Eli Farrington reveals what you might not know about this underused British ingredient
1. A truly versatile all-purpose culinary oil; cold pressed rapeseed oil contains the optimum ratio of 1:2 of omega 3 to omega 6, as well as being a natural source of
vitamin E.
2. It has the lowest saturated fat content of any widely available culinary oil – half that of olive oil!
3. Cold pressing is the traditional and natural way to produce oil. It is gently squeezed out of the seed at temperatures below 40C ensuring that the natural goodness and character of the oil is preserved.
4. The delicate, gentle flavour makes it an ideal partner for almost any food, great for drizzling or dipping.
5. Farrington’s Mellow Yellow emulsifies beautifully making it perfect for dressings, mayonnaise, pesto, and hummus; a healthy complement to starters, salads and vegetables.
6. With a smoke point of 220C, cold pressed rapeseed oil is a wonderful high temperature cooking oil, making the most perfectly golden and crispy roast potatoes, and aromatic, nutty stir-fries.
7. A delicious and healthy substitute for butter and margarine, when you bake with this oil it produces deliciously moist and light cakes that feature a subtle nutty flavour. It’s fabulous used in flapjacks and brownies. When substituting butter with our oil, add a little
less, about 80% of the total weight required and make up the remainder with a liquid such as milk, rice milk or soya milk. This is to account for the milk part and the fat content of the butter. If substituting for margarine, the rapeseed oil content would need to be less, about 75% (with more milk) as there is a higher water content in margarine.
8. As we only use oil from the first pressing of our rapeseed it is the culinary equivalent to extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil.
9. There is no such thing as commercially grown GM rapeseed in Britain.
10. First cultivated in Britain by the Romans; rapeseed oil has been used throughout Europe since the 16th century.