Spring For The Good Sesame Oil Already - Taste Cooking

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Depending on what you buy, the nutty oil can bring a whole world of nuance to your cooking.

Years ago, a non-Asian chef shared a “secret” for cooking “Asian food”: toasted sesame oil. He wasn’t all wrong. If soy sauce—in all its forms—is the salt of East Asian pantry staples, toasted sesame oil might be the black pepper. The fragrant, amber-colored oil is a critical element in shaping a great number of savory dishes—find it drizzled over steamed whole fish, marinated into chicken, dressing cucumbers, and finishing any stir-fry or noodles you can fashion. And, while it may be a lazy hack for recipe developers looking to anoint a dish “Asian,” toasted sesame oil does have a transformational effect, imbuing dishes with an unmistakable nutty aroma.

Yet stroll through an average grocery store—even the almighty American Asian supermarket—and you’ll only find a sparse few options for toasted sesame oil. This is a shame, because there’s a huge variety of sesame oil quality and type—due to the different processing methods, seed types and origins, and toasting levels used. And for some chefs, there’s no substitute for high-quality sesame oil.

“Cheaply processed sesame oil may have a strong scent, but it will have a bitter flavor, and the scent will disappear quickly. Properly made sesame oil will have a delicious, sweet, and nutty aroma that comes from the toasted sesame seeds, and none of the bitterness,” says Hooni Kim, chef-owner of the Michelin-starred Danji and author of My Korea.

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