Camelina oil ✦

Huile de cameline

What it is

Camelina, gold-of-pleasure, was a staple oilseed across Bronze Age Europe — its seeds turn up in the stomachs of the Danish bog bodies — then vanished when rapeseed and sunflower took the fields. It came back in France in the 1990s because it wants almost no water and no treatment, and cooks found it tasted of raw peas.

In the kitchen

Never heat it: the perfume is gone above 60 °C and its fats turn quickly. Raw on white asparagus, smoked herring or a warm potato salad, count one spoon of camelina to two of a neutral oil so it does not take the whole dish.

Goes with

White asparagus Potato Smoked salmon Herring Pea Fromage blanc

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