How to Use Sesame Seed
The Seed of Legend
Nutty · Oily · Sweet · Earthy
With a rich culinary legacy spanning millennia, sesame seeds are at home in almost any kitchen around the globe. Toast and sprinkle them over breads, salads, noodles, stir-fries, seafood, meats, roasted vegetables, and even desserts.
FORMS
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Hulled White: The most common form in Western markets, hulled white sesame seeds have their thin outer skin, or hull, removed. They're smooth and ivory colored, and milder and more tender than unhulled. This is the form that goes on burger buns and bagels and into most commercial tahini because the softer flavor and texture suit baking and pastes.
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Unhulled White: Unhulled seeds keep their hull, providing a coarser texture, a tan or golden-brown color, and a more robust, faintly bitter flavor. They also have considerably more calcium, iron, and fiber.
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Black: Black sesame seed is a distinct cultivar with a naturally dark coat, which is why it's always sold unhulled. Deeper and earthier, it's an essential ingredient across East Asia.
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Pastes: Ground seeds, usually hulled white (raw or lightly toasted), become tahini, the paste behind much Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cooking. Chinese sesame paste is made from much more deeply roasted seeds, making it darker, thicker, and considerably stronger.
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Oils: Sesame oil is pressed either from toasted or untoasted seeds of any cultivar, hulled or unhulled. Toasting is what makes the difference. The toasted version is a darker finishing oil of enormous intensity. Only a few drops can transform a whole dish. Untoasted sesame oil is mild and pale, used as an everyday cooking fat across South Asia.
STORAGE
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Hulled White: Despite being nearly half oil by weight, sesame resists oxidation unusually well, making the seeds rather stable. Their lignans act as built-in antioxidants. Stored airtight in a cool, dark, dry place, whole hulled seeds keep well for many months rather than weeks.
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Unhulled White: Store the same way. These keep even better because the seed coat itself protects the oils and is also rich in the same antioxidants. Refrigeration or freezing extends any of them further.
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Black: Store the same way.
- Pastes: Tahini and Chinese sesame paste keep well at room temperature if you use them often. Refrigeration extends them if you don't, at the cost of making them thick and harder to spoon. Expect peak quality for 3-6 months once opened. Separation with oil on top is normal. Stir it thoroughly, since the dense layer at the bottom can take some effort. Storing the jar upside down between uses helps.
- Oils: Toasted sesame oil is more resistant to going rancid than untoasted, but the toasted aroma you bought it for fades well before the oil itself turns, so ironically it "goes bad" before its untoasted counterpart. Keep both away from light and heat and they'll keep for about 6 months. Neither needs refrigeration for safety, but the fridge is good for preserving toasted oil, and any cloudiness it causes clears up at room temperature.
PREPARATION
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Toasting: This is hugely important because raw sesame seeds are close to flavorless, and almost everything people recognize as sesame is created by toasting. Spread the seeds in a single layer in a dry skillet over medium heat and stir constantly for 2-4 minutes until white seeds turn gold or black seeds smell fragrant and begin to pop. Watch them closely. They burn if left even a few seconds too long.
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Grinding: To make tahini, process toasted seeds with a little neutral oil in a food processor or high-powered blender, scraping down often, for 5-10 minutes until smooth. It can take longer than you might think. For coarser preparations like gomashio, a suribachi (the ridged Japanese mortar shown above) offers far better control. The grooves catch the seeds and crush them without the heat a machine generates. You want them partially crushed and fragrant.
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Using Whole: Press whole seeds onto bread dough, buns, and crackers before baking. Coat fish or chicken thickly before searing, and the seeds toast in the pan into a crust. You can also simply scatter toasted seeds over salads, noodles, stir-fries, and rice bowls at the end. A mix of black and white is worth doing for the visual contrast alone.
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Working with the Oils: Toasted sesame oil goes in off the heat or at the very end, never as a frying medium, because its aromatics are volatile and will burn. Cold-pressed sesame oil is the opposite, handling real heat comfortably. Confusing the two is a common mistake, and the result is either a scorched, acrid stir-fry at worst or a dish missing a key note at best.
COOKING
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East Asian Traditions: Sesame seeds and their oil are inseparable from Chinese, Japanese, and Korean cooking. Chinese sesame paste, deeper and stronger than tahini, is the base of dan dan noodles and cold sesame noodles. Japanese goma-ae dresses vegetables in ground toasted sesame, gomashio seasons rice, goma-dofu sets it into a custard, and goma dare is a delicious dipping sauce for shabu-shabu. Korean cooking finishes bulgogi with toasted seeds and turns black sesame into a porridge.
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The Tahini Belt: Across the Levant, tahini is blended with chickpeas for hummus and eggplant for baba ghanoush, thinned with lemon and garlic into the sauce that goes on falafel and grilled meat, and sweetened into halva. Sesame is also one of the four components of the ever-popular blend za'atar, alongside Syrian oregano, sumac, and salt. Türkiye presses seeds onto simit and pairs tahini with grape molasses for breakfast. Persian halva ardeh is eaten at breakfast much the same way.
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Sweets and Confections: Sesame and honey is one of the world’s oldest sweet pairings, still alive in Greek pasteli and Middle Eastern halva, so feel free to experiment with desserts of all kinds.
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Beyond Tradition: Sesame seed adapts easily. Crust seared tuna or salmon with it, fold toasted seeds into granola, whisk a tahini vinaigrette with lemon and garlic that works on almost any vegetable, drizzle toasted oil over popcorn or eggs. Ground and sweetened, black sesame makes exceptional ice cream and pudding. The possibilities are near endless for this legendary spice.
