Aren't we getting very sophisticated about our food? Our cuisine, if you like. There was a time, you think you remember, when we had just cooking oil. Or was olive oil always around in the kitchen? At any rate your ordinary cooking oil became known as ground nut oil - monkey nut in childish parlance. But olive oil blossomed as if it were vintage wine, with source given; you almost expected Chateau this or that. We have it from France, Italy, Spain, Greece, from wherever, and we have got used to asking for it to be virgin, cold pressed.
Then we have also been revelling in oil of walnut, hazelnut, almond and God knows what nut. (In Germany, and maybe other countries, during the Second World War, beechnuts were boiled and the oil that floated to the top scooped off.) Oh, and you may heard of truffle oil, which could be groundnut or olive oil with a bit of extract of truffle added. Which it is. But the one oil you may not have come across, and in the dearest of all, comes from a part of Austria where, if you have more than ten hectares, you are regarded as a big farmer. So writes Wolfgang Lechner in the magazine of Die Zeit. Outside the place of origin, in the Steier mark, it would cost you £30 a litre. And what does it come from? The pumpkin. Pumpkin seed, that is. It's a rather thick oil, dark and sensitive to light and doesn't keep well. But it smells like heaven, and is mild and nutty. The article goes on to say that it is healthy, gives figures for favourable fatty acid content and claims an element that reduces cholesterol levels.
Sounds like the elixir of life.
The pumpkin originally came from America, and was the poor folks' food. They ate the flesh and found the seed to be good in cakes and bread. Then in the 19th century there came about what genetecists call "a spontaneous mutation". The seeds changed and no longer had hard shells, just a thin dark skin. Pumpkin oil was easier to extract. To a restaurant or hotel, Schloss Kapfenstein, Gault Millau gave two toques, not least, says our writer, because of the chef's creativity with pumpkins, pumpkins seed and pumpkin oil.
Anyone here come across this wonder oil?