Cooking and flavouring with essential oils

One drop of a citrus oil is roughly the aromatic weight of a whole peel. That is the whole appeal, and the whole problem. This hub gathers everything on the site about using essential oils in food — with the labelling rule that applies in Europe rather than the one that applies in Utah.

Start here: what the label allows

In the EU and the UK, an essential oil may go into food only if it is sold and labelled as a flavouring. Most of the doTERRA range is not. Several oils that American recipes treat as kitchen staples — Bergamot and Wild Orange among them — are not labelled that way here, which means an American recipe cannot simply be followed.

Everything below assumes you have checked the bottle first. The directory of all 78 oils records the European food-use status of each one.

The articles

Three rules that prevent most disasters

1. Dose in toothpicks, not drops. For strong oils — oregano, thyme, cinnamon, clove — dip a clean cocktail stick in the bottle and stir that through the dish. A drop is frequently four times too much.
2. Oil does not dissolve in water. It sits on top and the first mouthful gets all of it. Carry it in fat or sugar first: butter, cream, honey, oil, or the sugar in a bake.
3. Add it late. The volatile compounds you are paying for evaporate. Citrus and mint go in off the heat; only the resinous oils survive real cooking.

Which oils are worth having in a kitchen

Assuming they carry the right labelling in your market: lemon is the workhorse, peppermint for anything sweet, oregano and thyme in tiny amounts for sauces, lime for drinks, black pepper where you want warmth without grit. Everything else is a refinement.

Before you start

Read the safety page — particularly the section on which citrus oils make skin photosensitive, which matters if you are zesting and juicing by hand.

Read next

• Essential oil safety in Europe
• How to order, and how the points work
• The directory of all 78 oils