New: Meal Planner
Plan your weekly meals instantly from anywhere on the web
Go To Meal Planner!
Clarified butter – or ghee as it is called in India — is a melted butter from which we remove all impurities (foam, whey).
We are left with a pure fat “clarified” butter; it can be heated without degrading as it is now free of impurities and more digestible. Its burning point is much higher than butter so it is very useful when you need to cook at high temperatures.
Ghee is the same product but heated a bit more, until the butter gets a nutty smell.
A jar of clarified butter in the refrigerator is always nice to have for scrambling eggs, frying meat, fish, and vegetables in a skillet. We can also stir some into a pot of hot rice to flavor it. It’s sometimes used in pastry cooking as well.
As it keeps very well, it is interesting to make a good amount at once and then put it in the fridge in a sealed container. Discover step by step how to make your ghee or clarified butter by yourself.
Key steps to make clarified butter:
Prepare 1 cup (250 g) diced unsalted butter.
Put the butter, cut in pieces, in a pan small enough to hod a pretty thick volume. A saucepan would be perfect.
Melt over low heat, and then wait until it boils, stirring from time to time.
Once the butter is melted and boiling, remove the white top layer using a tablespoon. This is a long process but it is important to remove as many of these impurities as you can. Rinse the spoon with clean water frequently.
Once all the impurities are removed, you will find that there are still white floating impurities; this is the whey. After a few minutes, when the butter stops boiling, it will take a golden color and a nutty fragrance. Remove pan from heat. Be careful; it is nearly 302 °F or (150 °C).
Pour the melted butter into a bowl very slowly, leaving the whey at the bottom of the pan. Help yourself with a spoon if necessary. You can also use a coffee filter to do this.
It’s over; you can put the clarified butter in the jar, refrigerate for several weeks without any problems and take what you need just when you need it.
You can also use a coffee filter in a funnel (not plastic as it would melt), and put it all in a jar, like a jam jar.
Headline picture by Chiot’s Run
