Can You Cook With MCT Oil?

Can you cook – fry, sauté, roast and bake – with MCT oil? The TLDR; answer is no. While it’s easy to add to many recipes cooking with it at temperatures at/above 350 degrees Fahrenheit is not a good idea.

The reason for this is its smoke point. When you heat MCT oil to or above 350 degrees Fahrenheit, it begins to smoke. Read below to learn why this is not a good thing.

There are 2 bad things that occur when you are cooking with MCT oil at and above its smoke point.

MCT oil starts to break down and no longer has any benefits like getting into ketosis faster. It’s actually bad for your health. The compounds it breaks down into are called free radicals. Too many free radicals cursing around your body is no good for your health.
Cooking with MCTs or any oil at or above its smoke point ruins the flavor of whatever you’re cooking. It’ll taste rancid, bitter, burnt, and all around gross. Don’t do that to yourself and your food.

Table of Contents

My Experience Frying Food With MCT Oil

If you take nothing else from this article, trust me enough not to try it for yourself. I’ve already tried. I once got the idea to fry shallots in MCT oil to use on top of a nice piece of seared tuna. What happened when the MCT oil heated up was pretty crazy. The oil didn’t just smoke. It went from its liquid state to a thick foam. I couldn’t have fried the shallots in it if I tried.

The Best Fats For Frying, Sauteing, and Roasting Meats And Vegetables

Since MCT oil is out of the question, what oils should you use when cooking above 350 degrees Fahrenheit?

You can always use canola or other vegetable oil. Although neither are recommended. They’re also not the healthiest oil to cook with . The flavor they give the food I’ve fried isn’t any good either.

Here’s a few fats that are much better for frying, with regard to both taste and your health.

- Lard – made from pig fat, lard has a very high smoke point and tastes great.
- Tallow – made from beef fat, it’s my favorite oil to use when frying.
- Olive oil – yep, don’t listen to the haters. It too is safe for frying. Just be forewarned that whatever you fry with it will taste like olive oil. Not so great for meat – lard and tallow are better – but it does taste great with vegetables.
- Clarified butter – If you like the taste of butter, this is for you. Also called Ghee, clarified butter is easy to make or you can buy it premade. I use this when frying fish or keto chicken cutlets. The flavor is unreal.
- Bacon fat – If you want your food to have a smokey, savory, bacon flavor use this one. I strain the oil every time I cook bacon and always have some ready in the fridge. It adds a smoky, savory flavor to burgers and roasted vegetables.

So, What Can You Cook With MCT Oil?

Anything that doesn’t require the temperature of whatever you’re cooking to be at or above 350 degrees.

I personally don’t bother cooking with it and instead drizzle a tablespoon on top of whatever food I’ve already cooked. This enables me to get a full serving of MCTs, without making the food taste nasty. I think it actually helps enhance the flavor of foods I add to this way. Taking MCTs with food also eliminates the chance of an upset stomach, which can happen when you take a full serving off a spoon.

You should also add MCT oil to recipes that don’t require any cooking. This includes protein shakes, guacamole, and pesto sauce. The sky’s the limit. Since it’s flavorless and doesn’t even have a scent to it, you can add MCT to almost any food.

How Much MCT Oil Should I Add To My Recipes?

I don’t typically add more than a tablespoon per serving to whatever I make. This gives you enough to get its energy boosting, hunger crushing, ketone boosting benefits. It’s also only X calories.

Which MCT Oil Is The Best?

My personal choice is MCT Edge. It’s a pharmaceutical grade form of MCTs which comes from a sustainably sourced environment. All you get in each serving is a healthy dose of MCT oil that’s safe to take.

It’s flavorless and odorless so you can add it to any drink, protein shake, or drizzle it over your food without changing its flavor.

Learn more about MCT Edge.

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Curt Pedersen

I’ve been fascinated with human performance and striving to help myself and others perform our best since I was a skinny and weak 90 lb high school freshman. This led to studying exercise science and biochemistry in college and graduate school and working with countless men and women to get leaner, stronger, and fitter. I’ve also published more than 1,000 articles on physical fitness and performance for dozens of publications including: Stayfitcentral, Business Insider, Lifehack, and Breaking Muscle.