Coconut oil question page

[alexa85]

due to my greek heritage, olive oil has always been the oil of choice for cooking. but since readying PB and looking at the forums i see a lot of people use coconut oil so i went down to the healthfood store and got some. i also plan on making the nut/fruit bar square things for an upcoming camping trip. it's cold press extra-virgin, i suppose that's the best? some said "refined" so i just avoided those...
can you just use coconut oil in place of olive oil? does it give food a sweet taste? do you just add it by the tablespoon or teaspoon, b/c it's pretty much solid?
also, i saw some coconut milk in the cooler section next to regular cow milk and goat milk...does anyone sub that for dairy or is it used for cooking? i thought about getting some but ended up not. i also saw coconut kefir, sounded yummy, anyone ever tried that?
thanks for the help!

[MikeEnRegalia]

Coconut oil can be used for cooking ... in fact it's much better for cooking than olive oil, because the saturated fats are more resistant to the heat. You can also use coconut oil for salads - but it gets solid at temperatures lower than 25 degrees celcius. You can avoid that by mixing it with olive oil.

IMO Coconut oil is superior to olive oil because it has mostly medium chain fatty acids (saturated), while olive oil has mostly (long chain) monounsaturated fat. Both are healthy, but the medium chain fatty acids have some pretty unique features. I've written too many posts about them already, but I made a post in the MDA topic suggestion section, so hopefully Mark will do a post specifically about MCFAs.

[janaturner]

I use coconut oil for cooking and it doesn't really impart a flavour - though that probably depends on what you're cooking, I haven't noticed anything. As MikeEnRalia said it's much better for cooking. I still use olive oil for salad dressings but mostly because I never have enough bacon fat leftover to make bacon vinaigrette!

I love coconut milk plain or with some cocoa and cinnamon (has to be cold for me though). I started PB using it in coffee instead of cream but have gone back to cream - I only need a teaspoon and it hasn't made any difference (that I've noticed). Depending on how you're using dairy you might be able to sub with coconut milk.

btw, my husband is Greek too. He's actually in Athens right now.

[Grol]

I bought GNC's coconut oil and it is very coconutty. It definitely imparts flavor to food. I've ordered Nutrina brand to see if there is a difference. It's going to take some adjusting for me if there isn't. That stuff makes this whole house smell like tanning oil for a couple hours. Though egg wash and almond flour dipped onion rings fried up in coconut oil were pretty spectacular. Chicken and fish... not so much.

[primalpanda]

I tried coconut kefir recently and thought it was foul stuff, choked down a small glass and tossed the rest. I LOVE dairy kefir so I'll stick with that. Everyone's tastes are different, though, so you might still give it a try.

The coconut milk in the dairy case isn't the same as coconut milk in a can. I don't have the two here to compare but nutritionally speaking the milk in the can is more "concentrated" and I know for sure that it has fewer ingredients. The milk in the can is just coconut plain and simple, the drink is meant to be a dairy or soymilk substitute and has a bunch of other stuff in it to give it the "right" flavor and texture. I've tried it and it's all right, but I'd rather spend my energy and calories on the real deal.

[Feanor78]

I bought GNC's coconut oil and it is very coconutty. It definitely imparts flavor to food. I've ordered Nutrina brand to see if there is a difference. It's going to take some adjusting for me if there isn't. That stuff makes this whole house smell like tanning oil for a couple hours. Though egg wash and almond flour dipped onion rings fried up in coconut oil were pretty spectacular. Chicken and fish... not so much.

Really? I fried some cod fillets that I egg washed and coated in almond flour and fried in coconut oil - it was pretty much the best fried fish I've ever had.

[alexa85]

ok great, i can't wait to use it. i believe mine is the nutrina? but, i'm not sure.
i'll have to look into coconut milk some more. as far as the kefir goes, i got some plain kefir to try but ended up just wanting my whole greek yogurt instead b/c it's so creamy! i figured maybe if it was a lil sweeter (like coconut) i would like it better.
i never thought about the onion rings/fish/chicken thing! what an excellent idea, my girlfriend will thank ya'll a hundred times for telling me that!

ps. i wish i was in athens!

[Bolivar]

Ive also taken an interest in this. Ive looked around and uh....I can only find cosmetics? The tubs are all like hair gels/waxes, this is the right thing.......or is it? Cant seem to find anything else (at least in the UK)