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How to Make Ghee

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How to make ghee
Wellness Mama » Blog » Recipes » Condiment Recipes » How to Make Ghee

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?
How to Make Ghee - Simple home recipe

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!

How to make ghee

Homemade Ghee Recipe

This form of clarified butter is a flavorful and delicious fat for cooking or on vegetables, without the milk solids that are hard for some people to digest.
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 28 minutes
Calories 43kcal
Author Katie Wells

Servings

2 cups

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.

Nutrition

Nutrition Facts
Homemade Ghee Recipe
Amount Per Serving (1 tsp)
Calories 43 Calories from Fat 42
% Daily Value*
Fat 4.7g7%
Saturated Fat 3g19%
Cholesterol 13mg4%
Carbohydrates 0.3g0%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

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.

Like this recipe? Check out my new cookbook, or get all my recipes (over 500!) in a personalized weekly meal planner here!

If you’re a visual learner, here’s a photo walk-through of all the steps to make it.

Ghee is a clarified butter made from removing the milk proteins from butter. It is a traditional sacred food in many cultures and has incredible flavor.

Ever made ghee at home? Ever tried it? Share your experience below!

Sources

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Katie Wells Avatar

About Katie Wells

Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.

Comments

107 responses to “How to Make Ghee”

  1. Veronica Avatar

    Never made ghee, so thought I would give it a try. Started with 8 oz of butter, since that was what I had on hand. Wandered off and when I checked it, I had browned butter, but luckily not yet burned. Had to strain several times to get clear, and decided to make it into seasoned butter by adding Himalayan pink salt, garlic powder & red chili flakes (stirred these in after it semi-solidified in the fridge). I was on a roll, so I ran to the store for more butter, started over and ended up with beautiful, golden ghee. I skimmed the foam off before straining and stopped just short of pouring off the milk solids in the bottom. Added these to the foam, plus about a tablespoon of honey, a good shot of vanilla, a tiny dash of pink salt, 4 T of almond flour & 2 T of coconut flour (added flours 1 T at a time until I liked the consistency, which is similar to cookie dough). Made a yummy little sweet treat based on what your friend’s GM did.

    I’m an ex-pat living in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and though we have several organic farms for veggies, grass fed beef, milk & butter, and free range chickens & eggs, and have many more organic products available than when I moved here 16 years ago. However, other organics, like spices, almond & coconut flours, ghee, etc., as well as gluten free products, are imported and, therefore, crazy expensive. So great to be able to now make ghee at home.

    Been on your mailing list and visiting your site for quite some time. In fact, learned about the Hashimoto’s Institute from you, which was hugely helpful, since I also deal with this autoimmune condition. Thanx for all you do, Katie!

    1. Simon Avatar

      We holidayed in San Miguel for one month in December and love it to death and we are coming back in December for three months. Can you share where you find all these “organic farms for veggies, grass fed beef, milk & butter, and free range chickens & eggs” and if you have a found a good supply of virgin coconut oil
      Thanks
      The organic market did have some of these things but any help would be appreciated.

  2. richak Avatar

    Oooo. I love ghee. And the only ghee I have ever eaten is the one my mum makes from homemade butter churned from homemade buttermilk, Looong process but totally worth it. She sends me pots of these regularly and there are some Indian foods that simply aren’t the same without ghee.

  3. Christine Hoeflich Avatar
    Christine Hoeflich

    T, saturated fat is healthy. The polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils oxidize extremely fast, and they’re the fats that are unhealthy. (Any kind of vegetable oil in a bottle.) We have been lied to by the food industry.

    I use butter, ghee and bacon fat. I use very small amounts of the best extra virgin olive oil, and I never heat the olive oil.

    Christine

  4. Jenn Avatar

    4 stars
    In the past year, I discovered Trader Joe’s Ghee and I love it. It’s the best thing I’ve found to make grilled cheese. I can’t wait to make this myself!

