Cooking uses
This oil is said to have a hot nut-like flavor and it is commonly used for cooking in places such as India, Bangladesh and Nepal. In cooking, mustard oil should be allowed to reach a smoking point before you use it in cooking things over the stove such as stir fry dishes. This gives it a smoother flavor, but can destroy its valuable omega-3 health benefits.
How to Buy Mustard Oil
Mustard oil is not frequently available in supermarkets, though it is starting to be carried by some stores that cater to more ethnic foods, though it is easy to get in Indian or Mid-Eastern grocery stores. It has been especially hard to find it in America in the past, but you can usually get it as oil imported from places like India, Pakistan and Bangledesh for around $5 a liter.It is not hard to store this oil as long as it is not opened. However, once that has occurred, you need to store it in the refrigerator where it can stay fresh for months.
Is Mustard Oil Dangerous?
At one time thought to be dangerous to eat due to the erucic acid in it. This was mostly the case in trying to find it in the U.S., Canada, or the European Union countries. This was determined by a study using rats, but then later it was found that rats can’t digest vegetable fats well, so it is now thought that mustard oil is not as toxic as it was thought before.Since the 1990s, however, all mustard oil sold in the U.S. carried a warning that it was for external use only, not to be eaten. It is banned by the Food and Drug Administration to be used as food due to high contents of erucic acid of up to 40 percent.
Other traditional uses
Mustard oil has several other interesting and sometimes traditional
uses. For instance, it is poured onto the threshold of a newly married
couple or when a child is returning home after being gone a long time or
has done well by passing their school exams or other event.It is also used as fuel in some countries in lamps, as a preservative and in making Indian drums.
Click Here!
A study published in May 2011 in the Journal “Nutrition” touted the use
of mustard oil to lower cholesterol. In the study it was fed to lab
animals and made up 20 percent of their diets every day for 28 days. The
LDL cholesterol and triglycerides went down, and the HDLs, which are a
good form of cholesterol, went up. It was done at the Department of
Chemical Technology, University of Calcutta, India.
Click Here!
