Cooking with Essential Oils

At Frontier, we have decided not to label essential oils for use in cooking. Aromatherapy and food use require different labels. In order to insure safe use of essential oils in cooking, labels need to include directions for using each essential oil. Aromatherapy uses are very different and labeling needs to reflect that. There is not enough space on the label for adequate information on both food and aromatherapy uses, and if there were, labels with such disparate uses might be confusing to the consumer and give a mixed message. In our experience, consumers are used to cooking with baking flavors or extracts and don't always understand that an essential oils cannot be substituted at the same quantity in their recipes as the extract.

Essential oils are, however, used extensively in the production of commercial food products to add flavor. They work really well in some products because they disperse evenly and don't add any color or particles to the food. Some common food items that use essential oils as flavorings are pickles, candies and gum, prepared foods and beer.

Our oils can be used for cooking, just as any other pure GRAS (generally recognized as safe for human consumption) essential oil. Amounts vary depending on the oil but as a general guideline, 1 or 2 drops of oil can be substituted for each teaspoon of spice in a recipe. Not all essential oils give the same flavor to the food as the spice. Black pepper oil, for instance, does not contain piperine, the constituent responsible for the characteristic pepper bite. And not all essential oils should be use in cooking. Spice oils such as allspice, nutmeg and cinnamon and herb oils such as peppermint and spearmint that are commonly used for flavoring can be used sparingly to add flavor to food. It is best to consult a reference or cookbook on oils and quantities to use in cooking.

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