Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Sesame Oil

The Egyptians uses Sesame long before others. During the 19th century I haven't found many food recipes that involved sesame seed oil. Below are a few excerpts with some information on sesame oil and it's uses during the 19th century. Also note that sesame seeds were primarily grown in India and the Middle East. It would be extremely rare for someone in America to have sesame seeds in America.

Sesame oil, almond oil, earth-nut oil, and rape oil arc better fitted for the preparation of machine oils, and the last named, being the cheapest, is more used than all the others. Source: Journal of the Society of Chemical Industry Vol. 2 pg 481 ©1883

Was often mixed with Olive oil. Various sources

SESAME OIL: ITS SUITABILITY FOR PHARMACEUTICAL PURPOSES.
By Thomas Haben, Pharmaceutical Chemist.
The literature relating to sesame oil is very meagre, and in "Pharmacographia" alone do we find anything like a satisfactory description of the article and its uses. The learned authors of that work state that the oil "might be employed without disadvantage for all the purposes for which olive oil is used," and it is with the view of indicating the reliability or otherwiso of this opinion, that I have, acting on the suggestion contained in the "Blue List," undertaken the preparation of this report.
Sesame oil differs little in its physical characters from either olive or almond oils. It has not the tinge of green which all but the finest specimens of the former possess, and is of a rather more decided shade of yellow than the latter, but generally speaking the difference in colour is not very marked. The odour of a fine specimen of sesame oil is very slight, while the tasto is at first sweetish and bland with a peculiar after-flavour. Olive oil becomes grainy through the deposit of a crystalline fatty body at 5° C, but the olein does not solidify till about -5° C. Sesame oil congeals at-5° C, and almond oil is liquid till -20° C. is reached. The difference in the congealing points is doubtless due to the percentage of olein, of which almond oil " consists almost wholly" (" Pharmacographia "); sesame oil contains 76 per cent, {ibid.), and olive oil 72 per cent. (Braconnot). According to the best authorities, however, the percentage of olein varies according to circumstances; and, in like manner, different samples of the same oil differ in density, as is evident from the fact that hardly two authors agree in giving the same specific gravity for any one oil.
Source: Year-Book of Pharmacy comprising Abstracts of Papers pg 540 ©1883

Three varieties of sesame seed are cultivated in India—the white-seeded (Suffed-iil), the red or parti-coloured (Kala-til), and the black variety (Tillee); it is the latter which affords the greater proportion of the Gingelly oil of commerce. At the commencement of 1861, white seed was worth in the London markets 65s.; black and brown, 58s. and 60s. per quarter.
A second sort of sesame oil, sometimes called "rape," is obtained from the red-seeded variety.
Black sesame is sown in March, and ripens in May. Red sesame is not sown till June.
Sesamum seed has of late been exported largely to France, where it is said to be employed for mixing with olive oil. Source:House of Commons Papers Vol. 35 pg59 ©1877

Below is a clip from the Omaha Daily Bee, Feb 12, 1886. In the article the dairymen were trying to fight the increase of oleo margarine.

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