Ketchup, All Dressed, & Dill Pickle are some of the most popular popcorn seasoning flavours in Canada. Here's how you can make all 3 at home!
When I was still living in Minneapolis, a big part of any trip back home to Canada involved grocery shopping.
Not only would we stock up on favourite items for our own cupboards, we’d also be fulfilling shopping list requests for friends in Minneapolis.
One of the most common requests we’d have were for bags of chips. We’d gotten a bunch of our American friends hooked on All Dressed and Ketchup chips in particular.
Even after those flavours started being sold locally, we’d still bring back Canadian chips.
I have no idea why, but the American versions weren’t seasoned as heavily as those sold in Canada - even when produced by the same brand!
Canadian Popcorn Seasonings
Another item we’d bring back is popcorn seasoning - in flavours based on those chips. Generally speaking, I’d be bringing back All Dressed, Ketchup, and Dill Pickle seasoning.
Sure, you can buy dill pickle popcorn seasoning in the USA, but the Kernels brand (from Canada) had a lot better flavour than the stuff available in Minnesota.
Anyway.
When I was writing More Than Poutine, I decided to come up with recipes for popcorn seasonings in those flavours
You can use these on popcorn, chips, fries, baked potatoes, meats.. One friend loves the all-dressed on mac and cheese!
Popcorn Seasoning Ingredients
While some of the ingredients used to make these seasonings are pretty common - salt, garlic powder, etc - there are a few that you may not be familiar with. Here’s a bit of info, and some links to buy them!
Nutritional Yeast
Nutritional Yeast is a common type of yeast that has been deactivated - so you can’t use it to bake bread or make wine - and it’s becoming more and more common in cooking.
It can be used to add an “umami” flavour to your cooking, and is commonly used in vegetarian “meat” making - as I do in my Vegan Donair Meat, Boneless Vegan Ribs, and my Replica Trader Joe’s Tofu Edamame Nuggets recipes.
Also, you can find it used to add a “cheesy” flavour to food, without the dairy. Shaking it directly onto popcorn makes a shockingly accurate dairy-free “cheese” popcorn seasoning!
Smoked Paprika
Smoked Paprika is one of my absolute favourite spices.
It adds a smoky flavour - with a bit of red pepper - without adding a lot of heat. I actually hadn’t used much of it, before I started messing around with All Dressed seasoning. Paprika wasn’t cutting it, so I took a trip to Penzeys for some inspiration. I walked out with some smoked paprika, and that was IT - the missing piece of the puzzle.
I’ve loved it ever since!
Sour Cream Powder
Sour Cream Powder is a dried, powdered sour cream product.
In theory, you can mix the powder with water to make actual sour cream, but... well, I haven’t heard good things about that, and I haven’t been in a position where we’d need to.
However, sour cream powder is fantastic for making homemade seasoning blends. I use it in my All Dressed seasoning, and in making homemade Sour Cream & Onion seasoning.
Tomato Powder
Tomato Powder is a powder made from dehydrated and pulverized tomatoes.
It has a very concentrated tomato flavour, so you can add some water to make tomato paste, it just add it directly to sauces, dressings, etc.
For popcorn, it supplies the base tomato flavour for both the ketchup and all dressed seasonings.
Vinegar Powder
Vinegar Powder is a powdered form of vinegar (obviously?), and a great way to add a bit of vinegar tang to a recipe, without adding liquid.
It’s a fun item to play with, and I use it primarily in seasoning mixes. In addition to these three popcorn seasoning recipes, it’s also great for making “salt and vinegar” seasoning - not only great for popcorn, but also on wings, fries, etc!
How to Make Popcorn Seasoning
If you're ready, let's get into the most complicated recipe directions ever! I'll demonstrate with my Dill Pickle Popcorn Seasoning:
1. Measure the ingredients for the flavour you want to make into a small bowl
3. Store in an airtight container.
Ok... maybe not that complicated, LOL!
This recipe is one of many fantastic Canadian recipes in my cookbook, "More Than Poutine: Favourite Foods from my Home and Native Land”. "More than Poutine" is a Canadian cookbook like no other - written by a Canadian living away, it includes both traditional home cooking recipes, as well as accurate homemade versions of many of the snacks, sauces, convenience foods, and other food items that are hard to come by outside of Canada! Order your copy here on this site, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller!
More Canadian Comfort Food!
Whether you’re a Canadian in the US or not, we could all use some comfort food these days. Here are some Canadian Favourites!
Back Bacon / Canadian Bacon
Beep
Clodhoppers
Confetti Bars
Dill Pickle Cream Cheese Dip
Doughnut Holes - Timbits!
French Canadian Pea Soup
Halifax Meat Paste Egg Rolls
Homemade Deep N Delicious Cake
Homemade Wunderbars
How to Make Peameal Bacon and Back Bacon
Maple Butter Tarts
Montreal Bagels
Persians Recipe
Poutine, My Way!
Puffed Wheat Squares
Replica Swiss Chalet Sauce
Tiger Tail Ice Cream
Looking for even more Canadian recipes? Check out our full Canadian Recipes list!
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Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
Canadian Popcorn Seasonings
Ingredients
All Dressed Seasoning - Makes about a cup
- ⅓ cup Vinegar powder
- 2 tablespoon Tomato powder
- 2 tablespoon Salt
- 1 ½ tablespoon Brown sugar packed
- 2 teaspoon Sour cream powder
- 1 teaspoon Garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon Nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon Onion powder
- 1 teaspoon Smoked paprika
- ¾ teaspoon Citric acid
- ¼ teaspoon Allspice
- ¼ teaspoon Celery seed
- ¼ teaspoon Ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon Ground pepper
- ¼ teaspoon Mustard powder
Dill Pickle Seasoning - Makes about ¾ cups
- ½ cup Vinegar powder
- ⅓ cup Dill weed
- ¼ cup Salt
- ¾ teaspoon Mustard powder
- ¼- ½ teaspoon Garlic powder
- ¼- ½ teaspoon Ground black pepper
Ketchup Seasoning - Makes about ¾ cup
- ⅓ cup Tomato powder
- 4 tablespoon Vinegar Powder
- 2 tablespoon Salt
- 1 tablespoon Granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon Paprika
- ¼ teaspoon Allspice
- ¼ teaspoon Garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon Onion Powder
- ⅛ teaspoon Celery seed
- ⅛ teaspoon Ground Cloves
Instructions
- Measure the ingredients for the flavour you want to make into a small bowl
- Mix well to combine.
- Store in an airtight container.
Vijitha
I love making my own seasonings at home. I have always wondered what 'all dressed' seasoning is made of. Thanks for these recipes! These seasonings are gonna come handy at my place coz we love having pop corn for snack!
Ange
I wanted to add this to chips so reduced the salt. Satisfied my craving!
Judy
Thank you. I can finally make my own version of ketchup and all dressed seasoning that I can eat. I'm allergic to onions, so I have only been able to eat plain or vinegar flavour. This will make a nice change, along with my BBQ chip dust.
Marie Porter
Oh that's great to hear, enjoy!
Martine Dubois
Hi! Can you confirm that the Dill Pickle recipe really requires a 1/4 cup of salt?
Marie Porter
Yes. Popcorn seasoning is basically flavoured salt.