This link may help to sort sesame oil out a bit for you: http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/toasted-sesame-oil-vs-sesame-oil-11158.html

I didn't realize there was a difference. I once made a recipe from The Pioneer Woman and used sesame oil and it totally ruined the noodles and tasted horrible! Now I know that I must have used the wrong type sesame oil, it was toasted tasting and very strong as in the way that liquid smoke is strong. Now if I use the sesame oil, I only put in maybe a teaspoon and that's just right. The Pioneer Woman recipe for Asian Noodles called for some ungodly amount like several tablespoons.

My only experience is with toasted sesame oil. Used with a very light hand (+/- teaspoonful ) as a flavoring ingredient in Asian style dishes, sauces, marinades. Purchase in small containers and store in the refrigerator. I've read that sesame oils can quickly turn rancid if not used or stored properly.

Thinking about it, I need to experiment with using tiny amounts of it outside of just Asian style cooking as a way to boost umami. For instance, I struggle with getting chili and tomato based sauces to taste rounded and full but less so after discovering that Marmite/ Vegemite are great ingredients to help fill up what I call 'holes in taste.'

After inspection of my bottle, it actually just says 100% Sesame Seed Oil. It doesn't say anything about "toasted". So now I don't know what I need to buy to use for oil that doesn't have that toasted taste.

I'm guessing not many recipes would call for non-toasted sesame oil. The word "toasted" is often not on the label, I guess it's implied. The PW recipe surely meant toasted, but she seems to really like the stuff so I'd start with a smaller amount and add to taste.

I've seen toasted mentioned specifically in some recipes, but the only sesame oil I see around here doesn't mention toasted at all. It all tastes the same to me, not overpowering, so I'm assuming it's not toasted.

I don't like the taste of smoke flavouring in barbecue sauces, so if toasted sesame offers an additional, strong flavour, I'll make sure not to use it.

IMHO toasted sesame oil is a flavoring - usually added at the end of preparing a dish. I love the stuff but too much is not good. Although my too much would be more than most people's too much. Lol.

When you get dumplings at a chinese there are a few drops of TSOil floating on the sauce. Or sesame noodles which have a lot of PB and a little TSOil.

And for what it's worth I don't think it tastes smoky or acrid but like toasted nuts. I have gotten stronger bottles. Either poor quality or different tastes.

Sesame oil is a completely different thing - very mild neutral flavor. Used in baking stir frying at the table.

Hope that helps.

Here is the recipe: http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/simple-sesame-noodles/

My husband and I both hated it. All you can taste is that toasted taste. Maybe the oil she uses is different. It is pictured in that link I give. What do y'all think? I have used my sesame oil since then and I only use about a teaspoon, that amount is good and gives it a nice yummy taste.

I think that recipe sounds yummy!....but it's toasted sesame oil she has used....I can tell by the color. Just plain old sesame oil looks like Wesson oil...almost colorless>
That's a huge recipe for sauce.....ought to dress several pounds of noodles. Maybe you had too much sauce on your noodles? Or perhaps your sesame oil was over the hill and rancid and bitter.

Or maybe a sensitive tongue... I once expressed fondness for green papaya salad to a Cambodian co-worker. She brought in a HUGE batch for me. Now I use fish sauce in a variety of dishes but this stuff was near inedible to me. Floating in really really fishy fish sauce. Politeness dictate I eat it for lunch but the leftovers were refrigerated until I could justify tossing. I asked several other SE Asian coworkers who thought it tasted fine. So it was me not the recipe.

Toasted is very strong. If you want to avoid that look for unrefined or cold pressed sesame seed oil.

And yet in the comments, one of the posters said that she doubles the sesame oil! That dressing doesn't sound too overpowering to me, but I would start with 1-2 tbsp of sesame oil. Then again, mine isn't toasted, I don't think. It's not clear like vegetable oil, it's definitely coloured.

I make a variation of this adaptation of Tyler Florence's recipe adding a couple tablespoons of peanut oil.

Tyler's Cold Sesame Noodles

the original

Tyler's recipe is more to my taste. Ree's recipe seems more like a personal late night snack, lol. Her sesame oil seems an odd one. Might be a hybrid, less toasted flavor. Could be a blend since i see no mention of 'toasted' on that label. Surprised she did not mention how many varieties their are. And definitely taste your oils before using! Especially something new, a new brand.

I would never add canola oil to an already oily dish. Especially an oil that has no flavor. Toasting a tbsp of raw sesame seeds will add so much to the finish dish. Fresh cilantro, green onion, toasted chopped pecans or almonds or peanuts. A squirt of sriacha to the soy...and i use a bit of RedBoat fish sauce.

And add fresh ginger!

Keep your toasted sesame oil in the fridge. It should never taste smoky. It should smell like fresh roasted seed/nuts. My few speciality oils are on the fridge drawer shelf.

