[Sca-cooks] rapeseed/canola oil

[Patricia Dunham]

Is the "erucic acid" in rapeseed oil what gave it a bitter taste?  My Canadian says that's what the industry "fixed" -- canola doesn't have the bitter taste that rapeseed oil does.  Depending on how bitter, that might be why it wasn't much used by even poor people.

Umm, he also started thinking of other fats besides butter, lard & olive oil.  Like... duck and goose fat, nut oils (walnut?), and fish oils.  Some fish were caught primarily for their oil production (you dry them and they go completely oily... )  He's sure (but I can't document any of this fish stuff at the moment) that white fish (like cod, flounder) are high in oil, and that he's seen information on rendering and clarifying and "de-fish-y-ing" fish oils.  (He's a Norse specialist, reads Cleasby & Vigfusson & sagas for fun when he has the time, so that may be where this comes from...  oh, he says he thinks it was from something about northern Scotland, definitely Norse, eh?  Something about the fish and fish oil were their only export?)

I also like the comment about seasonal eating!  Maybe during Lent, you just didn't do so many fried dishes as at other times of the year.

chimene

On Mar 4, 2011, at 2:08 PM, James Prescott wrote:

> 
> Canola is rapeseed.
> 
> The name 'canola' is a triumph for the marketing division of the Canadian agricultural
> industry.  Along with their plant breeding programme to make it a 'better' oil.
> 
> 
> Thorvald
> 
> 
> At 8:21 PM +0000 3/4/11, yaini0625 at yahoo.com wrote:
>> It was my understanding that they are the same plant. The French farmer my Dad spoke too explained that in America the name is different because of the negative connotation of the word.
>> Aelina
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