Share
Oil is an essential ingredient in cooking, it contributes to the flavour of the food and brings in some texture and volume. Frying or even just coating something in the oil gives it a lovely exterior and often a crust as well. Besides flavouring, oil is also a good source of fats and antioxidants. Oil is basically produced by processing plant, animal, or synthetic fat after which it is used for culinary purposes. India is a large consumer of oil, not just sunflower oil but also groundnut, olive, mustard, sesame and coconut oil. But how is it that oil became a part of our cuisine?
While it might impossible to cook anything let alone meat without oil, our ancestors for the longest time cooked the animal meat they hunted without any fat. They would pierce the meat with a spear and rotate it around the fire. It was around this time that the early man noticed that meat, while cooking, was dripping oils. The oil that was extracted from the meats was then repurposed to cook other meats. In fact, some historians believe that the invention of fire (and by extension cooking the meat) was quickly followed by the usage of oil.
Over time, people learnt to derive oil from other plant sources. The plants were heated till they started to extract some oils. Soybean or soy oil was being produced as early as 2000BC in parts of China and Japan and while olive oil might have been processed around 3000BC in regions of Southern Europe. Similarly, sunflower and peanut oil were toasted and pressed into a paste to help produce their oil in North and South America.
Coconut oil was generated similarly and in the current continent of Africa. Over the years, more and more seeds and vegetables are being used to create an oil like grapeseed, flax and avocado oil.
