What Essential Oils Can Bring to the Kitchen

Essential oils and hydrosols have long been used in natural perfumes and touted for their healing benefits, but have you tried incorporating these ingredients into your cooking for their flavor?

If you’re like me, maybe you’ve tried using a natural essential oil-based facial cleanser or a hydrosol spray to moisturize your skin, but did you know that some people also cook with them? Below, we take a look at how these ingredients are actually made and how they make their way into the kitchen.

Why use them?

Consider these ingredients something to compliment your cooking and accent specific dishes. Essential oils lend unique, complex flavors that can’t be found in other forms of the same ingredient. For example: Lime essential oil will impart different qualities of flavor compared to using dried lime peel or fresh lime zest. Water-based hydrosols impart the mildest form of flavor so you’re able to play with dominant and supporting flavors. Spraying a ginger hydrosol onto a cocktail would taste completely different than using ginger juice in a recipe.

The 101

Essential oils and hydrosols come from plant distillation through steam. During this process, the steam pulls natural oils out of plants; the oils separate while the steam rises, condenses, and becomes water. The residual water is hydrosol and is very mild, since it’s mostly water. The concentrated oil left behind is the essence of the plant—the most intense flavor you can extract.

Shelf life is something else to think about. Herbs and spices are pantry staples for flavoring food but lose their kick over time. However, all essential oils (with the exception of citrus) maintain their flavor and last indefinitely, perfect for when you're in a bind with a dull herb in your spice rack or are missing a fresh ingredient at home. They’re also potent. Only 1, maybe 2 drops of an essential oil are needed to add a little oomph to a recipe.

Essential oils and hydrosols in your kitchen

Cookbooks have documented the usage of essential oils over the past three hundred years or more. Nowadays, chefs and bakers use essential oils and hydrosols in everything from sauces and salads, to chocolates and ice creams. I spoke with Mandy Aftel, co-author of The Art of Flavor and natural aromatics expert, to learn more about how we can cook with essential oils and hydrosols at home.

In The Art of Flavor, one of the goals is to help cooks be more attuned to the characteristics of ingredients. Aftel explains, “When flavors are close, think about how they’re different. Take lemons and limes for example: limes are piney and green, whereas lemons are bright and sharp—what complements those flavors?” By developing this understanding, it helps cooks foster confidence and imagination in the kitchen. A tip she recommends is limiting yourself to one or two different essential oils when cooking to highlight the ingredients and not overpower a dish.

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“Using these beautiful aromas will always lift your spirits!” Aftel told me, "but experimentation is just part of the fun." As a traditional pairing, Aftel likes to add basil essential oil to tomato sauce; for a surprising and delicious route, she recommends adding cinnamon essential oil instead. Ice cream is another popular way to incorporate essential oils into food. In fact, the first ice cream Jeni Britton Bauer, of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream, ever made was a spin on Mexican chocolate, which was chocolate ice cream combined with cayenne and cinnamon essential oils.

To try these oils at home, Aftel recommends the following: first, drip only 1 or 2 droplets onto a spoon to clearly see how much is coming out (don't over do it) and combine it with 1 cup of your cooking mixture. Taste it, do you like the flavor? Get a sense of the essential oil's strength and incorporate this slurry slowly into the entire batch, stirring and tasting as you go. Starting with a smaller batch allows for flexibility, and you won't ruin an entire batch of food if it's not a flavor you like! As an alternative, Aftel offers a line of Chef Sprays that are diluted with organic grain alcohol so that they can be sprayed onto food as desired; You can purchase hydrosols from other retailers for similar applications.

We're already brainstorming different ways we'd use them: cardamom oil to boost a chai tea, jasmine oil folded into a batch of butter cookies, a lemongrass oil in a meat marinade, or saffron sprayed onto roasted vegetables. But before you start exploring the wonderful world of essential oils, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Not all essential oils and hydrosols are created equal or meant for consumption. Look for high-quality, organic products. Like perfumes, there are synthetic and low quality products out there—you don’t want to eat them. Reference the FDA’s Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) list for approved ingredients.
• Do not consume essential oils on their own, they are meant to be used sparingly, diluted, and fully incorporated into food. Don't dash the oils into a glass of water (oil and water don’t mix), it won't taste good.
• Check with your suppliers and store ingredients properly.

Have you tried cooking with essential oils and hydrosols? Tell us about it in the comments. Happy experimenting!