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Ever used ghee? It has the benefits of butter without the casein and proteins that some people react to in butter. so it’s basically the best of both worlds!
What Is Ghee?
In technical terms, ghee is a clarified, unsalted butter with the milk proteins removed. It has a high smoke point, making it perfect for cooking, and an incredible flavor. Many people who cannot tolerate dairy can handle ghee and it is a revered food in Indian cuisine.
The Benefits of Ghee
I’m a big believer that traditional cultures knew things about food that science is still catching up to, and ghee is one of these foods! From fermenting sauerkraut to soaking nuts and seed to release their phytic acid, learning how to make traditional foods is an important step when it comes to improving nutrition and gut health.
Ghee is considered “liquid gold” and very important in Indian culture (and has been for centuries). When made from high quality butter from grass fed cows, it is a great source of fat soluble vitamins like vitamin K and is great for teeth, hair, skin, and nails.
How Does it Taste?
Let’s be honest… ghee is like butter on crack! It has more intense flavor and more nutrients, so a little bit goes a really long way. The flavor is great in many different recipes and dishes and you can use it pretty much as you would butter.
If you’re buying store-bought, I do find the flavor really varies by brand and definitely recommend this one over all others just based on flavor.
How to Use Ghee
I like using ghee for making stir frys in a wok since it has such a high smoke point. Also, with wok cooking, only a tiny amount of ghee is needed. Ghee is also incredible on a baked sweet potato, in eggs, or on steamed or roasted vegetables.
Ghee is expensive to buy, but simple to make, so this is one traditional food I keep in our meal prep rotation. Unlike butter, it does not need to be refrigerated and is softer for spreading when kept at room temperature. This makes it great for traveling or packing for the beach or camping.
If you’ve never tried it, I highly suggest making ghee and trying it in your cooking, especially if you are sensitive to dairy!
Homemade Ghee Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound butter preferably unsalted, organic, and grass-fed
Instructions
- Cut the butter into cubes and place in a medium-size saucepan.
- Heat the butter over medium heat until completely melted.
- Reduce to a simmer.
- Cook for about 10-15 minutes. During this time, the butter will go through several stages. It will foam, then bubble, then seem to almost stop bubbling and then foam again. When the second foam occurs, the ghee is done. At this point, the melted butter should be bright gold in color and there should be reddish-brown pieces of milk solids at the bottom of the pan.
- Let the ghee cool slightly for 2-3 minutes and then slowly pour through a wire mesh strainer lined with several layers of cheesecloth. The small bits of milk protein are usually discarded, though a friend told me that her grandmother used to mix those with flour (or almond flour) and a small amount of honey to make a flavorful fudge-like treat.
Notes
- Ghee will last up to a month at room temperature or even longer in the fridge.
- I use this brand when I don't have time to make homemade.
Nutrition
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If you’re a visual learner, here’s a photo walk-through of all the steps to make it.
Ever made ghee at home? Ever tried it? Share your experience below!
So… Ghee is basically browned butter?
clarified butter. 99.9% (or so) of milk proteins removed. as close to pure butterfat oil as possible.
Clarified butter and ghee are different. It has to do with cooking temperature, and remaining sugars/solids and water present in the finished products. This effects color, shelf life, and smoke point.
Not quite- if you cook it too how or too long, then it’s browned butter (aka burnt).
Browned butter has all the milk solids still in it. Ghee has ALL the milk solids removed. If you cook ANY fat at too high a temperature for too long it will burn. So no, ghee is different.
More like caramelized butter
I tried this today and had a question – for those of you experts who have made this before 🙂 My final product looks almost like a golden yellow in color with some cloudy floatables and the solids I poured off were a creamy yellow in color. Does this mean I didn’t cook it long enough? Never made ghee before so I might google it too to try to troubleshoot if I did this correctly.
the milk protein solids will “solidify” and sink to the bottom. If you had floaties, then no, you didn’t cook it long enough. Think of it like this.. you are cooking the milk solids, they *deep fry* for lack of a better term (tho it’s not deep fried), so then they solidify and sink.
look up a youtube video, just search “how to make ghee”
Where did you get this recipe?
It’s my own version of an age-old traditional recipe. Why do you ask?
I freaking LOVE ghee! I tried making it once and it turned out ok, but I need to try again. I have mainly been buying mine from Ancient Organics. Their ghee is a-maz-ing!!! It tastes like toffee and makes everything I put it in taste super yummy. It has almost spoiled me to the point that I won’t use anything else which is not good on the wallet 😉
Thanks for the recipe!
