One Sunday afternoon recently I  placed a pan on the range to heat.  Inside was about an ounce of VCO and a wooden spatula - all ready to stir fry the veg.  (Silly, but true).  The phone rang and, yes, you guessed it ... I forgot all about the pan!

The first indication that anything was amiss came when I started coughing.  Something was aggravating my breathing.  Realisation was quick to come.  Oh my goodness - the coconut oil!  

It had been heating for 20 minutes on full heat.  The house was filled with smoke and smelled badly of something else I was unable to identify at that moment.  With heart thumping and expecting to see flames rising, I rushed to the kitchen.

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To my absolute amazement, the pan was still intact, the oil was only slightly smoking but the wooden spatula was charred black one third of the way up the handle!  Even more amazing was the fact that the oil still had not heated to the point where it turned yellow (and was therefore unusable).  I did, however, throw it away because no doubt it would have tasted of charred wood!!

If this had been any other oil, I am convinced there would have been a house fire.  A dangerous way to prove that coconut oil can be heated to exceptionally high temperatures and not break down.

Coconut Cooking Oil

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