A while back I stumbled upon a claim that it’s possible to make microwave popcorn using regular popcorn and a paper bag. I was skeptical, I confess, but hopeful. It seemed like the perfect way to stop my husband messing up my good heavy-bottomed soup pot popping corn on the stovetop, and it would be significantly cheaper than store-bought microwave popcorn. The good old brown paper lunch sack being something of an unknown quantity here in my adopted homeland, I had to wait a week or two for said sacks to wing their way here from the States (where would I be without eBay?), but as soon as I could, I gave it a go.

And you know what? It worked.

There was a bit of trial and error involved, but after I adjusted the quantity of corn and the popping time a couple of times and switched to a double-bag method, I came away with a perfect bowl of popcorn. It was virtually indistinguishable from corn popped in an air popper — better, actually, than any microwave popcorn I’ve ever tasted. I’m a little embarrassed and ashamed that the snack companies had me so completely convinced that I needed some sort of magic equipment to succeed at making popcorn in the microwave. Tell me, did you know it was this easy?