Toasted sesame oil is the finishing oil of the Korean kitchen: a teaspoon at the end of almost every vegetable side, soup and bowl of rice. Perilla oil, pressed from the seeds of the perilla plant, is its greener, grassier cousin, far higher in omega-3 fat and far quicker to go rancid. Korean cooks keep both and use them differently. Neither is for frying.
Start Here
- Perilla Oil Noodles (Deulgireum Makguksu) — four ingredients, ten minutes, cold (Nov 24)
- Sesame Oil vs. Perilla Oil: What the Omega-3 Claim Rests On — The Report (Nov 26)
- Five Toasted Sesame Oils, Read by the Label — Buying Guide (Nov 28)
- The Everyday Sesame Dressing — one jar, a week of salads and cold noodles (Nov 29)
Korean Pantry 101: Storage
Your sesame oil is probably fine. Your perilla oil probably isn’t. Here is the rule, and how to tell when an oil has turned.
- Sesame: dark cupboard, a year. Toasted sesame oil carries its own antioxidants from roasting. It keeps about a year in a dark cupboard, longer in the fridge (clouding is harmless).
- Perilla: fridge, two months. Perilla oil is mostly polyunsaturated fat with three double bonds, and it oxidizes fast. Buy a small bottle, keep it in the fridge, use it within about two months.
- Heat, light and air are the enemies, in that order. Not the cupboard over the stove, not a clear bottle on the windowsill. If yours came in clear plastic, decant it or keep it in the dark.
- Has it turned? Paint, crayons, old walnuts. That smell is oxidation. It won’t hurt you, but it will ruin the dish. Fresh sesame oil smells like toasted seeds; fresh perilla smells grassy and nutty.
- Color: darker means a deeper roast, not better oil. Korean brands run darker than Japanese: more aroma, more bitterness. Medium-dark is the most forgiving for finishing.
Using It
- Half to one teaspoon of sesame oil at the end of a dish, off the heat. More than that and it is all you taste.
- A tablespoon of perilla oil over cold noodles or blanched greens. Heating it also destroys the omega-3 you bought it for.
- Toasted sesame seeds, half-crushed, do what the oil does with more texture; the dressing uses both.
The five bottles we compared, with price per ounce, are in the Buying Guide; what the omega-3 claim about perilla oil actually rests on is the Report.
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