Troubled oils

There can be no finer example of Britain’s cooking renaissance than the transformation of olive oil from an expensive garnish to a workhorse of the frying pan. Trouble is afoot in the world of cooking oils, however. The middle-class Meccas of Le Creuset and John Lewis have warned that using the Mediterranean nectar to cook with is damaging pans.

Better, they say, to go for oils with higher smoking points, such as sunflower oil. Yet war in Ukraine has devastated supplies of that alternative and soon we will be almost entirely without. Is the act of frying to be another victim of overlapping global crises? Perhaps home chefs should look backwards to move forwards. Nothing gives food quite as lovely a gloss as frying it in those post-war staples, beef dripping and lard. If that seems bad news, there’s another silver lining. England’s summer fields may again shine golden yellow as a new hero of the hour emerges, the humble rapeseed.