Algae Oil is the Cooking Oil of the Future: Here's Everything You Need to Know

The new cooking oil you didn’t know you needed.

There’s a new cooking oil in town, folks. Algae oil has recently made waves in the cooking world in part to Algae Cooking Club, a brand new algae-based cooking oil. The brand has offered homecooks a sustainable, delicious option for everyday cooking and—if you want to learn more about using this exciting oil in the kitchen, keep reading.

What Is Algae Oil?

Algae oil is a plant-based cooking oil that is extracted from microalgae and is full of omega-9 fats that are not only beneficial for cooking, but also excellent for your brain health. It offers similar nutrients as fish oil, while being suitable for vegan diets.

What Does Algae Oil Taste Like?

Unlike fish oil, algae oil has a much more neutral taste—something that Algae Cooking Club describes as “light, neutral, and just a little buttery,” without tasting or feeling greasy at all. That means it won’t overpower anything that you are cooking. Its neutral taste coupled with its incredibly high smoke point of 535 degrees F means that it can go beyond skillet use and be used for marinades, frying, baking, and even in salad dressings.

How is Algae Oil Made?

As mentioned, algae oil is composed of tiny single-cell organisms known as microalgae. At Algae Cooking Club, they are fermented in huge stainless steel tanks rather than harvested from nature. The microalgae in the tanks are fed sugar that it converts to oil over time.

Within a few days the microalgae converts into about 80 percent oil before they are pressed—separating the oil from the algae—leaving the cooking oil ready to be used.

This process is much more sustainable than other cooking oils on the market because according to the Algae Cooking Club site, “Algae has roughly half the carbon emissions compared to Avocado, Canola, and Olive Oil. It uses just a fraction of the land and water required by many traditional crops and is largely shielded from the impacts of climate change.”

Read the original article on All Recipes.