Thanks to its extremely high smoke point and neutral flavor, algae oil earned a spot on our Taste of Home Awards list. Here's how I cook with it.
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As soon as I heard the claims about nonstick pans, I decided to make the switch to stainless steel. Apparently, some older nonstick pans aren’t safe to cook with because they contain PFAs that could flake off into your food during high-heat cooking. Between searing and sauteeing, there’s a lot of high-heat cooking happening in my pans. I knew cooking with stainless steel requires a bit of finesse, but as long as I followed the proper steps, everything would be OK, right?
No matter how perfectly I followed the rules (yes, my water danced in the pan before I added oil), my food would stick and the oil would burn, making my house smell terrible and setting off the smoke alarm. I tucked my stainless steel pan away and begrudgingly took out the nonstick pan once again. Just as I came to terms with my fate, algae cooking oil from Algae Cooking Club showed up on my doorstep.
Algae Cooking Oil
I Was Skeptical About the Claims
Algae oil was new to me. I didn’t know we evolved to the point of extracting oil from microalgae. Why were we doing that?
As it turns out, algae oil has the lowest amount of polyunsaturated fats, which means it has the highest smoke point of any cooking oil on the market so far, coming in at a truly unheard of 535°F. When oils contain a high amount of polyunsaturated fats, they break down more easily at high heat, causing the oil to smoke, creating an unpleasant flavor and leaving food behind in the pan.
Because algae oil has a high smoke point (thanks to its low polyunsaturated fat content), people online recommend using it in a stainless steel pan. The oil could work with a stainless steel pan to reach higher temps, allowing me to get a nice sear on a steak without setting off the smoke alarm, cook a chicken breast without leaving the crust on the pan and, most importantly, cook scrambled eggs without creating a film on the bottom.
Dusting off my stainless steel pan, I thought, “I’ll be the judge of that.”
So I Put Algae Cooking Oil to the Test
My biggest stainless steel pan fail happens when I cook scrambled eggs. By the time the eggs are done, half the mixture is stuck to the pan. So it seemed like the perfect first test for algae oil.
I prepped my pan, following every rule for cooking with stainless steel: Preheat the pan, check that it’s ready by adding a drop of water, add the oil, and wait for the oil to shimmer. Once the algae cooking oil looked nice and shiny, I poured in the whisked eggs. I’m not a low-and-slow scrambled eggs person (sorry, Gordon Ramsay), so I knew I had to get the eggs moving right away. As soon as I started to push my rubber spatula against the eggs, I saw it: the bottom of the stainless steel pan with no egg film left behind.
I really couldn’t believe it. I finished cooking the eggs, turned them onto my plate and stared at the exceptionally clean, egg-free stainless steel pan. It worked.
But How Did It Taste?
My stainless steel pan didn’t have a film of cooked eggs on the bottom. Win. But surely algae oil would leave a clashing taste or, at the very least, turn bitter during high-heat cooking like olive oil can. I decided to skip salt, pepper or chives on the eggs so I could detect as much nuanced flavor as possible. But each bite proved that I was only tasting the creamy scrambled eggs, with maybe a hint of butter (which I did not add). Zero bottom-of-the-sea, kelp-y flavors were present.
I shouldn’t have been surprised, since Algae Cooking Club promises a neutral-flavored oil that’s light and a little buttery—and I had already read that the texture and flavor are so perfect for cooking, chef Daniel Humm of the Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park can’t live without it.
Ever since that scrambled egg test, I’ve used algae cooking oil (and my stainless steel pan!) whenever I cook. It’s such a treat to break out my stainless steel cookware with confidence. And that’s why I had to give it a Taste of Home Award.
Where Can I Buy Algae Cooking Oil?
Algae Cooking Club sells algae oil on its website. I’ve spotted it at Sprouts, and it’s available at some Target, Erewhon and H-E-B locations, plus independent kitchen and homeware boutiques. Check the store locator to find it near you.
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