I only buy toasted sesame oil, but I go through quite a bit of it, and so I buy it in fairly large amounts, in a metal can. If you do not like it, do not use it. You can substitute sesame seeds (toasted or not, to your preference) in place of the oil.

I generally do not follow recipes that tell you to "grab" ingredients or "throw" them in. I'm more gentle than that, unless I'm kneading dough. I would be afraid of spilling something if I threw it. I do like some of PW's recipes, but she always makes huge quantities, it seems.

The main thing I use toasted sesame oil for is making hummus. It is difficult to find roasted tahini in stores, and to compensate for the loss of flavor in plain tahini, I add toasted sesame oil. Plum Market in Michigan has it, however.

I use regular, not toasted, sesame oil in a lot of dishes, FOAS! Bourekes are positively swimming in it. Lots of Middle Eastern foods are. You can substitute other oils, if necessary, but the light viscosity and sesame flavor, are very specific. It's also great for a sauté.

I use Japanese sesame oil as a flavoring, as others have stated above.

The label on mine is: Mogami Japanese Toasted Sesame oil. Definitely says 'toasted'. Mine is a medium amber color and not nearly as dark as the stuff PW has.

PW's recipe calls for 3 T. sesame oil in 12 oz of noodles.

Tyler's recipe is 1 T. sesame oil in 1 pound of noodles.

Big difference.

Cilantro, Tyler's recipe calls for 3 TB. It's the blogger who made an adaptation of his recipe who only used 1 TB. Smart call if you're using toasted sesame oil.

We love the Pioneer Woman recipe. I use two tablespoons of toasted sesame oil. I toss in a bunch of stir fried chicken and vegetables.

Yeh, my mistake, Cindy. Tyler's (original) recipe does call for 3 T. in 12 oz. of pasta, so the same as PW. The blogger adapted it to only 1 T. in one pound of pasta. She used 1/4 of the am't. called for originally. I agree that starting with waaay less is the thing to do, too. Taste & adjust.

Kinda' off track but I see the same thing with a lot of recipes calling for a whole lot more cilantro than what I consider enough. The recipe will ask for 1/4 cup and I start with a sprig or so...I want cilantro to complement the other ingredients and not dominate them. Another potent one is fresh basil...I sneak up on it, too. A little basil is OK. But pesto, to me, is inedible. Ditto cumin---always start with about 1/4 of the recipe am't and almost never add any more to that. And fish sauce, mentioned above, is pure rot. I've tried it twice, two different brands. The second time, I made sure to the the 'good kind' as recommended on some forums. OMGawful. Couldn't even pour it on the compost heap because of all the salt and didn't want to stink up the house by pouring it down the drain!!

Thanks plllog. I'm not sure I've ever used non-toasted. My impression was that it was a fairly neutral oil, though possibly with its own nuances not one that would be described as PW did:

"Next comes sesame oil, which is one of my top ten favorite culinary scents of all time. It’s seriously up there with rosemary, cilantro, and baking bread. Sesame oil makes everything delicious."

Am I correct?

I find a big difference in the amount of flavor in toasted sesame oils. I usually buy Spectrum Naturals organic, which it's very mild - I always have to use more than I think. When I buy from the Asian market, some of them are very pungent. I usually find the darker they are the more flavor they have. Like Linda says, plain, refined sesame oil is light pale yellow, like a cooking oil. It's supposed to be a healthy oil for high temp cooking.

Sesame oil (regular, not toasted) is a healthy oil but not for high heat. The smoke point is below 410° F. There are different levels of refinement which makes it variable depending on the oil, and can be as low as 350°. Sauté, not stir fry.

Yes, FOAS, it's not that. It's just oil. It also needs to be used fresh and turns rancid fast. That's probably why more people don't use it. If you can tell the difference between the flavor of safflower or canola or soybean oil, or whatever your neutral oil is, and peanut oil, you should notice the difference with sesame. As I said, it's not as viscous, which means you can brush it on more thinly, and it seeps better. And it has that sesame flavor. But past that, it's just cooking oil.

Thanks, plllog. That explains it. I've been very puzzled by the --to me--very large amounts of sesame oil in these recipes, since I find that even a few drops makes a huge flavor difference, but I mostly buy toasted sesame oil at our local Asian Market, so presumably I'm used to the more pungent variety.

Lars, I've actually been to Plum Market, I didn't know to look for roasted sesame tahini. Maybe we'll go back, although it's a four hour drive, one way. Perhaps we'll have time when we are visiting Elery's kids sometime.

Annie

Writersblock, you're very welcome. They're totally different products and cannot substitute for each other.

