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Mustard oil

Oils & fats · Cooking oils

Mustard oil

Sharp, pungent golden oil pressed from mustard seeds; the signature fat of Bengali, Punjabi and Kashmiri cooking.

Also called: sarson ka tel, kachi ghani

A kind of cooking oil

44 recipes with it

Photo: Biswarup Ganguly, via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-3.0)

What it is

Mustard oil is pressed from brown or yellow mustard seeds and has a nose-tingling, horseradish-like pungency. Cooks traditionally heat it until it just smokes and then let it cool slightly, which mellows the raw sharpness before adding spices. Kachi ghani means cold-pressed.

How it’s used

  • Bengali fish curries and shorshe dishes
  • Pickles (achar)
  • Punjabi saag and tandoori marinades
  • Raw in Bengali mashes (bhorta)
  • Tempering with panch phoron or nigella

Characteristics

Taste
Hot, pungent, slightly bitter when raw; rounder once heated.
Aroma
Strong, mustardy.
When cooked
Usually heated to smoking point first to tame its bite.
Sold as
liquid
Cooking uses
Suitable for frying, Commonly cooked

Storage

Pantry-stable. Store capped, away from light; keeps well because of its pungent compounds.

Diet, allergens and safety

Contains Mustard.

  • Vegetarian
  • Vegan
  • Dairy-free
  • Egg-free
  • Gluten-free
  • Nut-free
  • Soy-free
  • Caffeine-free
  • Contains mustard, a major allergen.
  • In some countries it is labelled for external use only because of its erucic acid content; follow local labelling.

Nutrition per 100 g

Energy
884 kcal
Protein
0 g
Carbohydrate
0 g
Fat
100 g
Fibre
0 g
Sugars
— g

USDA FoodData Central: Oil, mustard.

Substitutes

Optional — what works if you don’t have it, and how it changes the dish.

  • Neutral vegetable oil — Works for cooking; add a little mustard paste or ground mustard seed for some of the bite.

Related ingredients

Recipes with mustard oil

See all 44

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