Skip to main content

  • HOME
  • CURRENT CONTENT
  • ALL CONTENT
  • SUBMIT
  • ABOUT
    • Journal
    • Editorial
  • INFO FOR
    • Librarians
    • Authors
    • Reprints and Permissions
    • Advertisers
    • Subscriptions and Single Issues
  • MORE
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us

  • Login

  • Advanced search

  • Login
Advanced Search
  • HOME
  • CURRENT CONTENT
  • ALL CONTENT
  • SUBMIT
  • ABOUT
    • Journal
    • Editorial
  • INFO FOR
    • Librarians
    • Authors
    • Reprints and Permissions
    • Advertisers
    • Subscriptions and Single Issues
  • MORE
    • Alerts
    • Contact Us
Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies
  • investigations
Prospecting for Oil
david s. shields
Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 10 No. 4, Fall 2010; (pp. 25-34) DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2010.10.4.25
david s. shields
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
PreviousNext
Loading

Abstract

From the 1770s to the 1880s agriculturists and cooks sought to develop culinary oils from plants. Thomas Jefferson's attempts to introduce the olive into the agriculture of the United States, as a partial substitute for lard in cookery and as a cheap oleo for the consumption of slaves, met with limited success, even in the southeast, because periodic freezes and high humidity thwarted the development of groves. Southern slaves from West Africa supplied their own oil, derived from benne (Sesamum indicum). Benne oil was merely one feature of an elaborate African-American cuisine employing sesame that included benne soup, benne and greens, benne and hominy, benne candy, and benne wafers. Only the last item has survived as a feature of regional and ethnic cookery. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, planter experimentalists began the commercial scale production of benne oil, establishing it as the primary salad oil and the second favored frying medium in the southern United States. It enjoyed acceptance and moderate commercial success until the refinement of cottonseed oil in the 1870s and 1880s. Cotton seed, a waste product of the south's most vital industry, was turned into a revenue stream as David Wesson and other scientists created a salad oil and frying medium designedly tasteless and odorless, and a cooking fat, hydrogenated cottonseed oil (Cottonlene or Crisco) that could cheaply substitute for lard in baking. With the recent recovery of regional foodways, both the olive and sesame are being revived for use in the neo-southern cookery of the twenty-first century.

Key words
  • culinary oils
  • Thomas Jefferson & agriculture
  • olive oil
  • benne oil
  • cuisine with benne
  • cottonseed oil
  • cotton seed oil
  • David Wesson
  • salad oil
  • ©© 2010 The Regents of the University of California. All Rights Reserved.

Log in using your username and password

Enter your Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
Forgot your user name or password?

Log in through your institution

You may be able to gain access using your login credentials for your institution. Contact your library if you do not have a username and password.
If your organization uses OpenAthens, you can log in using your OpenAthens username and password. To check if your institution is supported, please see this list. Contact your library for more details.

PreviousNext
Back to top

Vol. 10 No. 4, Fall 2010

Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies: 10 (4)
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Cover (PDF)
  • Index by author
eTOC Alert

RSSRSS Icon

Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Prospecting for Oil
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies web site.
Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation Tools
Prospecting for Oil
david s. shields
Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 10 No. 4, Fall 2010; (pp. 25-34) DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2010.10.4.25
david s. shields
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Request Permissions
Share
Prospecting for Oil
david s. shields
Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 10 No. 4, Fall 2010; (pp. 25-34) DOI: 10.1525/gfc.2010.10.4.25
david s. shields
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • View author's works on this site
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Technorati logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
View Full Page PDF
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Top
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

Cited By...

More in this TOC Section

  • Border Meals
  • Sharing Through Thought and Food
  • Daily Dose
Show more investigations

Similar Articles

FIND US Facebook Account LinkRSS Feeds LinkTwitter Account LinkLinkedin Account LinkYoutube Account LinkEmail Link

Customer Service

  • Reprints and Permissions
  • Contact

UC Press

  • About UC Press

Navigate

  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • Editorial
  • Contact

Content

  • Current Issue
  • All Content

Info For

  • Librarians
  • Authors
  • Advertisers
  • Subscriptions and Single Issues

Copyright © 2019 by the Regents of the University of California  Privacy   Accessibility