Cooking With Coconut Oil

There are numerous types of cooking oils, but one of the very best is coconut oil. Coconut oil is not only an excellent cooking oil, and fantastic for baking, but it is also full of healthy medium chain fatty acids, vitamins and minerals. Cooking with coconut oil is a far healthier choice than cooking with vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, or even olive oil. Coconut oil is excellent for frying and sautéing, and has a moderately high smoke and burning point. It has a shelf life of at least two years, and makes an excellent margarine, shortening, butter and lard substitute.

Benefits Of Cooking With Coconut Oil

Is cooking with coconut oil healthy? Yes, it is! Coconut oil is one of the healthiest types of cooking oils there are. Cooking with coconut oil has more healthy benefits than cooking with one of the other cooking oils like vegetable oil or olive oil. How is cooking with coconut oil healthy for you? Coconut oil is packed full of great nutrients and vitamins, and has short and medium chain fatty acids that help to keep the body functioning properly. This remarkable oil helps to boost the immune system and helps to increase the body’s metabolism and energy levels. Cooking with coconut oil helps to sustain healthy cholesterol levels, helps to unclog arteries and helps to prevent diseases like heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and many more.

How To Cook With Coconut Oil

Cooking with coconut oil is easy; it can be used for frying and sautéing, and can be used in baking. Coconut oil can be used as a replacement for all other types of cooking oils, and can be used as a butter, margarine, shortening or lard substitute in baking. Coconut oil has a light coconut flavor that can be tasted when used for cooking and baking; most people enjoy the flavor, but some people do not. Those who do not enjoy the coconut flavor of coconut oil can use an expeller pressed coconut oil. Expeller pressed coconut oil is both flavorless and scentless; however, it does not contain the numerous healthy benefits that an unrefined coconut oil does. Coconut oil has a smoke point of 250 degrees F. If when cooking with it, it begins to smokes it should be discarded; once any cooking oil reaches its smoke point it becomes unhealthy.

Baking With Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is not just fantastic for cooking, it is also great for baking; it is great in everything from pie crusts, to cookies and cake, to muffins and even bread. Coconut oil can be used as a healthy substitute for butter, shortening, lard, Crisco and other similar things. When using coconut oil in baking, people may have to adjust their recipe slightly as coconut oil tends to make baked goods a little drier than when butter, shortening , lard or other similar ingredients are used. When substituting butter, shortening, lard or margarine with coconut oil, generally it is a one cup to one cup ratio that is used; use one cup of coconut oil to replace one cup of butter, lard or shortening. There are numerous baking with coconut oil cookbooks and recipes online that people can use. Coconut oil can also be used as an excellent greasing product for cookie sheets, pie plates and other similar things. Coconut oil can be in two forms, solid or liquid, depending on the temperature it is kept at. When working with it in its solid state, it may be necessary to whip it or heat it up slightly, so it is more workable and clump free.

Coconut Oil Cooking Temperature

All cooking oils have a smoke point and a burn point. Once cooking oil reaches its smoke point and starts to smoke the oil becomes very unhealthy and dangerous, and should be thrown out. The smoke point of most coconut oils is around 350 degrees Fahrenheit or 177 Celsius. Most coconut oils start to burn at around 420 degrees or 215 Celsius. The smoke point and burn point of coconut oil is higher when the oil is refined than when it is unrefined. However, unrefined coconut oil contains more healthy properties than refined oil does.

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