I’m no expert on sesame oil by any means but I have found out enough basic information to know what to buy for cooking purposes. When I first shopped for it I was surprised to find there are different types to choose from. Some bottles were labeled sesame oil, some labels said sesame seed oil and others were labeled toasted sesame seed oil. I didn’t know what kind to buy.
First thing to know, sesame oil and sesame seed oil are the same thing. Don’t let that confuse you.
Sesame Oil is found in most of the larger grocery stores in my area. I find it with other cooking or salad oils.
There are 2 basic types: 1) Oil that has been extracted from raw sesame seeds and 2) Oil that has been extracted from sesame seeds that have been toasted first. They are vastly different in taste.
Sesame Seed Oil is sometimes labeled as Sesame Oil. It is oil that has been extracted from sesame seeds.
This light colored pressed seed oil has a mild flavor.
The dark oil is Toasted Sesame Seed Oil. As the name implies the oil is extracted from sesame seeds that have been toasted.
Toasted sesame seed oil has a strong, nutty and pungent taste.
So which one do you use?
The light colored untoasted oil has very mild sesame flavor and won’t significantly change the flavor of the dish. It is the better oil to use for cooking. Not only for the milder flavor, but it holds up better to heat and retains most of it’s health benefits.
The darker toasted seed oil has a very prominent and intense flavor. It can easily overtake other flavors. The composition of toasted oil changes with heat which can negatively effect the health benefits. With that said, it is absolutely delicious and in smaller amounts can really enhance a dish. The way to get that delicious flavor without the drawbacks, add a little to your finished dish before serving or add some to your individual serving. A little goes a long way.
Try them
Sesame oil and toasted sesame oil are a little pricey. Heck, they are squeezing oil from a tiny seed! It must take a lot of seeds to get a bottle of oil. The toasted oil is more costly than the sesame oil made from the raw seed. That makes sense. The more processing a product takes to make, the more it is going to cost.
If you can afford to buy a small bottle of each, that is probably the best way to find the flavor difference in the 2 oils. That’s what I did.
But wait .. there is another twist
I have started using sesame seed oil quite frequently. Since my grocery store does stock larger bottles of sesame oil, to save some money I started looking online. There are so many!
I had begun to think with my grocery store purchases that the color of the oil was the key to whether the seeds had been toasted or not. But that is not the whole story.
It seems true that the toasted oils are all dark in color and that’s logical. But I have seen some bottles of untoasted sesame seed oil darker than the light oils I get in my grocery store. And some sesame oils don’t come in glass bottles. So once again I was on my own to figure out what I wanted.
Dark, light and just right
I found the perfect middle ground. I think of it as my goldilocks find. It’s just right. It has a larger sesame flavor but it is not as concentrated as a toasted oil is. The oil I am using has been imported from Korea. I figured my best bet was buying an oil from a country which uses a lot of it and this was reasonably priced for the amount I was buying.
This is the oil I bought online. It was labeled “sesame oil“ and that is what I wanted for cooking. I was taking a gamble but it paid off. It is just what I was hoping for.
As you can see by the oil that I poured into the little dish in front of the can, it is not as light as the one I bought from the grocery store, and not as dark as the toasted oil.
It is more flavorful than the light oil, but not as intense as a toasted oil. It’s really really good.
This middle ground sesame oil. It is darker but it does not taste like toasted sesame oil. It may be a blended oil or perhaps the raw seed is processed differently. I included this oil to show that there are a range of sesame oils available. Perhaps if you have an Asian grocer in your area, you will find a larger selection and maybe people who can explain the oils they carry.
The bottom line is … if you are making a stir fry you want the lighter oil labeled sesame oil or sesame seed oil . If you find you like the toasted seed oil, add it to your dish after cooking.