sesame oil
Cultural layer
Sesamum indicum L. (Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, accessed 2026-10-02)
Benne Seeds in the Lowcountry (Charleston Time Machine, Charleston County Public Library, 10 August 2018)
Indian Food: A Historical Companion (K. T. Achaya, 1994)
Classic Food of China (Yan-Kit So, 1992)
Real Korean Cooking (Maangchi / Emily Kim, 2015)
Route
PendingThe routes are written. They are not yet mapped.
This entry's cultural layer already names where it came from and how it moved. What it does not yet carry is that movement as structure: ordered waypoints with real coordinates, and a mechanism on each leg. Until it does, the layer stays an empty slot rather than a drawn line, because a map built from prose would be a guess with a projection under it.
1 of 409 entries carries a mapped route · nutmeg is the prototype
- Waypoints
Ordered places, each with its kind
- Coordinates
Real positions, with the gazetteer they came from
- Segments
From, to, and the mechanism that moved it
- Confidence
Documented, attributed or contested
- Summary
What the route argues, in a sentence
Connections
34 bonds · 28 sourcedSigeumchi namul, spinach dressed with sesame oil.
Confirmed in Real Korean Cooking: sigeumchi namul, page 137, dressed with sesame oil.
Japchae; the noodles are dressed in it.
Confirmed in Real Korean Cooking: japchae, sweet potato starch noodles with stir-fried vegetables and beef, page 230, where the cooked noodles are tossed with sesame oil and soy sauce.
The Chinese cold-dish dressing, sesame oil into soy.
Read in Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, page 133, both sauces for white-cut pork built on thick soy and sesame oil, and page 44; the cited Classic Food of China was not the book in hand.
Dubu with sesame oil; namul dressing.
Confirmed in Real Korean Cooking: panfried tofu with spicy seasoning sauce, page 155.
Finishing.
Read in Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, page 140, sesame oil sprinkled on after the green scallions go in, and page 220; the cited Classic Food of China was not the book in hand.
Cold-dish dressing.
Namul and muchim seasoning.
Confirmed in Real Korean Cooking: cooked and seasoned soybean sprouts, page 140.
Hotpot dipping sauce.
Read in Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, page 76, the dip for the Mongolian lamb fire pot: sesame paste, fermented red bean curd, wine, sugar, soy sauce, chili oil, sesame oil and fish sauce; the cited Classic Food of China was not the book in hand.
The Peking-style sauce for white-cut pork: chopped garlic, thick soy sauce and sesame oil.
Relocated in Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, page 133. Page 250 says Chinese sesame oil is not used for general cooking at all, but for marinating and for sprinkling on food just before it is served; the cited Classic Food of China was not the book in hand.
Kimchi stew perfumed with sesame oil.
Relocated in Real Korean Cooking: kimchi stew with tuna, page 104, and the kimchi variation of bibimbap, page 48, finished with sesame oil.
Set in bold in The Flavor Bible: recommended by a number of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for oil, sesame in the 2008 edition.
The Chinese cold-dish dressing, sesame oil against the vinegar.
Read in Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, page 202, Pickled Cabbage Peking Style, sesame oil poured smoking over the cabbage and rice vinegar after it, and page 48, the dressing for edible jellyfish; the cited Classic Food of China was not the book in hand.
Finishing a stir-fry.
Read in Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, page 110, sesame oil and oyster sauce in the lettuce-wrapped chicken; the cited Classic Food of China was not the book in hand.
Finishing.
Read in Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, pages 157 and 166, sesame oil sprinkled over the finished mushrooms; the cited Classic Food of China was not the book in hand.
Finishing.
Read in Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, page 159, a teaspoon of sesame oil into the finished Pock-ma Bean Curd; the cited Classic Food of China was not the book in hand.
Marinade and finishing.
Read in Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, page 134, the dry-fried beef marinade: thin soy sauce, sugar, Shaohsing wine and sesame oil; the cited Classic Food of China was not the book in hand.
Finishing a soup.
Finishing.
Read in Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, page 80, the black beans mashed with sugar and sesame oil for the steamed prawns, and page 93, sesame oil over the clams; the cited Classic Food of China was not the book in hand.
Cold dressing.
Dressed cold.
Hotpot dipping.
Finishing and aromatics.
Read in Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook, page 202, peanut oil and sesame oil heated to smoking and poured over the shredded ginger; the cited Classic Food of China was not the book in hand.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for cabbage, in general in the 2008 edition, where oil: peanut, sesame is set in plain type.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for oil, sesame in the 2008 edition.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for radishes in the 2008 edition.
Set in plain type in The Flavor Bible: suggested by one or more of the chefs it surveyed.
Read from the entry for broccoli in the 2008 edition, where oil: peanut, sesame is set in plain type.
Gimbap: rice seasoned with sesame oil rolled in gim.
Relocated in Real Korean Cooking: seaweed rice rolls, page 44. The book crisps gim over a flame and does not describe brushing it with oil.
Perilla leaf pancakes, folded over a filling seasoned with sesame oil.
Relocated in Real Korean Cooking: perilla leaf pancakes, page 196. Kkaennip muchim is not in the book.
Bonds are drawn from culinary literature and origin-tradition references, tiered by source. Origin means a reference from the place. Witness means the pairing is the place's own and the reference documenting it was written from outside.
The score is cultural weight: how central a pairing is in the tradition that documents it. It is not a prediction of how two materials behave in a formulation and not a measure of chemical affinity. The scale is ordinal, because centrality is a judgement rather than a measurement: 1.0 where the pair is the dish, 0.9 a fixed named form, 0.8 a canonical dish, 0.7 recurrent across many dishes, 0.6 common, 0.5 attested, 0.4 marginal or compound-led.
Each score is set against a named dish and carries that dish in its note. Where a score has not been examined it says so, because an inherited figure and a researched one should not look alike.
The dish is named by a reader who knows the cuisine and cites a source appropriate to it. It has not yet been confirmed inside that source page by page, so a note records what supports a score rather than what has been checked in the book.
Studio Culinar-E, "sesame oil", Pantry Archive, Studio Monk-E, 2026. https://studioculinar-e.com/archive/sesame-oil
/archive/sesame-oil
Bonds are tiered by source, origin-tradition references first.