Hazelnut oil rewards a little know-how: how to choose it, cook it, store it, and substitute in a pinch. Browse 15 recipes to cook with it.

What is hazelnut oil?

Hazelnut oil is pressed from roasted hazelnuts, and it is one of the most intensely flavored oils a kitchen can hold. A few drops smell and taste of toasted hazelnut so clearly that people often guess the ingredient on the first bite.

This is a finishing oil, full stop. You do not cook in it; you add it at the end so its aroma reaches the plate intact.

The good bottles come from France, where roasted-hazelnut oil is a regional specialty. They are pricey, but the flavor is so concentrated that a teaspoon does the work of a glug of something blander.

How to Use Hazelnut Oil

Keep it off the heat. Hazelnut oil has a low smoke point and a fragile aroma, so warming it past gentle is enough to flatten the very thing you paid for.

Its home is the vinaigrette. It turns up in dressings like a Citrus Vinaigrette with Hazelnut Oil and an Orange Hazelnut Vinaigrette, where its sweet roastiness plays off sharp citrus and vinegar.

Because the flavor is so strong, most cooks cut it with a neutral oil, using one part hazelnut to two or three parts mild oil so it perfumes a dressing without overwhelming it. That balance is exactly what dresses an Apple, Fennel & Celery Root Salad with Hazelnut Vinaigrette.

It also lifts cold and gently warm dishes beyond salads. A thread of it finishes a Layered Vegetable Terrine, and a spoonful folded into cake batter or drizzled over roasted vegetables carries a deep toasted-nut note.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

Hazelnut oil loves the flavors that already go with hazelnuts: chocolate, coffee, pears and apples, brown butter, roasted roots, and bitter greens. Citrus is its best friend in a dressing.

The first mistake is heating it.

Sauteing or frying in hazelnut oil burns off its aroma and leaves a flat, slightly bitter fat, which is a waste of an expensive bottle.

The second mistake is using it neat and too heavily. Undiluted, it can bully every other flavor in a dish, so blend it down and add it sparingly until you know how loud your bottle is.

Substitutes

Walnut oil is the closest swap, with a similar finishing role, though it tastes more tannic and less sweet than hazelnut. Toasted almond oil is milder but works where you just want a gentle nuttiness.

If you have none of those, whisk a neutral oil with a spoonful of finely ground toasted hazelnuts and strain it, or simply scatter chopped toasted hazelnuts over the dish to bring the flavor back another way.

Buying and Storing

Buy small and look for "roasted" or "toasted" hazelnut oil in dark glass, since the roasted versions carry far more flavor than cold-pressed raw ones. A trusted French producer is usually worth the premium.

Like other nut oils, hazelnut oil is high in polyunsaturated fat and turns rancid quickly, so refrigerate it once opened.

It may go cloudy in the cold. That is harmless and clears at room temperature.

Use an opened bottle within a few months. Once it smells sharp or paint-like instead of sweetly toasted, it has gone and is not worth saving.

Quick facts

In Chinese

榛子油

British (UK) term

Hazelnut oil

en français

l'huile de noisette

en español

aceite de avellana

Recipes using hazelnut oil

There are 15 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 15 recipes