I'm not going to attempt to address everyone, but thank you all for your contribution to this discussion. Grainlady, Thanks for the link-that was pretty straightforward and easy to understand the differences between plain, cold pressed and toasted and the ways they each are best used. From the rest of you, I've learned that: I probably should taste before using, use sparingly, ones from Asian markets may be more pungent, refrigerate, can add sesame seeds (toasted or not) to dishes instead of the oil and links to a couple of recipes to try, should I be so inclined. Thanks again! Liz

Fwiw, I buy toasted sesame oil at trader joe's, or at least I have done so in the past. Toasted is. STRONG. Call it assertive.

Here's the one I have made a few times. It was from Yahoo and seems to be a lot like Tyler's above. I add sesame seeds also. I haven't tried it with Tahini, but I'm sure it would be better. It's not as good as what I used to get in the NY. restaurants (the local Chinese restaurants don't offer it,) but it's a good no-frills estimation.

Btw... the peanut butter absorbs the flavor of the toasted sesame oil. Without it (or tahini) the toasted sesame oil is going to be strong.

"Cold Sesame Noodle:

1 lb Spaghetti or Linguini (cooked, drained, rinsed w/cold water)

Red Bell Pepper, thinly sliced (qty up to you)

Snow Peas, thinly sliced (qty up to you)

1/2 C Peanut Butter

1/3 C Water

1/4 C Rice Vinegar (not the "flavored" kind)

1/4 C Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp Toasted Sesame Oil

1 Jalapeno Chile, chopped (seeds & veins optional)

1/4 tsp Salt

2 Garlic Cloves

DIREX:

1. Prepare the bell pepper and snow peas.

2. Cook spaghetti. Drain, rinse with cold water, and drain again. Transfer to a large bowl.

3.
In the blender or food processor, blend together the peanut butter,
water, rice vinegar, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil, jalapeno chile,
salt, and garlic cloves. Thoroughly scrape the contents and distribute
evenly to coat the noodles and vegetables.

That's
it! I would add a little ground black pepper since the jalapeno won't
set off the heat I want (I'd use a small serrano chile, which is
definitely much hotter). This recipe seems very flexible...you can add
sliced scallions (i.e., green onion), julienne or matchstick carrots,
peanuts or almonds or cashews, toasted sesame seeds, cooked cubed
chicken or spam (I know, right?!)...use your imagination. Bon appetit
and happy cooking!"

It's served cold? Cold noodles doesn't sound good to me, am I missing something?

Cold noodles is just like pasta salad, arkansas_girl.

Not really cold...warm or room temp. I prefer warm. Does not need to be 'hot'.

Before i made my own, we would get take-out. Delish right out of the container at a warm room temp. Or a blast minute in the micro. Not cold fridge temp.

Thanks for the recipe, rgreen48. I love Asian food, but usually eat it out; may have to try these. They do seem simple enough.

Yeah, like writersblock says, it's more noodle 'salad' than soup. Ramen would be an example of the Asian (Japanese) noodle soup, but this is more along the lines of noodles in a thick salad dressing. And as sleenendog says, it's usually served at room temp. and considered as an appetizer. If you ever get to try the traditional at a good Chinese restaurant with the Asian noodles instead of spaghetti, you'll have a real treat. I'm honestly not sure if the traditional has soba, rice, or another noodle, but with the taste of the sesame involved, the spaghetti/linguini is a good substitute.

Yw lizbeth, if you like sesame, this is very easy to make, healthy, and delicious. I'll have to try the ones Cindy linked to above.

What we love are the noodles that they have at the Chinese restaurant such as in the buffet, nothing fancy, just the big old pile of lo mein noodles. I have yet to replicate that taste, it looks very simple but it has a really yummy taste. I don't even know what sort of a noodle they use. It doesn't appear to be just a regular old spaghetti noodle although that is the shape of the noodle.

I have yet to replicate that taste...

Yeh, I've tried but can't do it, Arkansas girl. If it's that smoky flavor you're after, after researching it, I learned that flavor is referred to as 'wok hay'. You just about gotta' have a commercial wok burner to be able to vaporize the oil/ oyster sauce and sustain the heat to infuse the pasta with that flavor. Commercial wok burners run at around +/- 100,000 BTU's. Closest you can get at home would be with a +/- 50K turkey fryer burner. Outdoors, of course. Maybe could do w/ very small quantities? Dunno because I haven't tried it.

If you try w/ an outdoor burner, do let us know how it goes?!

No, I wouldn't go to all that much trouble just for noodles. I think I'll just buy some take out! HA! No it's not the smoky flavor that I'm after at all, in fact, I didn't even realize it had a smoky flavor until that incident with the sesame oil and having too much smoky flavor. I then paid attention to the noodles from the restaurant and did notice there was a tiny bit of the sesame oil flavor...but just slightly noticeable and only if you are tasting for it.