In article >,
The Newbie > wrote:
>I am a dreaded newbie in this NG since I 've decided to take over cooking in
>this household. I've done a fair amount of reading on the Net and have
>learned a great lot in the last few weeks. So far I'm pleased with myself
>although I can see it will take time.
>
>One thing had been bothering me......fish. I often hear to use a few drops
>of lemon oil. Looking around in our local grocery all I find is Lemon
>Extract in the spice section. That's not the same is it?
>
>Perhaps I'm just looking in the wrong section. I could of course buy a few
>lemons and use them but from what I can see it's available bottles.

Lemon oil and lemon extract are NOT the same thing.

Unless your local grocer is exceptional, you would probably not find lemon
oil there. Fancy grocers, "gourmet" shops (food/kitchenwares), some more
enlightened natural food shops, and baking specialists would be better bets.

The oil I have is made by Boyajian. (The 1 oz bottle is often packaged
as a set with orange and lime oils.) It is highly concentrated. As an
example, I use 1 teaspoon (scant even) to flavor 3/4 lb of chocolate for
ganache (truffle filling) and it is fairly lemony.

I would substitute it for fresh lemon zest (sometimes even here in
California I don't always have a fresh lemon to hand ... pretty rare
though ;-). I will say that it's likely to disperse better in something
where liquid is central than zest.

If a recipe calls for extract, oil might make it taste more LEMONY,
although I'd be careful about substituing exact amounts because of the
concentration. ("Halve and taste" would be a good rule, I think.)

Charlotte
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