Why Won’t America Let Us Have Mustard Oil?
A 1970s rat study is keeping Bengalis from their aachars and hilsa. They want answers — and their tel back.
If you walk into the back of any Bengali kitchen in Jackson Heights, Queens, you’re likely to find a singular unmarked bottle. Open it and inhale, you’ll feel a familiar headiness, a sharp zing permeating your sinuses. On its own, it’s sharp, bitter, and pungent. But once it coats a pan, any hilsa you add will sizzle and hiss — and your memories of your favorite meals will come flooding back.
“It’s like Proust’s madeleine,” Krishnendu Ray, a professor of food studies at New York University, told The Juggernaut. He was cooking a two-bean soup with thyme and oregano. “The smell — it’s like nothing else. It triggers memory.” We’re talking, of course, about mustard oil, which he also drizzled onto his soup. For generations, Bengalis and Biharis have used the oil to fry fish, rub into sore joints, and even help hair grow. It has traversed continents, time zones, and time periods — even after a violent Partition.
The only problem? It’s illegal to consume in the U.S.