Cold-Pressing
Extracting oil below 49°C to preserve every omega, every antioxidant, and every flavour compound that heat destroys.
— Definition
Cold-pressing (also called cold-expeller pressing or Kachi Ghani for mustard oil) extracts oil from seeds or nuts without using heat above 49°C (120°F). This preserves heat-sensitive compounds that are destroyed in conventional solvent-extracted or hot-pressed oils.
— In Detail
Conventional oil processing uses: (1) Hexane solvent extraction — dissolves oil from seed meal, then hexane is evaporated (trace residues remain); (2) Refining — degumming, neutralisation (NaOH), bleaching (activated clay), deodorisation (steam stripping at 240°C+). Each step removes beneficial compounds. What cold-pressing preserves vs. refined oil: Sesame oil retains sesamin and sesamol lignans (antioxidants that are essentially absent in refined sesame oil). Mustard oil retains allyl isothiocyanates (antimicrobial, anti-cancer). Coconut oil retains lauric acid and medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). All oils retain higher natural Vitamin E content. Cold-pressed smoke points are lower than refined (mustard: 160°C vs. 250°C refined) — requiring lower-heat cooking methods.
— Why It Matters
Traditional Indian cooking oils — ghani-pressed mustard, til ka tel (sesame), coconut — were cold-pressed by design. The shift to refined, bleached, deodorised industrial oils removed the very compounds that made these oils therapeutically valuable. The lignans in sesame oil that reduce LDL, the allyl isothiocyanates in mustard that fight pathogens — all gone after refining.
— Related Terms
— See in Field Guide
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