From the slime-covered rocks on the windswept beaches in Washington where I grew up, to the enormous strands of bull kelp that float in the Puget Sound, I’ve been fascinated by algae most of my life. It’s essential to the evolution of human life, as I recently learned thanks to David Attenborough-narrated documentary series Life on Our Planet, which explains that algae is solely responsible for producing Earth’s oxygenated atmosphere. In fact, algae was the first plant to adapt to life on land, and therefore every plant we see around us today evolved from it. It’s also one of the most prolific and fastest-growing plants on Earth — as Ruth Kassinger memorably puts in her book Slime, there are “more algae on the planet than stars in the universe.”
So when I heard that a company called Algae Cooking Club had released a new algae-based cooking oil, I was intrigued to say the least. The brand was generous enough to send me a bottle to test, and after using it more than a dozen times, I may never buy vegetable oil again.
Algae Cooking Club Algae Cooking Oil
Algae Cooking Club
It might be difficult to convince some cooks to entirely replace olive oil with algae oil, but in the past month I’ve been using it in my own home as a nearly foolproof replacement for vegetable oil, an ingredient I regularly use to coat muffin and loaf tins. Initially, I was nervous about using it in a baking application, as I assumed it would be herbaceous or vegetal. However, it did prove to be just as neutral as the brand claims, with just a hint of a savory, salty flavor. And it was just as effective as classic vegetable oil in keeping my pans nonstick during the baking process.
The brand also boasts that algae oil has a high smoke point (535°F) but every time I used it to fry an egg in an aluminum pan — almost every day for two weeks — the oil began to smoke within two or three minutes. However, it’s important to note that this didn’t impact the flavor of my food compared to using vegetable oil.
I’m not the only fan. Algae Cooking Club is also backed by Daniel Humm, the chef and owner of one of the best restaurants in the world, Eleven Madison Park. “It’s very pure, so it doesn’t impart any burnt, bitter or ‘off’ flavor at high heats. This is why we have been experimenting with it in our fried dishes at the restaurant, in particular,” Humm says l. I felt the same way after cooking my eggs — although they came out crispy, which is my preference, they didn’t taste burnt (or much like algae whatsoever).
“I also like that it doesn’t overpower delicate flavors — it tastes like what you are cooking,” Humm added. I noticed this was true when drizzling on a few splashes to a bowl of pasta — it let the pasta sauce, and fresh herb garnishes, shine through as the main flavors of the dish. And it’s extremely versatile — it can be used to sear, bake, roast, and even as an ingredient in salad dressings and dips — which also means it can replace olive, canola, and avocado oil, consolidating all the oils in your pantry into one easy-to-use option.
There’s one more thing I love about it, beyond its flavor and versatility. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest also gave me a deep appreciation for the natural world, and a fear that it is quickly disappearing thanks to climate change, which I often seek more sustainable ingredients to stock in my kitchen.
Using sources which include the TerraVia Sustainability Report, the brand determined that the production of Algae Cooking Club algae oil produces around half the carbon emissions of canola, avocado, and olive oil — and uses significantly less water and oil since it is not industrially farmed or harvested (instead, the company ferments microalgae in tanks, where over the course of several days it is transformed into oil).
Knowing that vegetable oil has a high carbon footprint, I’m considering permanently switching to Algae Cooking Club as a replacement. The only barrier is the price — $22 is an investment compared to the bottles of $2 canola oil that are widely available at the grocery store. That being said, with no differences in flavor or effectiveness, and major benefits to the environment, it’s undoubtedly worth trying — like me, you may find yourself becoming captivated by how essential algae is, and always has been, to our everyday lives.
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At the time of publishing the price was $22.
Dining and Cooking