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When we think of Italy or Spain, we think of olive oil. When we think of India, we think of ghee.

If I was trying to make something that tasted Japanese at home, I wouldn't use olive oil, because if I start with olive oil, that will permeate the whole dish, and it will never taste properly Japanese.

So to make the thing taste of the place, start with the fat of the place.

— Samin Nosrat "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat"

I felt like this was a potentially ill-informed and naive take, since as far as I know, Japanese cooking doesn't really have a characteristic oil or fat. Modern Japanese recipes often use サラダ油, literally "salad oil", which is typically a refined, tasteless canola.

Sesame oil is used in particular dishes, such as 和え物 (dressed dishes), but it is certainly not ubiquitous like it is in Korean cuisine.

Apart from these, particularly in modern dishes, オリーブオイル (olive oil) is indeed used in Japanese recipes, possibly as a response to modern health trends. Also, naturally chicken fat and beef fat have their place, but generally only to complement dishes that highlight chicken meat and beef respectively.

But these are the only cooking oils I generally ever see in Japanese-language recipes.

In the culinary history of Japan, before the availability of neutral, refined oils, what was commonly used as a cooking medium? Is there an oil that would be considered typical of the Japanese flavour profile?

jogloran
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    It reads to me like not using olive oil (which with its distinctive, sometimes strong, flavour) is key, so a neutral oil is better than that. Still, perhaps the book would have been improved for an example of what should be used – Chris H Mar 18 '24 at 06:51

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It seems that for the historical period before the opening of the country at the end of the Edo period, rapeseed oil was indeed very common, alongside sesame oil and soybean oil, as per the Tokyo Foundation. Relevant quote:

Rapeseed oil has been used in Japan alongside sesame oil and soy oil since shojin ryori (Buddhist vegetarian cuisine) was introduced during the Kamakura period (1185-1333). Its production surged in the Edo period (1603-1868) as Western-influenced fried foods such as tempura and ganmodoki (deep-fried tofu balls) became widely popular.

The Japanese Wiki site for rapeseed mentions that "Rapeseed oil was mainly used as a raw material for paraffin and became an integral part of daily life." (via DeepL translator). So it was also or mainly a lighting oil, not cooking oil, although no explicit primary source is given.

John Doe
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    This definitely explains why サラダ油 (canola oil, lit. "salad oil") is so popular in Japanese cooking. Insofar as rapeseed oil doesn't have a characteristic flavour, I have to conclude that Japan doesn't actually have a "fat of the place" and that the author didn't pick an especially good example to make their point. – jogloran Mar 18 '24 at 19:09
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    @jogloran No, it’s actually a really good example. If you go and try to make tempura using lard, or tallow, or olive oil, or peanut oil, it will taste distinctly different from authentic Japanese tempura. The use of a neutral oil is a critical part of how the cuisine tastes, because it still functions as a carrier for hydrophobic flavorants (such as capsaicin, pipperine, or citral) without imparting a flavor of it’s own to the dish. – Austin Hemmelgarn Mar 19 '24 at 02:07
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    It's worth mentioning that the Japanese name for rapeseed is aburana (油菜), literally "oil vegetable/plant". – lambshaanxy Mar 19 '24 at 03:57
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    Worth noting that historically, rapeseed oil ("canola" refers to a modern product of plants selectively bred to avoid the problem) had a very high erucic acid content (much like mustard oil). English Wikipedia claims that "Historically, it was restricted as a food oil", although it isn't clear if the negative health effects observed in other animals actually occur in humans, nor if these dangers were known to earlier civilizations. But it does taste bitter and couldn't really be called a "neutral oil". – Karl Knechtel Mar 19 '24 at 11:44
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    There is a common trope in the "health food" world that all seed oils are unsafe industrial byproducts that nobody in the world consumed before the 19th century. This answer is an interesting counterpoint to that claim. – shadowtalker Mar 19 '24 at 17:23
  • @KarlKnechtel It was certainly used for cooking in Japan (e.g. for frying tofu) before modern varieties. I wonder if the growing conditions, cultivars, or Japanese processing methods made a difference. After all, Wikipedia mentions rapeseed oil as being green (from chlorophyll) before treatment, but the traditionally produced type in Japan was red/brown. – Chris H Mar 21 '24 at 09:18
  • ...I've had some locally produced that was distinctly greenish, and had a bit of flavour. Not really bitter, but I wouldn't notice a slight bitterness (maybe because of all the strong black coffee I drink, but I'm not opposed to mild bitter flavours), especially as it's for frying, not drink, and therefore heavily diluted by other flavours – Chris H Mar 21 '24 at 09:20
  • @shadowtalker what I have seen is that they mean that seed oils produced by modern processes are just that, and that said processes were not (in many cases, could not have been) used earlier in history, and have some harmful effect on the oil. They will all readily agree that "cold-pressed" seed oils from "organically grown" plants etc. etc. are fine - especially if that gives them the opportunity to sell you some. – Karl Knechtel Mar 21 '24 at 17:31
  • @ChrisH I would expect a "neutral oil" to have, necessarily, a clear or pale yellow colour. – Karl Knechtel Mar 21 '24 at 17:32
  • @KarlKnechtel it's "neutral" as in flavour. That may coincide with a pale colour, there may even be a correlation, but there's no necessity about it. Colourful compounds don't have to have a flavour, and vice versa – Chris H Mar 21 '24 at 20:38
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    Interestingly, the EU also uses a variety of canola, though the name was never adopted - it's still called rapeseed in the UK. However, American canola is predominantly GMO, and is banned in the EU. You can now get 'extra virgin' rapeseed oil in the UK as well as the more common refined. I found an article that compresses a lot of this info into one easy read - https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/04/30/403041486/how-british-farmers-are-making-rapeseed-canola-posh-and-flavorful – Tetsujin Mar 26 '24 at 10:02
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Is there an oil that would be considered typical of the Japanese flavor profile?

Since you already quoted Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, I would point to page 72 where the "World of Fat" map has an entry for Japan. It lists neutral oil, and sesame oil for Japan. Canola and soybean oil are both neutral oils, and would have been available in Japan historically.

Michael Nolan
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    Rapeseed oil would have been available historically, but canola oil has only existed anywhere since the 1970s - it's the result of selective breeding of the same plant, which drastically reduces the erucic acid content of the resulting oil. The historically available oil would have had a bitter taste from erucic acid and could not have been used the same way. – Karl Knechtel Mar 19 '24 at 11:52