If fancy finishing oils are your thing, prepare to have your world rocked: Butternut squash-seed oil the best thing ever to happen to your soups, salads, yogurt, and ice cream. It will even change the way you look at stir-fries and roasted vegetables.
I recently discovered an auburn-colored gem made by Stony Brook Wholehearted Foods, and I've gotta say: What began as a casual fling has become a full-blown love affair. I am drizzling this oil on everything, at every meal. Stony Brook also makes a pumpkin-seed oil, which is delicious, but I think the butternut-seed oil is where it's at.
The idea is the brainchild of Stony Brook co-founder Greg Woodworth, who in 2008 had recently relocated from Boston to Geneva, a bucolic town in the Finger Lakes region of western New York. When he heard that local farmers were looking for a way to repurpose the seed waste from their pre-cut squash product (which is sold in area grocery stores), the wheels in his head began turning.
The oil is a buttery-tasting, rich, and almost sweet oil that's an amazing finisher, but just so happens to also boast a smoke point of 425°F. That's thanks to high levels of vitamin D, which make it more stable. The high smoke point means, unlike other fancy nut and seed oils (pumpkin-seed oil's smoke point is 250°F), it can be used for cooking at a relatively high heat. Most oils that can take the heat also have a dull or muted flavor. Butternut-seed oil is rare in that it still tastes great, which makes it truly multipurpose.
Part of the flavor comes from Stony Brook's roasting process, which came about by happy accident, Woodworth says. One day the seeds were delivered too wet to press, so Stony Brook roasted them to expedite the drying process. It worked, and it also gave the finished oil a deeper, nuttier flavor.
The oil is pressed in small batches (Stony Brook caps production at 50 gallons of oil a week). Like many other heat-stable, high-smoke-point oils, it's processed without the use of any chemical solvents. It's run through an expeller press, which looks and basically functions like a meat grinder. "The seeds are funneled through an augur, crushed up, and you're left with two products: the oil, and the seed casing waste," Woodworth says.
Both the butternut-seed oil and pumpkin-seed oil are available nationwide, and can be ordered online. A 6.3-ounce bottle will run you $11.95; the pumpkin-seed oil is slightly more expensive. I strongly advise you not to buy a bottle without a pint of good vanilla ice cream. But I must be honest: This stuff is addictive. You have been warned.