The Secret Duo of Korean Flavor : How Perilla and Sesame Oils Elevate Flavor and Health
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases — I only link to the kinds of bottles Koreans actually cook with.
Every Korean kitchen keeps two small bottles within arm’s reach of the stove. They look almost alike — dark, glossy, poured out by the spoonful and never the cupful — and to anyone who didn’t grow up cooking with them, they’re easy to mix up.
But perilla oil (들기름) and sesame oil (참기름) are not two versions of the same thing. They come from different seeds, taste nothing alike, and do completely different jobs. Once you can tell them apart, a whole layer of Korean food starts to make sense.
> Sesame oil, the tastier one — bibimbap, marinades, and the salt-pepper-sesame BBQ dip. One teaspoon does a lot.
> Perilla oil, the healthy one — packed with omega-3, which is why I reach for it more. Namul, makguksu, light frying.
> The health thing: sesame runs high in omega-6, perilla high in omega-3. Keep both and they balance each other out.
> What to buy: mine comes straight from a Korean mill (can’t get that abroad), but the everyday bottles are OTOKI sesame oil and KOREAC perilla oil.
What is this mysterious bottle with the red lid?!
Two Seeds, Two Different Oils
The confusion starts with the name. In English they both get filed under “that Korean nutty oil,” but they don’t even come from the same plant.
Sesame oil (참기름) is pressed from toasted sesame seeds, which is why it pours out amber to deep brown and carries that unmistakable roasted, almost smoky nuttiness. Perilla oil (들기름) comes from perilla seeds — a plant in the mint family — and sits lighter in the bottle, golden with a faint green cast, its flavor softer and grassier.
If I’m being honest, sesame is the tastier of the two. It’s nuttier, richer, and it gets along with almost everything. The easiest way to remember them: sesame is the loud one, perilla is the quiet one.
How Koreans Actually Use Them
Sesame oil is everywhere. It’s the finishing gloss on bibimbap — stir a spoonful through the rice and the whole bowl turns fragrant and deeply nutty. That, to me, is sesame oil at its best. It’s also the backbone of marinades for bulgogi and galbi, and the quiet richness folded into many cooks’ kimchi.
 |
| The move at every Korean BBQ |
It shows up at the table in ways visitors don’t expect. At any Korean BBQ place, you can ask for gireumjang (기름장) — a simple dip of sesame oil, salt, and pepper — and everyone knows exactly what you mean. It’s what you swirl a piece of grilled pork belly through before it goes in your mouth.
 |
| Garlic in sesame oil |
There’s another everyday move, too: garlic in a foil tray, sesame oil poured over the top, set right on the grill until it sizzles and turns soft and sweet. Neither is a restaurant trick — they’re just how Koreans eat.
Perilla oil plays a quieter role. It’s what seasons namul — spinach, fernbrake, and other blanched greens — where the whole point is to lift the vegetable rather than bury it. And its most famous stage is deulgireum makguksu (들기름 막국수): cold buckwheat noodles tossed in nothing more than perilla oil, soy, and a little seaweed.
Why I Reach for Perilla Oil More
Here’s the twist: even though sesame is the tastier one, perilla oil is what I actually use most at home.
The reason is partly health. I try to keep my omega-6 in check and get enough omega-3 — and, as I’ll come back to in a moment, these two oils sit on opposite ends of exactly that. Perilla has quietly become a kind of Korean olive oil, the everyday oil people reach for when they’re thinking about their health, and it costs a little more, too.
And the taste grows on you. Sesame wins on first impression, but perilla has a green, almost grassy note — a natural, fresh flavor that, once you fall for it, you start to miss. Honestly, it makes me feel a little healthier just eating it.
Deulgireum makguksu is the best example. It’s fresh, light, and genuinely delicious — the kind of dish I’d happily recommend even to vegetarians. I had an unforgettable bowl of it at Jingujeong, but I make it at home all the time, too — the recipe is simple, and it happens to be a wonderful diet food. (I’ll share my version in a post later.)
 |
| Made this one at home |
Beyond that, perilla is my default whenever a dish needs oil — especially for a light fry.
The Health Difference: Perilla Oil vs Sesame Oil
It’s worth slowing down on the nutrition, because this is where the two oils really part ways.
Perilla oil’s headline is its omega-3. It’s one of the richest plant sources of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) you can keep in a kitchen — the same family of anti-inflammatory fats we’re usually told to get from fish. Those omega-3s are good for the heart and the brain, and most of us simply don’t eat enough of them. Perilla also carries rosmarinic acid, a plant antioxidant that helps protect cells from everyday oxidative stress. That combination — high omega-3, almost no effort — is why so many Koreans treat perilla oil as a quiet daily health habit.
Sesame oil brings a different kind of goodness. It’s rich in sesamin and sesamolin, two lignans fairly unique to sesame that act as antioxidants and have been linked to lower cholesterol, and it’s a real source of vitamin E, which looks after your skin and cells. The one thing to keep an eye on is that sesame oil is high in omega-6 (linoleic acid). Omega-6 isn’t the enemy — your body needs it — but modern diets already overflow with it, and too much omega-6 without enough omega-3 nudges the body toward inflammation. The fix isn’t to give up sesame oil; it’s to balance it, with omega-3 sources like fish or, conveniently, a little perilla oil.
Which is the quiet beauty of keeping both. Sesame brings the flavor and its own antioxidants; perilla brings the omega-3s that balance it out. Used together, the two oils cover for each other — a very Korean way for a kitchen to work.
The Bottles Koreans Actually Buy
A confession before any links: both the sesame oil and the perilla oil in my kitchen come from a bangatgan (방앗간) — a neighborhood mill that roasts and presses the seeds while you wait and hands you a still-warm bottle. Freshly pressed sesame and perilla oil is a different thing entirely; it’s honestly delicious. When I can’t make it to the mill, I order it instead — but that kind of bottle doesn’t exist on Amazon, or anywhere outside Korea.
 |
| Meet my actual sesame oil. |
Still, if you’re cooking Korean food abroad and want to try the real thing, these are the everyday brands you’ll see in Korean restaurants and on Amazon. I’m linking them for anyone curious:
- OTOKI 100% Pure Roasted Sesame Oil (참기름) — one of the standard bottles you’ll find in Korean kitchens. Deeply toasted, so strong that a single teaspoon finishes a whole bibimbap.
- KOREAC Korean Roasted Perilla Oil (들기름) — a traditional, Korean-made perilla oil for namul, noodles, and everyday cooking.
These are affiliate links, so as an Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases — but they’re simply the common Korean brands, linked in case you’d like to try them.
One honest tip: if you already own Kadoya sesame oil, it works — but it’s Japanese-style. Korean roasting goes darker and nuttier. Taste them side by side once and you’ll never confuse the two again.
One Last Thing
If this made you hungry rather than health-conscious, I understand completely. Perilla oil’s best stage is cold buckwheat noodles — the same family as Pyongyang naengmyeon, the dish I’ve spent a whole series on. And if you’re curious how these oils fit into the way I actually eat as a Korean actress, my anti-aging diet post is the place to start.
These two bottles are only part of it. If you want to see the rest of what actually sits in a Korean kitchen, I went through the eight bottles that run mine — the sauces and pastes I reach for without thinking about it.
Which oil is already in your kitchen — and which one have you never tried? Tell me in the comments.
Comments
Post a Comment