Can You Cook with Fractionated Coconut Oil?

Before telling you whether you can cook with fractionated coconut oil, let me back up a little bit.

Fractionated coconut oil is a name given to an oil that carries only medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). It’s named as such due to the involvement of fractionation in the refining process.

For different purposes, manufacturers or companies label it differently. Some simply label their product as “Fractionated Coconut Oil”, some call it “MCT Oil” while a few others name it “Liquid Coconut Oil”.

Which Fractionated Coconut Oil can You Cook with?

If you wish to know whether you can cook with the one that they label as “Fractionated Coconut Oil”, let me tell you, you can’t. Why? It has not passed the food grade test. And so, you can only use it topically.

People use this fractionated coconut oil more commonly as a carrier oil for diluting essential oils in massage. Of course, you can also use it on your scalp and hair. As long as you use it externally, you’re safe.

On the other hand, you can cook with the fractionated coconut oil that they either label as “MCT Oil” or “Liquid Coconut Oil”. They’re edible because they have passed the food grade test.

Cooking with MCT Oil

However, my experience in cooking with this type of fractionated coconut oil wasn’t a pleasant one. After pouring some MCT oil onto the frying pan and slowly turned up the heat, I could smell the mild pungent odor coming from the oil. I didn’t quite like it.

The mouthfeel of the cooked food was peculiar too. It tasted as such probably because the fractionated coconut oil comprises only caprylic and capric acids. Natural coconut oil, on the other hand, carries a variety of fatty acids that makes the oil more satisfying.

Cooking with Liquid Coconut Oil

If you’re like me, you can choose liquid coconut oil. It’s a fractionated coconut oil “designed” specifically for cooking. It tastes a bit more oily as it contains an extra MCT compound – lauric acid.

They add lauric acid trying to make fractionated coconut oil as good as virgin coconut oil, which contains the beneficial lauric acid.

However, I still prefer cooking with my choice virgin coconut oil because it makes my food tastier and more enjoyable.

Not cooking with MCT oil doesn’t mean I don’t use it at all.

I love adding more energy punch to my soy milk, green smoothie or multigrain drink with MCT oil during breakfast. Why? Because I know very well that MCT converts to energy very quickly.

That also explains why many people are now adding MCT oil to make a bulletproof coffee.

I use MCT oil for skin care too because it seeps quickly into my skin. And my skin becomes silky smooth in an instant.

That’s my take on using and consuming fractionated coconut oil.

If you don’t mind the little pungent smell emitted during cooking and you like your food to be less oily, then you’ll enjoy cooking with fractionated coconut oil that is edible.