You've Probably Never Heard Of The Seasoning Movie Theaters Use For Popcorn

If you've ever tried to make movie theater style popcorn from scratch, you have probably noticed that it's never exactly what you want. No matter how much butter you let it swim in, salt you sprinkle over the top, or tips for making the best popcorn you follow, there's always something slightly off that makes it obvious it's homemade. There's certainly nothing wrong with homemade popcorn — in fact, it can even be healthier if prepared thoughtfully — but for those who can't get enough of the real-deal movie theater snack, you need to start adding Flavacol popcorn seasoning salt to your homemade batches.

Your go-to homemade recipe for popcorn probably involves lots of butter, but believe it or not, your favorite movie theater's snack bar probably doesn't even use real butter. If anything, they might use butter-flavored oil, which is a popular alternative for movie theaters. This means that the classic hot buttery flavor we all know and love is actually just artificial. The same goes for salt — while you might like to add a ton of sea salt, you may notice that it all sinks to the bottom in your homemade batches, but that this doesn't happen at the theater. You can thank Flavacol for all of this: it's a two-in-one seasoning that adds both a butteriness and a saltiness to popcorn to produce that classic, irresistible snack.

Flavacol has been around and used in movie theaters since the 1960s, and it's essentially just salt flavored with artificial butter. Its ingredients are few: Flavacol contains just salt, artificial butter flavor, Yellow #5, and Yellow #6. The salt used in Flavacol is a special fine flake, and this is what ensures that each piece of popcorn is coated thoroughly and that nothing sinks to the bottom. The blend of Yellow #5 and #6 is what creates that blinding bright yellow color that shines through the see-through glass behind the snack bar. And of course, the artificial butter flavoring is what gives your popcorn the taste you're just dying to replicate at home.

The easiest way to replicate this seasoning is, of course, by purchasing Flavacol and coating your freshly-popped popcorn with it. You could also opt to buy microwave popcorn as well, since there are plenty of brands that make a similar movie theater style butter flavor. Or if you've got your heart set on making it from scratch, clarify your butter for a similar effect as butter-flavored oil, and then add some fine sea salt to the mix.