I have already written a hand-out for  Tips on Cooking with Essential Oils. I will expand on this a bit. I have gotten the question many times: Why cook with essential oil when I already have the herb, spice, etc.?  Good point. Sometimes you may find you would rather use the actual plant material. Quality Essential oils offer convenince, less loss of potency, and I think cheaper on the pocket book. You do not have to replace them as often.  Sweet Basil is usually in season in the summer. When you want to use it winter, take out your essential oil. Most of your dried herbs and spices only last 6 months to possibly a 1 year. You do not have to worry about this with essential oils. You never have to go without flavor all year long.

In many aromatherapy circles it is frowned upon to ingest oils. I agree for the most part. Many of the essential oils are for topical medical use only and should not be ingested. I focus on the culinary herbs/spices that have an equivalent essential oil. When you cook with them, you are spreading the concentration over a volume of food. If you use to0 much, it is inedible. Good rule of thumb TASTE TASTE TASTE after each drop you add. You can always add more, but its hard to take away. I advise using a spoon at first. Drop your oil onto the spoon in case too much comes out of the bottle. Drop the essential oil from the spoon onto the food. It adds a nice safety measure and you do not ruin your food.

The care of essential oils is important in the kitchen. You could possibly expose them to heat and oxidation. If you have a hot kitchen, I would suggest keeping them in the pantry or even the refrigerator. Remember to always keep the caps on after use. This will keep the longevity of the oils.

The oils I have listed on the Tips Page are not the only oils you can cook with and through this blog I will explore with more essential oils. Some may work others may not. For example Rose Otto Essential Oil (not the Absolute) and Lavender are two I would like to explore more. I have only tried cooking with Lavender Essential Oil once. It did not turn out as I planned. Well actually my creation was horrible.  Rose may just be too cost prohibitive to use in cooking, but it could be interested to make your own floral water. Most of the stuff on the commercial market is horrible.

Essential Oils roughly translates into 1 teaspoon of herb or spice to 1 drop of oil.  There are exceptions like Oregano and Thyme Essential Oil depending what you are cooking may need to be cut with a cooking oil.  When we introduce recipes I will explain that more.

Next week I will post a recipe using Anise Seed Essential Oil.

Happy Cooking