Making Ghee

General

This is about how to prepare Ghee, aka Clarified Butter which is used instead of cooking oil to prepare curries and the like.

Anecdotal Mutterings

Ghee is probably the most common cooking medium in the "cooking world" but still is hard to get in Australia which has been familiar with curries for some 40 years now.  It is therefore probably impossible to find in America.

Even if you can find it in Australia, it is rather expensive as either the "shelf" or "cold" forms so it makes sense to simply make it yourself at about 30% of the price.

Method

Ghee is made from butter [normally Unsalted Butter] by removing the parts that cause butter to go brown if used as a cooking medium.  Once these are removed it has a very high smoke point so is as good as any oil for cooking but with a different flavor to impart to the dish.

Start with a packet of Unsalted Butter and a small saucepan.

Heat the butter until a "scum" forms on top [termed ButterMilk] and scoop what you can of that off with a spoon.

Continue to heat and stir but be aware that things happen very quickly at this stage.  You are looking for the murky butter to suddenly become clear by way of seeing the bottom of the spoon and saucepan.

But at the same time the bottom of the saucepan will be turning brown as seen below.

Turn off the heat and set the saucepan aside to cool for 5 minutes or so.  Then pour into a funnel lined with a coffee filter.

I then pour the filtered Ghee into a plastic tub which provides for easier use later on once cooled in the fridge.

Once in the fridge it reverts to the same appearance as the initial Unsalted Butter but of course it is now suitable for heating to a high temperature.  I generally make a new batch at the time of building a curry so in this photo maybe 25% has been used already.

Throughout this process one is presented with a lovely nutty aroma, but if you overcook it you will get a rather less nice burnt caramel aroma, so take care.