Mustard Oil

Mustard Oil: Nutrition and Culinary Guide

Mustard oil — pressed from the seeds of brown mustard (Brassica juncea) or black mustard (B. nigra) — is a pungent, strongly flavoured cooking oil of central importance in the food cultures of Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar, Nepal, and Bangladesh, where it is the primary cooking fat for large portions of the population. The oil has a distinctive sharp, pungent character from allyl isothiocyanate — the same compound responsible for the heat of prepared mustard — which mellows dramatically when heated to its smoking point and beyond: the traditional practice in Bengali cooking of smoking mustard oil to just above its smoking point before adding ingredients creates a completely different, mellowed flavour from raw mustard oil. Mustard oil contains approximately 22–26% erucic acid — a long-chain fatty acid that caused concern in animal studies at very high doses and led to restrictions on its sale as a food oil in the United States, Canada, and the EU (where it must be labelled "for external use only"). Despite these restrictions, mustard oil is widely used and sold as a food in South Asia where it is considered a staple.