Coconut oil and sous vide

After dinner the other evening, I was asked about using coconut oil and MCT oil (fractionated coconut oil - combo of caprylic and capric fats) via sous vide. Given the various oils and fats used, I don't see an issue with using them, but wanted to put that question out there.....or perhaps someone has tried either of them?

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Brandon_Byrd_40557

I've done it several times with no problems. Even did a SV infusion of coffee into coconut oil that turned out well.

tshewman

Thanks Brandon! I am tempted to try it with chicken (I use coconut oil pretty regularly when sauteing). If you have tried this (or similar), please let me know, if not, I'll try it next week when I am back home. :-)

Brandon_Byrd_40557

I've done it with chicken, pork, carrots, and snow peas. I tend to use unrefined coconut oil so that a lot of the flavor and aroma comes through. I wouldn't use MCT oil for cooking proteins because you're probably going to sear them off after SV and MCT has a low smoke point (and you usually dry it off anyway before cooking, so there'd be no benefit to using MCT anyway). I imagine it'd work fine for vegetable applications where you need a neutral oil, but I'd be wary of using too much (too much MCT can cause some digestive discomfort).

tshewman

Thanks Brandon! Have suffered the MCT discomfort many years ago :-) but a tablespoon for veggies among a few of us would probably be ok as I sometimes will finish with it when serving. I'll more than likely start with the unrefined and see how it works. Thanks again!!

tshewman

Update - Tried the coconut oil with chicken breasts sous vide today. It actually seemed to make it a bit dry. Same prep, steps etc per usual (brine, prepare, package, cook, sear), so not sure if I mis-stepped or am being overly critical. That said,other things I did using the cocunt oil that turned out VERY nicely. Vegetable and mushrooms stocks, onion+leek, butternut squash, mushroom and cauliflower puree. All except the cauliflower puree were done using the pressure cooker. Much more residual liquid in the purees than when I use butter (with the lack of water loss, one would expect that). The left over jus from the onion+leek puree was so nice, I used it to make the cauliflower puree stove top. Over all, I am pleased with the uses and potential for some of my vegetarian friends and curious about the chicken results so will have to try again.

Ian_George_72918

I have both coconut and avocado oils and tried avocado tonight on 2 scotch fillets, and used coconut last week on the same. I found both worked fine but preferred the taste with the avocado. I am trying to stay away from cooking with olive oil and found avocado to compliment the steak flavor.