Foodstuff: Camelina Oil – Sybaritica

I must confess to having heard of Camelina before, much less Camelina Oil, but it appears that the plant, native to Europe and Central Asia (but now cultivated in North America), has been grown agriculturally for about 3000 years. It is also known as ‘Siberian Oilseed’ and ‘False Flax’ and, though the oil is still not widely known, it gives every indication of becoming one of the latest health-food fads. This brand touts the Omega Oil content and several sites I visited were extolling the supposed benefits, As I have said before, however, I usually pay scant attention to extravagant medicinal claims as it is just too hard to separate the actual facts from the nonsense or the merely frivolous wishful thinking… Anyway, the bottle I purchased is packaged by a Canadian Company called Three Farmers and I noticed they also sell some other Camelina Oil versions infused with garlic, herbs and the like. I thought for now, however, I would just give the plain type a try… 

The oil, as you can see, is quite a dark golden color with a slightly greenish tint. It does not have as strong an aroma as, say olive oil, and I am a little hard pressed to describe it. The taste, though, is nicely fresh and has some quite strong grassy notes. I think, for this reason, that many people will find it a very nice choice as a salad dressing.

As for cooking, I learned from my research that this particular oil has a smoke-point of about 475 degrees, which makes it one of the highest available. That being said though, this small bottle was quite expensive (at least here in our Northern region) and I don’t think I will be using it for deep-frying any time soon. It does, however, have a decently long shelf-life and I think one of my first uses will be in some of my home-made Garlic Oil …

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