Stony Brook Butternut Squash Seed Oil
Another wonderful seed, transformed into a world-class finishing oil
It would probably be sort of silly to think that my experience of new-product arrivals here is at all akin to that of a customer coming in the door to shop or eat (or going online, for that matter). I’m often involved in product selection so early on in the process that when something “makes its debut,” the feeling I have is actually more one of relief—for us having worked through all the logistical challenges of getting something here from whatever obscure place we’ve sourced—than it is about discovering a new set of flavors. All of which is to say, the element of surprise is usually not a factor for me. But that said, 15 or so years ago, I experienced what I think a lot of our customers do all the time: I stumbled onto something really intriguing on the Deli’s shelves—something delicious that I never even knew I should, or could, be looking for. And all these years later, I still love it.
Never having even thought about or heard of butternut squash seed oil before that surprise sighting—let alone eaten it—I called Greg Woodruff, who, along with his wife, Kelly Coughlin, makes this oil at Stony Brook WholeHeartedFoods in upstate New York. As is so often the case in our work, nice people pop up behind nice products—good stuff, good story. You can likely read a lot of this online, but the basic background, as Greg tells it, is this:
We started when my wife and I moved out to the Finger Lakes from Boston back in 2007. We’d had a mail-order cookie company, but when we moved, we immediately got involved with a food project here helping a farmer work with the leftover seeds that were coming out of their processing facility. They have a really healthy crop of squash that they grow every year for the Wegman’s supermarkets. They do a ready-to-cook thing where they peel, seed, and dice the squash, and Wegman’s sells it prewrapped that way. They had a tremendous amount of seed left over—like 30-40,000 pounds. There was so much of it, they couldn’t even compost it all. We worked with Cornell, and we found that there was food-grade oil to be had from the seeds. My background is in food, with a degree in hospitality management, and I thought we’d see what we could figure out. So we did.
Quite simply, the oil tastes extremely darned good. Kudos to Cornell University and to Kelly and Greg for bringing it into the world.
Pour a little on a white plate or into a glass bowl where you can see it full spectrum. It’s kind of deepish gold in color, with a hint of green shimmering just under the surface—but only a teeny bit green, mostly gold. It’s deep, dark, and a touch mysterious, maybe, but actually almost luminescent if you let it sit in the sunlight. If you put your nose near it, it has a great aroma—something, I think, akin to the smell of caramelized squash when you take it out of the sauté pan.
If you’ve had—and I know most people haven’t—Styrian pumpkin seed oil from Austria, then you’ll have at least a decent idea of what this one will be like. The oil is rich, buttery, nutty, and a touch toasty, with a nice nose. (It’s almost pine-nutty, if that’s an adjective, with a very clean finish.) Salad is an obvious option, but it’s also excellent drizzled onto fish; sautéed, roasted, or steamed vegetables; or mozzarella with roasted peppers. And it’s outstanding on avocados with some blue cheese and toasted walnuts.
Vanessa Sly, the original Deli specialty foods manager who brought the oil in all those years ago, told me back then, “I think it’s delicious. I love it. I love the depth of the flavor. It’s very rich. It’s really nice in squash soup, like if you make a summer squash soup and then drizzle it around. You could even garnish it with squash blossoms.” Put a few drops on something, surprise your friends or family, and celebrate summer.
