Why sesame oil is worth buying

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INGREDIENT DEEP DIVE 🍳

Sesame oil

What is it?

Sesame oil is an oil pressed from sesame seeds, most commonly used as a seasoning rather than a cooking fat. There are two main types you’ll see:

Toasted sesame oil has a dark amber color and is made from toasted seeds. It is intensely aromatic and used in small amounts for flavor
Light or untoasted sesame oil is pale in color, has a neutral aroma, a higher smoke point, and is used more like a standard cooking oil (less common in Western groceries)

When people say “sesame oil,” they almost always mean the toasted kind, the one that smells like instant takeout.

You’ll find it in the Asian or international aisle, usually in small bottles (which is ideal, you don’t use much at a time)

Buying tip: Look for bottles labeled “toasted” or “100% or pure sesame oil.”

What’s its flavor?

Aroma: Deeply toasted, nutty, unmistakable

Texture: Can add a final glossy sheen to dishes

Human: One of the most recognizable ingredient smells that transports you to the world of Asian food

Why should you buy some?

A few drops can completely change the flavor of a dish. If you want to start making Asian food, you’ll quickly have to pick some up, and it’s worth it:

A small bottle lasts a long time (keep it sealed and ideally in the fridge to protect the aroma)
It adds instant aroma to rice, noodles, proteins, sauces, marinades, and vegetables with zero extra effort

When using, always drizzle on at the end of cooking to preserve its aromas. The sesame oil smell can easily “cook off” if added too early!

What can you make with it?

Finish stir-fries, fried rice, or noodle dishes right before serving
Soy sauce + sesame oil + vinegar = instant dipping sauce
Drizzle over eggs, dumplings, vegetables, or rice bowls
Add a few drops to soups or broths at the very end
Fry scallion pancakes in it

FRAMEWORK OF THE WEEK ✅

Stir-fry sauce

Soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil alone can make an aromatic stir-fry sauce, but you can follow this recipe or customize with extra seasonings like chile flakes for heat.

A great use case for sesame oil is to combine it with other pantry staples to make an all-purpose stir-fry sauce.

Make a batch of this stuff and you can quickly whip up noodles, stir fried vegetables, or even as a fried rice seasoning shortcut.

You’ll find even more sesame oil recipes like cold sesame noodles, three cup chicken, and egg drop soup on our app:

See more on the App

READER Q&A 🧠

Preheating the oven

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Question: “Do you really need to preheat the oven?” - Preston R.

Answer: Sometimes yes. Other times it’s not actually necessary!

In baking and quick cooking applications, you need food to be hit with immediate, consistent high heat.

Baked goods like cakes, muffins, cookies, and biscuits rely on ‘oven spring,’ an initial blast of heat that activates leaveners and sets the structure of the crumb. No preheat = flatter, denser results, especially in the case of biscuits or cookies, where butter can seep out before the dough cooks through.
Same goes for quick, high-heat roasting. Tossing vegetables into a cold oven means they’ll slowly warm up, steam, and stick before they ever brown.

Pro move: For roasting, preheat your sheet pan while the oven heats. Add oil & vegetables to the hot pan, and you’ll hear an instant sizzle, meaning less sticking and dramatically better browning.

Other situations matter far less.

Braising, for example, is a long, slow process. The pot and the meat are going to come up to temperature gradually anyway. You can put a Dutch oven into a cold oven and let everything rise together — it won’t ruin the dish.

In fact, when cooking items where rendering fat is needed (like bacon or chicken thighs), a slow temperature climb can actually help. Starting in a cold oven or cold pan gives fat a head start to melt away gently.

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