stop the oven and take the bag out when the time between pops drops to 1 or 2 seconds. The corn will continue to pop on its own for a bit because of stored heat, but you won't burn it. You'll never get 100% of the corn to pop, so don't worry about unpopped kernels.

I have one of these poppers and have been impressed with the minimal number of unpopped kernels.

On only one occassion have I not been satisfied and suspect it was due to insufficient oil being added.

Make sure you are adding sufficient oil to aid heat transfer to the kernels.

Does your popper have a butter melting cup at the top? (The one we had years ago did.) Remove that cup from the popper and fill it with the unpopped kernels. (Fill loosely to level with the rim of the cup or less. Do not pack the kernels into the cup or overfill.) Then pour the kernels into the poppiing chamber. There should also be a fill line inside the popping chamber that indicates the maximum amount of popcorn to put in the chamber. Then put the measuring cup/butter melter back on the top of the popper.

The manual for the current Presto Hot Air Popper is available as a PDF from the Presto site. The list of all their popcorn makers is here: http://www.gopresto.com/products/products_search.php?search_value=37&operation=Search&search_type=category . To find the manual click on the hot air popper and scroll down, the user's guide is listed under the parts/accessories available for sale. The current one looks identical to the one that my family had ~20 years ago.

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells

1. Pour up to 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels in the base of the Popcorn Popper.
2. The use of oil is optional, but not necessary. If desired, drizzle a small amount of vegetable oil over the unpopped kernels, then stir to coat the kernels.
3. Place cover on the base bowl. Cook on High in the microwave for approximately 3-5 minutes (microwave ovens vary tremendously!), or until popping slows down. Allow Popcorn Popper to cool before repeated use. Do not try to re-pop unpopped kernels.
4. Hand washing is recommended, but occasional washing in the top rack of a dishwasher is acceptable for the bowl, but not the lid.
5. If popcorn burns easily or does not pop well, try placing a shallow bowl, dish or plate upside down on the microwave turntable to raise the popcorn popper up a bit.

It coud be 2 things. Either a low grade of popping corn, or old popping corn. Hot air poppers blow the same temperature, until you shut them off. Although the better grades of popping corn cost a good amount more, you don't throw half of it away. Once the popping corn container has been opened, you should use it up within about 3 months. The internal moisture content is what determines whether corn will pop or not. Too much or too little moisture will not allow the corn to pop.

I had the same problem when I firs bought mine. I followed the instructions as to the proportion of corn to oil. Forget the book! I found that with this machine I had to use three times the oil that was caled for in the instructions to get all of the corn to pop. Better yet, we started purchasing the premade kits with the oil, popcorn and salt. Since changing to both of these systems we have enjoyed GREAT ppcorn!

I have the directions for this; send me your address and I'll mail you a copy or I could probably just I have a Presto Caramel Corn'r. These are the directions:
You need a large mixing spoon, wax paper and the following ingredients:
2 T cooking oil
¼ c popcorn

¼ c butter or margarine
½ c brown sugar
2 T light corn syrup
¼ t salt

1/8 t soda

Then follow these steps
1) Pour cooking oil and popcorn into the unit base. Place cover on base. Plug cord into base and then into wall outlet. The signal light will glow when unit is heating. When popping is completed, the signal light will go out indicating that the heat has shut off automatically. Unplug the cord from the wall outlet. Tip unit upside down so popped corn falls into cover. Set cover with popped corn aside. You may want to use a paper towel to remove excess oil and unpopped corn or hulls from the base before making caramel sauce. NOTE: I pop corn for all the batches I intend to make first then do the next steps because you don’t have to clean it each time to make a new batch.
2) To make caramel sauce, combine butter, brown sugar, corn syrup and salt in the base. Plug into wall outlet. Heat mixture stirring constantly until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally for three minutes. Unplug cord from outlet and unit.
3) Place the mixing band on the base. Add baking soda and stir until mixture is evenly colored, light and foamy. Add popped corn, stirring to evenly coat with caramel sauce. Remove mixing band. Pour caramel coated corn onto wax paper and separate kernels. Let stand a few minutes before serving. Wash unit before popping more corn.

What size kettle?
It is probably the thermostat