Using essential oils in cookery

IndigoBlue

Just wondered if anyone knows if there are special grade essential oils for use with food, or if the aromatherapy-type would be ok? Oils like lemon, orange etc. The ones I've seen in the health shop said external use only but I haven't seen any separate food-grade ones anywhere apart from peppermint, which is not a flavour I'm looking for. I've been able to find various sites online where they talk about using all kinds of different oils but no info on if they are the same as the aromatherapy ones. Obviously I'm not going to use ylang ylang in my yogurt! :rolleyes:

cruizer101

They seem to be called floavor oils more than essential oils, a lot of the time they are advertised as being lip balm oils, but they say safe to consume.

I'd guess the essential oils in the likes of boots or that wouldn't be food grade, you never know but wouldn't try till you can definitly confirm.

http://www.sensoryperfection.co.uk/store/WsDefault.asp?Cat=FlavourOils

Faith

You can definitely buy essences - lemon essence etc. Can I ask why you wouldn't just use the juice or rind of the fruit though?

IndigoBlue

I've seen the essences, but was looking for something more organic. I was going to use it mainly in home made soya yogurt so I was afraid that lemon juice might make it curdle and wreck all my hard work!

Oh, and I also didn't want to dilute it down any further as I'm going for the greek-style and thought a couple of drops of essential lemon oil would do the job nicely

cruizer101

The other thing about the oils is there are potentially 100's of flavours you could have access too. I remember seeing a documentary, maybe jimmys food factory, where they were showing some of the oils available, and there was a staggering range. That said the context there was for food manufacturers so probably limited in what a consumer can get their hands on.

The Sweeper

I personally wouldn't use essential oils in cooking as they're extremely concentrated. They're also produced using equipment and techniques that aren't designed to produce food-grade end products. If I were trying to add an orange or lemon flavour to a dairy-based foodstuff and was afraid of making it split, I'd use zest. Citrus zest is extremely flavoursome and shouldn't split or curdle dairy or eggs the way juice would.

IndigoBlue

Thanks for that, I did in the end find a site in the uk that sells food-grade organic essential oils, (NHR Organic Essential oils) they have an amazing range but expensive, though I dare say worth it for best quality. Who knew there was essential oil of black pepper!? And literally a toothpick drop size is the dosage apparently.
I think I will splash out on a couple of organic lemons/oranges and use the zest, hadn't occured to me before, dimwit that I am!

Minder

MSK for all your food grade chemicals.

http://www.msk-ingredients.com/products.php?pid=27

But as you said, extremely expensive.