[Sca-cooks] Rape Seed Oil, Canola Oil, and the Early Norse

[Terri Morgan]

Recently I took part in a weekend demonstration of Viking-era Norse living
and one of the foods that we attempted was little handpies, some heated on a
dry 'frying pan' metal surface while others were fried in oil in a pot. For
the deep frying, we used rape seed oil... which had me laughing at myself
after spending nearly $17 on the can of it only to learn once I returned
from the store that it was basically canola oil.

Since the demo, I've wondered what sort of cooking oil would actually be
available to the Viking-era Norse. We know that a small amount of luxury
olive oil was imported but aside from lard - what would have been most
commonly used? I doubt it was what we used last weekend.


Hrothny