Breaking Our Dependency On Foreign Cooking Oil

I received my first bottle of New York Concord grape seed oil from Steve Cockman of The Concord Grape Growers Coop. One thousand pounds of grapes produce about 100 pounds of seed that will yield about 3 quarts of grape seed oil. Currently, there is no mill available in New York State to crush the seeds so they are being trucked to Wisconsin. It is not known yet how things will develop but I plan to encourage fellow chefs and retailers to buy into the coming year's production and get the Press involved. If we can create enough buzz, New York could develop an enormous market for healthy cooking oil. We only need to imagine how powerful and positive the consequences could be.

By breaking our dependence on foreign oil, the upstate economy would blossom and carbon emissions from imports would drop dramatically. The oil is unfiltered and bit cloudy from natural sediment. The seeds are mechanically pressed at a low temperature and the oil is extracted without the use of dangerous solvents like hexane; commonly used in large-scale commercial production. It has a pleasant slightly nutty taste and a very high smoke point of well over 400 degrees F., which makes it great for sauteing or deep frying. Quantities will be limited in the coming year so I plan to use it primarily as an herb and spice infused dipping oil.

As we all know, unlike California, New York has a relatively short growing season. From the first killing frost of winter clear through to spring, storage root crops and pickled produce are pretty much all there is to work with. Commercial availability of locally canned produce is severely limited, as well. These limitations could spell more punishment than pleasure for city dwellers no matter how smitten they are by a Locavorian vision.

COMMENTS ()

Peter Berley Flexitarian Chef Peter Berley writes about satisfying the demands of staunch vegetarians and passionate meat lovers at the same dinner table.

more posts from The Flexitarian Table