In your pickle recipes you state that 'Mustard oil should always be heated to smoking point first and allowed to cool completely, before adding it to the pickle'. I use a mustard oil blend (with rapeseed [canola] oil) so would the same treatment need to be applied to the blend?

Many thanks

JB

The taste of mustard oil 'improves' at its high smoking point, most other oils break down and turn unpleasant at their lower smoking points.

Isn't it then an enigma why mustard and rapeseed oils should be blended together?

heating mustard oil reduces the level of the rather obnoxious Allyl isothiocyanate, the pungent principle in mustard, and also horseradish and wasabi.

So we heat the mustard oil to smoking so that the pungent nature is reduced, and the oil becomes more palatable.

Mixing mustard oil with rape seed oil is logical, as they are from the same family (brassica, or cabbage family).