Various foods have essential characteristics that underline their genuineness and purity. For instance, when you cut onions, your eyes tend to water. If black peppercorn powder gets into your nostrils, you are likely to have an extended bout of sneezing. Likewise, ginger gives you that typical little sting in the throat – without that it would have no efficacy as either an ingredient or a natural cold cure.
In exactly the same way, the tendency of Mustard Oil to emit wisps of white smoke on reaching its smoking point is an essential characteristic. Today, with elegant modular kitchens and open kitchen formats, many young generation consumers find this aspect of “smoking” to be inconvenient. Yes, the oil may take a couple of minutes to reach its smoking point; the smoke may be somewhat acrid, stinging your nostrils and sending you out of the kitchen; but the good news is that all these attributes point towards the oil being pure and of good quality.
If you are using mustard oil that doesn’t smoke, you can be pretty sure that it is blended with some other (cheaper) oil. Worse still, it could signal the presence of impurities. It may also be very low-grade oil crushed from inferior seeds.
Without the assurance of smoking, you may well be denied the diverse health benefits that Mustard Oil has to offer – and that would be a meaningless sacrifice in the long-run.
So do remember – just like those onions that make you cry and the pepper powder that makes you sneeze, Mustard Oil that emits smoke on heating is the real thing. Don’t unwittingly settle for less!