  5. Ali Avatar

    5 stars
    I love ghee, most with over cooked rice 😉 My mom just collect the cream of milk each day when she brings it to boil and cool it in a particular pot and store it in freezer, and at the end of month when it gets full,,she then took it out to the room temperature until its ice consistency melts and just before getting to bed she adds about 2,3 tbs of curd to it and keep it outside in dark…next day she blends the mixture and separates out buttermilk and butter,,,, this butter is used for preparing ghee..like this each month my mom prepare a new batch and use the old one. [mama’s tip ; At the last step of preparing ghee.. she takes of the pan from stove and add few garlic clove and 1 betel leaf or just garlic or 2 cardamom and let it remain until she strain the ghee… which makes it taste more better then the taste of ghee]

  6. Valeria Avatar

    5 stars
    When I was growing up in Russia, our and Indian cultures were very close, probably because our governments were friendly at the time, what a miracle 🙂 ; and ghee, which we called ‘melted’ butter was very popular. Back then dairy wasn’t pasteurized (and soo delicious!) so regular butter would go bad within a week, even in the fridge, and making ghee was the solution to extend the life of it. Moms would massage their babies with it and it was known to be a cure for eczema, rash and dry skin. I use it in almost all of my cooking, and also as a moisturizer. I make mine in a slow cooker (here is my recipe: http://www.beetsandbones.com/how-to-make-clarified-butter-and-ghee/ because I tend to burn it on the stove top more often then not, especially with a couple of little munchkins running around 🙂

    Love your blog, Katie!

  7. Tiana Avatar

    Thank you for the post, will be making this today. Just watched how to make it on YouTube by dr.lina. She said not to refrigerate it because it becomes a saturated fat. She also said that as it ages it becomes more potent. There’s more interesting info in the video, anyone interested can check it out.

  8. Salina Avatar

    I love ghee! Have made it just as you directed several times so far…great on veggies and potatoes. Husband tolerates rice well so I put the milk solids in the rice and it is so flavorful!

  9. Mike Avatar

    4 stars
    Thanks for the post. I make ghee in a slow cooker / crockpot where it goes for around five hours, resulting in a clear golden ghee with the dark brown bits thoroughly settled out. The trick is to ease open the lid of the crockpot with something like a fork handle or a chopstick, and give it a stir every hour to release the steam.
    I use it every day for cooking – my other fats being coconut oil and macadamia oil. I make it in batches of 4 kilos (around 7 pounds) using New Zealand grass-fed butter, and just store it in a big tub in the food cupboard where it keeps for up to two months.
    I’m in a subtropical area of New South Wales, Australia and have no problems with it going rancid, even in the summer.

    With regards to a couple of other posts: no it isn’t just browned butter. That is called “beurre noisette” used in French cuisine. Ghee goes a whole stage further than that.

    Also, if there are still pale milky looking bits then it hasn’t been cooked long enough. That’s why a crockpot is brilliant as you can’t burn the ghee.

    1. Allison Avatar

      Do you use the low or high setting on the slow cooker? And what do you use the solids for?

      1. Mike Avatar

        I use the low setting. The solids tend to stick to the sides and bottom and I don’t need to strain the ghee, just ladle it out into a big jar.
        I’ve used the remaining solids just on toast.. yum.

    1. Tanja Avatar

      clarified butter. 99.9% (or so) of milk proteins removed. as close to pure butterfat oil as possible.

      1. Leslie Avatar

        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.

    2. Leslie Avatar

      Not quite- if you cook it too how or too long, then it’s browned butter (aka burnt).

      1. Rose Prescott Avatar
        Rose Prescott

        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.

  10. Kelly Avatar

    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.

    1. Tanja Avatar

      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”

  11. Brooke Avatar

    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!

  12. Tanja Avatar

    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.

    1. Brian Avatar

      5 stars
      For those who might have trouble finding it, ShowMeTheCurry.com has a YouTube tutorial for Ghee (Clarified Butter)

  13. Lori Avatar

    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.

    1. Tanja Avatar

      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.

    2. Andreas Avatar

      5 stars
      For joint health, you need Bone Broth (and balance exercise to train micromovements that help muscles strengthen and stabilize the joint)

  14. Jawairia Avatar

    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.

  15. Bindu Avatar

    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 .

  16. Sofia Avatar

    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

    1. Asmik Avatar

      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.

      1. Patti Avatar

        What do you mean you use it for a broken part of the body?

        Do you put Ghee on the skin?

        Please elaborate…..

        Thanks

  17. chanelle Avatar

    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.

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