Spices by the Drop: Cooking with Essential Oils

Can I cook with essential oils?  I hear this question more and more.  It's great that people are exploring the many options essential oils offer.

The answer is "yes", but with a few qualification.  Here are some tips.

Make sure the essential oils you are using are pure.

The cheaper brands of essential oils are often extended with chemical fillers.  They may be fine for perfuming the bathroom, but you might not want them in your food. Deal with a trusted supplier and try to talk to the provider personally if you have any doubts.  Also, many of the precious flower oils are pre-diluted with jojoba oil so they can be applied as personal perfumes and to keep the price of a bottle affordable.  While jojoba is a quality natural product, you probably don't want it in your food.  Finally, some essential oils are obtained by solvent extraction (this is common with delicate flowers such as rose and jasmine).  Some solvent residue is inevitable.  Solvent extracted oils are not suitable for cooking.  Check the label or call the supplier.

Look for specialty recipes.

There are several good essential oil cookbooks on the market, and you may also find recipes on-line. This is your best place to start.

If you are converting a more conventional recipe, the general rule of thumb is one drop of essential oil for six servings of your dish.  You may need more or less depending upon taste.

Many middle eastern recipes call for rosewater.  This is not rose oil, but rather the recondensed water from distilling rose oil.  Recondensed water from herbal distillations are called hydrosols, floral waters or herbal waters. Rosewater is a lovely and valuable floral product that has been treasured for centuries. Rosewater is available commercially, but make sure you are getting a culinary grade.  Cosmetic grades of rosewater may have chemical addititives or may be entirely sythetic. 

Add essential oils in the right time and in the right amount.

For cooked dishes, essential oils are added at the very end of cooking, as you would wine (but in much, much smaller amounts!).  If you add the oils too early, they will cook off.  If you are adding oils to a non-cooked dish like salad dressing or ice cream, this is not an issue.

It can be a trick to get just the right number of drops.  If your recipe calls for two drops, and you accidentally put in three, you can ruin your dish.  Avoid this risk by transferring a couple of tablespoons of your dish to a small cup and mix the essential oils to the small cup, which you will then add back to your large container.  That way, if the dropper gets away from you, you have only lost a few tablespoons of your recipe rather than the whole batch.

Fresh herb or essential oil? Which is better for cooking?

In general, fresh herbs are a better choice if you have access to quality, aromatic herbs.  Sometimes this just is not possible, and a quality essential oil will do the trick.  Also, some people who cannot enjoy ground black pepper (due to gastric distess) find that they have no problem with essential oil black pepper.  The liquid nature of essential oils and hydrosols (recondensed water from essential oil distillation) offers very interesting possibilities for ice cream, cocktails and other foods and beverages where you want a smooth product with no herbal particles.