Welcome to cooking essentially, a website devoted entirely to cooking with essential oils

Cooking with essential oils is all about flavor! It's just that simple. Take a look at some recipes to get you started, and experience for yourself just how many ways there are to use essential oils to bring new life to recipes you may have been cooking for years. For example, a spaghetti sauce using basil essential oil; oatmeal cookies come alive with a drop of ginger and dried apricots; salad dressings that would be very complicated using fresh herbs and spices become easy to create with just a drop of the right oil.

Every recipe in this section have been created and tested by cooking essentially to make sure they will work for you.

The world of essential oils can be confusing and overwhelming when you first begin using them in cooking, but once you get the hang of it, a bold new world of possibilities comes available to explore!

In the articles section you can read about some of the nuances and mysteries of essential oils, such as: how to store the oils so they stay fresh as long as they can; what to look for when purchasing oils (don't be fooled by inexpensive oils) so you get what you're expecting; tips on using the essential oils in recipes and converting a recipe to use essential oils; some geeky stuff like the chemical composition of some oils, and how they react in recipes; and on and on as our article section grows.

For quick reads, take a look at the chef's table blog in the articles section; there you will find little tips and tricks and cool things that we learn along the way on our adventure.

If you have any questions or comments, let us know in the comments section under each article; maybe we'll make an article in answer to your question!

Does every lemon essential oil taste alike? Does it matter whether I use steam distilled or CO2 extracted ginger essential oil for my cookies? Will steam distilled black pepper taste just like using fresh pepper when I cook with it?

In the oils section there are culinary profiles of more than 30 different essential oils (as soon as we get them on here), and the different extraction types we found for each. Some oils have more than four types of extraction methods available, and we have tried the ones we can find. Each essential oil profile will give you a good idea of what you can expect from that oil and extraction type; and, if you're wondering where to buy that oil that you saw on a recipe that sounded so good, as our list of businesses grows, we will include resources for each essential oil extraction type, depending on whether the business chooses to be listed under specific oil extraction types, or generally listed.

Finding quality oils can be daunting if you don't know what to look for. Finding a company you can trust is worth it's weight in gold. Cooking essentially checks each company before it approves them to be listed in this section, giving you a list of companies for you to choose from that you can trust.

You can find companies by the oils they carry, their name, and even at the bottom of recipes; We try to make your choices convenient to find, and easy to get in touch with. Each listing takes you to their own page on cooking essentially, and you can get to their website from that page.

the members area includes a place to share your recipes, and a discussion area where you can ask questions and find out little tips from other people who cook with essential oils.

all about cooking essentially including: our history and philosophy; how to contact us; advertising policies and how to advertise with us; our privacy policy; and our website design.