Clarified butter or Ghee

How to make ghee?  It is best to start with 1 pound of organic unsalted butter. It about twice the price of regular butter. Here on the Sunshine Coast I buy Avalon and its about $10/ pound   If you can find butter that comes from grass fed cows that is even better.  The best is to make your own butter from cultured whipping cream. But that is a real big procedure. So if this is the first time making ghee or the 100th time, the easiest way to is start with organic butter.  The reason it is important to pay the extra for organic butter is because many toxins are fat soluable and  you do not want to take those into your system.  If you are using 1-2 teasponful of ghee at a time the pound will last quite awhile. And the aroma and flavour of the ghee will add great flavour and increase the digestion.

Have your glass jar ready and your fine metal sieve. Put a metal spoon in the jar to prevent it from cracking. Once your ghee is ready you will want to quickly sieve out the milk solids and you will have golden clear ghee. 

Start with the pound of butter in a good quality pot with a thick bottom. Then cook the butter slowly, until all the water evaporates. You will see foam rise to the top and the milk solids fall out to the bottom once that water has evaporated.  Keep cooking. But now you have to be really careful.  Once the water has boiled out and the milk solids are falling to the bottom it is very easy to burn the ghee and it will go black.  You want to keep cooking it just until the milk solids start to look a little brown. For first time ghee cooks you can stop here. Once you are really proficient at making ghee it is best to cook until the milk solids are a darker brown. But many a time I have winked and the solids went form brown to black. So be on the safe side and stop a bit early.  Now quickly take it off the heat and strain out the ghee leaving the solids in the sieve or some will remain in the pot.

The ghee will be completely clear when all water has evaporated and the milk solids have fallen out. If it is not completely clear you will need to store it in the fridge.  Ghee that is cooked well until the solids are brown will keep outside the fridge as long as you do not get moisture into it. This ghee will stay fresh and not require refrigeration as long as you use a clean spoon every time you dip in. If you get any moisture into the ghee it will go rancid or mould.  I usually make 2 pounds at a time - using one and keep the other one as back up.

Ghee is great to cook with as it does not burn like butter when stir fry or saute your food.