Ghee is SO EASY TO MAKE! It just requires attention and patience. Lower heat is better than medium heat on my stove, but each stove is different! The first time, I got it a little TOO toasty. The second and subsequent times were PERFECT! (I went lower).
Ghee works really well for my super allergic daughter. She is VERY ALLERGIC to dairy, yet she can tolerate ghee incredibly well. The cleaner I can get it, the better! (meaning the least amount of dairy protein… take care when filtering it. Don’t be too aggressive to get every last drop of ghee if your child is allergic. the dregs will have the most dairy protein.). HOWEVER, I find the toasty milk protein yummy! I actually try to skim it off while it’s cooking and put it in a little container for myself.
Definitely DO NOT use salted butter to make ghee.
I forgot why… It could be bc it affects how it foams while cooking? don’t quote me on that. look up the “bring me the curry” tutorial on youtube, for how to make ghee. Those ladies tell you why.
For those who might have trouble finding it, ShowMeTheCurry.com has a YouTube tutorial for Ghee (Clarified Butter)
So if you need unpasteurized butter for joints, then ghee would lose those properties, right?, as when you’re cooking it to remove milk solids you’re in a sense pasteurizing it since your heating it. I’d love for it to keep those properties.
as with everything, there is a time and a place for butter… and a time and a place for ghee. If you are into natural fats, then ghee is going to have the highest smoke point of all of them. Say you bake some dish at 450oF …. well, none of your natural real food fats is going to be able to handle that high temp except ghee. Also, you can cook on medium heat with butter… but you always have to be careful with butter bc it burns. You can use ghee instead.
If you want raw butter on your bread… or in your tea… on your squash, whatever! then yes, your raw butter is best there. That is not the time or place for ghee (if you are looking for raw butter properties). BUT, you can use ghee there if you want…
different products/different properties/different uses.
For joint health, you need Bone Broth (and balance exercise to train micromovements that help muscles strengthen and stabilize the joint)
I just made ghee this week. It’s delicious, and smells amazing. We use ghee in making desserts and in a lot of curries too. It is very traditional to give ghee to pregnant and lactating ladies in Indian culture. I’m so glad people are appreciating our food. I use it myself too once in a while but give it to my kids almost daily.
I love ghee 🙂 Eating Ifreshly made Indian pickle mixed with ghee and rice was a tradition every summer back home in India.Ghee is also great for oil massage for body and it can be washed using chickpea flour paste with curd and turmeric .
Its good to see the popularity of ghee here. I am from India and it was a staple in every house as we were growing up. We would get raw milk that would be boiled and the thick layer of cream would be collected every day. My mom and grandma would make ghee out of butter churned out of this cream every other week or so.
We would use ghee everyday in our cooking as well as taking it directly over the warm rice and lentils. It was spread on hot tortilla right off the griddle and would taste amazing.
Now I have 3 kids(10, 5, 1.5 yr old) and my mom still brings homemade ghee from back home whenever she is here to visit us. She advised me to used aged ghee on my kids chest when they suffer from cold and cough. Another use we have is simmer a tsp of ghee with dried date until its fragrant and let it cool for few secs and just eat it for soar throat and cold. It should be just warm, not too hot.
A quick question for you and would appreciate the reply. I know you suggest to use unsalted butter but I really love Kerrygold salted butter from Costco. Is it ok that my ghee is from salted butter?
One last comment. Ghee has a long shelf life. It can be stored at room temperature for a long time without any issue.
Thanks
Hello, I am from Armenia and I grew up seeing my mom and every family making ghee all the time. This is the first time that I heard someone is using it here in USA. I just want to add that you should boil it enough so all the water part is gone, otherwise you can’t keep it longer. What I do, I store it in the refrigerator and next day when it’s firm, I make little whole with knife and the bottom if you see there is watery milk, it means you needed to boil it little more. Or you can carefully empty the water part. Second advise is , the brown milk solids at the bottom of the pan, my mom used to make scones with that. I don’t have her receipt, but it can be used for any receipt. One more thing, just want to add we use it for broken part of the body too. Thank you.
What do you mean you use it for a broken part of the body?
Do you put Ghee on the skin?
Please elaborate…..
Thanks
According to this, it can be applied externally to wounds.
http://www.amritaveda.com/learning/articles/ghee.asp
You can get unsalted Kerrygold now!
This seems so simple. I also like traditional foods, but this is one that I have yet to try- probably because I just use butter most of the time. I’ve also heard that ghee has a long shelf life, or that you can preserve it to make it have a longer shelf life for emergency food storage.