Three small dishes of oil on a wooden board, one pale gold, one deep amber, one light straw, beside roasted hazelnuts and a scatter of toasted sesame seeds

La Tourangelle: A Loire Valley Mill Pressing in California

La Tourangelle is a French oil mill that crossed an ocean. The company dates itself to 1867 in Bourgueil, in the Loire Valley. Today it presses oil the traditional way in two places: Saumur, France, and Woodland, California. Its range runs from roasted nut and seed oils to unroasted oils for everyday cooking. La Tourangelle oils include a roasted hazelnut oil (shop La Tourangelle Roasted Hazelnut Oil), a toasted sesame oil (shop La Tourangelle Toasted Sesame Oil) and an organic canola oil (shop La Tourangelle Organic Canola Oil). Two are roasted and one is not, and that choice shapes how each one is cooked.

A Loire Valley mill and the family that bought it

According to La Tourangelle's French site, the Loire Valley once had small oil mills all along the river, each toasting and pressing nuts from local farms. The same site traces the company's origins to that tradition and places its French production in Saumur today. La Tourangelle says the Kohlmeyer family bought it in the early 1990s and that a renaissance followed that let it expand internationally.

In 2002 Matthieu Kohlmeyer, the family's second eldest son, moved to Northern California to recreate the family's French mill there. According to the company, he had the presses custom-made, and a French master miller trained the American staff. The company marked its twentieth year of pressing oil in California in 2023. The Woodland mill now sits on a 28-acre property with 10,000 olive trees and a solar farm, and the company says it runs two oil laboratories. It also says it was the first California oil maker to earn regenerative-organic certification, for its sunflower oil.

How the oil is made

The company describes its process in one sentence: the nuts or organic seeds are selected, "hand-roasted in cast iron kettles when appropriate, mechanically pressed with a hydraulic press, and lightly filtered." Other pages on its site describe the pressing as expeller pressing. Both are mechanical methods, and the company contrasts its roasted oils with chemically refined ones. The two words that matter are "when appropriate." Roasting is decided oil by oil, and the two roasted oils in this guide carry lower heat ratings from the maker than the unroasted canola.

The French site gives the reason for roasting: when the nuts are "perfectly toasted, their flavour is brought out in the oil." The chemistry is the browning covered in the Maillard and caramelization guide. In a 2022 study, researchers roasted sesame seeds at temperatures from 120 to 300°C. The oil turned steadily redder as the temperature rose, a change the authors credit to browning compounds that may form through the Maillard reaction. In that study, roasting also raised oil yield from 33.5 percent for unroasted seed to 62.6 percent for seed roasted at 250°C.

The same roasting reduced a lignan called sesamolin by up to 27.5 percent. The authors say sesamolin can be degraded into phenolic compounds with higher antioxidant potential, and total phenolics rose 21.5 percent. The induction period, a lab measure of how long an oil resists oxidation, rose from 5.5 hours for unroasted seed to 10.5 hours for seed roasted at 300°C. Hazelnuts have been studied the same way: a 2006 study roasted them at 125 to 200°C for 5 to 30 minutes and found only minor changes in their fatty acid profile.

Roasted hazelnut, toasted sesame and organic canola

Roasted hazelnut oil. La Tourangelle calls it bold and aromatic. It is made in Woodland following what the maker calls 150-year-old French traditional methods, and the maker recommends it for sautéing, baking and finishing at medium-high heat. A 2023 study of Turkish hazelnut cultivars found oleic acid at 76.04 to 84.80 percent of total fatty acids and linoleic acid at 8.47 to 12.79 percent. The company's roasted-oils page also lists vinaigrettes among the uses for its roasted oils, and the vinaigrette ratio guide gives the proportions. The nut itself gets its own treatment in the Piedmont in Autumn guide.

Toasted sesame oil. The maker says the seeds are "lightly toasted, expeller-pressed, and gently filtered," and holds that the finest toasted sesame oil should be "bold and complex but not overpowering." The maker rates it for medium heat and suggests sautéing, marinades and dressings. The 2022 roasting study measured sesame oil's linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated fat, at 43.6 to 44.4 percent, against 8.47 to 12.79 percent in the 2023 hazelnut study. Oleic acid in the sesame oil ran 37.0 to 37.6 percent, and palmitic 9.2 to 9.4.

Organic canola oil. This is the unroasted one. La Tourangelle expeller-presses it from organic, non-GMO canola seed and describes it as a neutral everyday cooking oil for sautéing, frying and grilling at high heat. Canola is a young crop. According to the Canola Council of Canada, Dr. Baldur Stefansson of the University of Manitoba bred the first low-erucic-acid, low-glucosinolate variety, called Tower, in 1974. The name comes from "Canadian oil," and less than 2 percent erucic acid is now the global standard for canola.

The three oils side by side

Roasted hazelnut Toasted sesame Organic canola
Roasted before pressing Yes Yes, lightly No
Dominant fats in published studies Oleic, 76 to 85 percent; linoleic, 8.5 to 12.8 (Turkish cultivars, 2023) Linoleic, about 44 percent; oleic, about 37 (2022 roasting study) Not measured in the cited studies; canola must have under 2 percent erucic acid, the global standard
Maker's heat guidance Medium-high Medium High
On the maker's refrigerate-after-opening list Yes No No
Maker's suggested uses Sautéing, baking, finishing Sautéing, marinades, dressings Sautéing, frying, grilling

Storing the three oils

La Tourangelle's FAQ recommends refrigerating the roasted hazelnut oil after opening. It does not list the toasted sesame or the organic canola for refrigeration, and it names the organic canola among the oils best stored in a cool, dry place. The FAQ says to use the oils within six months of opening. The company says it chose tins because they protect the oil from oxidation and light. For the cupboard itself, see the pantry storage guide.

Cooking with the three

The company suggests its roasted oils for stir-fries, marinades, vinaigrettes, drizzles, dressings and desserts. The maker's heat ratings sort the three in the pan: canola for frying and grilling at high heat, hazelnut for sautéing and baking at medium-high, and sesame for sautéing at medium heat and for marinades. A hazelnut-oil vinaigrette over roasted squash, a sesame marinade for chicken thighs and canola for the sear put all three to work in one week. For olive oil, see the Olive Oil: The Complete Buying Guide.

La Tourangelle's roasted hazelnut oil (shop La Tourangelle Roasted Hazelnut Oil), toasted sesame oil (shop La Tourangelle Toasted Sesame Oil) and organic canola oil (shop La Tourangelle Organic Canola Oil) each have a product page. Products ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com. The shop is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver. Visitors can ask staff questions in the shop.

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