AROMATHERAPY - Chapter XI by Deborah Dolen
Cooking with Essential Oils
Excerpt How to Make Perfume and Aromatherapy Basics Copyright © Deborah Dolen 2011 This e-book is available in full version on Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook. By Deborah Dolen Mabel White
Essentials in the Kitchen - Cooking with Essential Oils Most of our use in cooking with essential oils, such as Rose and/or Lavender Jelly, will simply be stirring them into salts, sugar, fats (such as butter, ice cream) and jellies. I feel this is the prudent way to become familiar with the use of essential oils in the kitchen as well as the most delicate approach to enjoying them. Keep in mind you will be using the amount on the end of a tooth pick for most. Using essential oils 'clicked' in my head one day when I was looking at $20 a pound 'Gourmet' cooking salt that was from France, and another for $32 a pound from Spain, wishing I could buy them all. (That is half a kilo for our neighbors to the north and across the Atlantic.) I ended up buying a $6 a pound 'Bolivian Rose' sea salt because it was a pretty pink--and the only one I could afford. The pink in the Bolivian salt comes from shrimp brine, and in Hawaii the pink originates from volacnic ash. Gourmet salts such as these can be full of some interesting nutrients. But they are expensive and "afford" is the operative word here. I was thrilled the Rose salt did seem to make the food 'taste' better, although we ARE funny creatures. The mind is a VERY powerful thing indeed. For all I know the salt was scraped off a camels ass with a Capital One credit card.
The salt from France called 'Fleur de Sell' proclaimed to have some natural touch of 'lavender' or 'flower' and that's when the use of Essential oils really went rampant in my head. Beyond stirring in fleurs--we could probably stir in a drop of black pepper EO and call it 'Peppercorn eau de Salt.' TRUST we will make some fascinating salt blends, so the main thing you need is a quality sea salt and totally cute containers to keep our Gourmet salt in sight! You can even use small mason jars if you have them. Over time the salt may corrode them though. We will use a forum to share recipes and consult when we are cooking for the holidays.
*The recipes are in the book. They will not line up properly here anyway.
SOURCES
http://www.amazon.com/Deborah-Dolen/e/B00457BI2S
http://deborahdolen.blogspot.com/2011/07/aromatherapy-chapter-xii-by-deborah.html
http://deborahdolen.blogspot.com/2011/07/aromatherapy-xiii-by-deborah-dolen.html
http://open.salon.com/blog/deborah_dolen_1/2011/07/11/aromatherapy_-_chapter_i_-_by_deborah_dolen
Hi Deborah,
ReplyDeleteI've just discovered your blog and am enjoying it very much! Above you talk about ensuring that essential oils used in cooking are of the highest quality, and recommend asking suppliers if oils C02 extracted or solvent extracted. I understand why oils taken internally should not be solvent extracted, but I always thought C02 was safe -- in fact many C02 extracted oils are being sold specifically for use in food (I have a few). Can you please clarify or explain further? I wouldn't want to use something that is unsafe... Many thanks!