Review: Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil

Gold Label Standard Virgin Coconut Oil by Tropical Traditions is a versatile, 100% organic cooking oil. I recently received a jar to test out, and since I love to cook, I had fun trying this out. I’ve never used coconut oil before, so I was looking forward to cooking with it and seeing how it compared to olive oil, which is what I typically use.

Coconut oil is solid, with a butter-like texture. For my first test, I decided to use it while making pancakes. I put a dollop of the oil in my pan and let it melt. My kitchen was filled with the aroma of coconut – mmm!

What I noticed while cooking these pancakes is how the oil absorbed. The batter soaked up almost all of the oil like a sponge, so I kept adding quite a lot to the pan as I made these hotcakes. This gave the pancakes a very different texture – richer and heavier. It used a lot of oil, but it was sure good! I usually put butter on my pancakes, but they were already so buttery from the oil that it wasn’t necessary. It lent a nice flavor to them, and everyone liked it.

Next, I used it to oil a pan for a casserole that I was making. I think I could have used less oil, but since I would be layering a batter in the pan, I thought it might absorb a lot of oil. The crust on my casserole was dense, like cornbread, and crispy.

Next, I tried frying up some meat with the oil. Once again, I used way too much. I’m still getting used to how this unique oil works for different purposes.

What I noticed about using this to fry meat was that it cooked rapidly, and at a lower temperature. I’m not sure if this oil gets hotter than olive oil, or if it’s because I used so much.

The meat was yummy and made a great filling for the pasties I made earlier in the week. I thought about using the oil to grease my pie plate, but I was a little afraid that it might burn the crust since it seemed to absorb so rapidly in the pancakes. In retrospect, I think I could have used the oil in its solid state to butter the pan – I’ll try it next time and see how it works out. I’m also eager to try this in place of margarine the next time I bake something. I’m curious to see how it would react and affect the finished product – I bet it would make cakes a little richer and lend a nice flavor. But I’ll have to test it out and see!

Tropical Traditions have a ton of coconut oil recipes on their website, so if you’d like some culinary inspiration, click here. You can also submit your own recipes, and if selected for publication, you will receive a coupon for a free product.

So far, I have enjoyed the food that I made using it, and I have a ton left in the jar – I think it’ll last me for some time. If you decide that you’d like to try this in your own kitchen, you can visit Tropical Traditions and order the quart of coconut oil that I tried for $27.50. And if you do decide to purchase some because of this post, I’d appreciate it if you could give me a shout-out and cite my user ID (5043098) under “Referred by”, as I am participating in their referral program.