Print
clock clock icon cutlery cutlery icon flag flag icon folder folder icon instagram instagram icon pinterest pinterest icon print print icon squares squares icon
Turning butter into ghee

Homemade Ghee

  • Author: Charmian Chrisite
  • Cook Time: 30 mins
  • Total Time: 30 mins
  • Yield: About 1 1/2 cups 1x
  • Category: Preserves
  • Cuisine: Indian

Description

Homemade ghee is easy to make, adds flavour to any food you cook in it and keeps much longer than butter. It’s a mystery everyone doesn’t make it.


Scale

Ingredients

  • 1lb unsalted butter (you can use any amount but less than 1 cup is a waste of time and effort)

Instructions

  1. Melt the butter in a medium sized sauce pan with a heavy bottom. I like to use stainless steel so I can keep an eye on the colour. Over a medium heat, bring the butter to a gentle boil. Do not stir the butter throughout this process.
  2. The butter will foam up and sizzle. When this happens, turn the heat down but maintain a gentle sizzle. Continue to cook without stirring. It will be tempting to remove the foam, (see notes on clarified butter below) but let it fuss. Just allow the milk solids to float to the top and then sink.
  3. Continue cooking until the butter stops sizzling. This can take from 20 minutes to half an hour. When the sizzling stops this means all the water has cooked off. At this point, carefully watch the pot. The butter will now rapidly brown and — if you’re not careful — burn. The butter is ready to strain when it smells nutty, is very clear and turned a lovely amber. The pan should be lined with dark brown –not scorched — milk solids.
  4. Pour the ghee through a fine mesh sieve into a clean, dry, heatproof container. You can stain it through several layers of dampened cheesecloth, but that is extra work and I don’t find it makes that much difference in the end. If you use cheesecloth, be sure to dampened it so the ghee slides through.
  5. Ghee originated in India as a means of extending the shelf life of diary under hot conditions. Once cooled, ghee can be kept on the counter for up to 2 months. I have cats that won’t let a lid stand between it and butter anything, so I refrigerate mine. Refrigerated ghee should keep up to 6 months. Frozen ghee can keep for a year.

Notes

Be sure to use unsalted butter for clarified butter or ghee. If you use salted butter, by the time the water has boiled off, the ghee will be too salty.

To make clarified butter, follow the same method except remove the milk solids that float to the top as you are cooking the butter. Strain as soon as the water is cooked off. You want the butter to be a bright, pure yellow, not browned.