The Frugal Pantry: Walnut Oil

Like most people, we tend to reach for the olive oil out of habit. Indeed, it's the perfect all-purpose oil, good for cooking, salads, marinades, and just about anything short of Asian dishes. But because we use olive oil so often, we tend to take its flavor for granted.

To keep this from happening—and to keep surprising our taste buds—we deploy our can of walnut oil. Combined with a little lemon juice or rice-wine vinegar and a pinch of salt and pepper, walnut oil makes the best simple dressing we know: rich, deep, and fancy-tasting. Because it's expensive, we only use it for salads.

For walnut oil lovers, price is one problem—an eight-ounce can or bottle can easily run to double digits. Another problem is perishability: several times we've bought rancid oil from expensive stores.

Fortunately, we've discovered an economical solution: discount stores like TJ Maxx, Ross, and Marshalls. These stores not only sell walnut oil at a deep discount—a 17-ounce can of our favorite brand, La Tourangelle, costs $6.99—but they pride themselves on selling fresh oil, so they're safe places to shop. Your can of walnut oil may be slightly dented, but that won't stop it from giving you dozens of wonderful salads.