Kitchen Stewardship

Ghee is one of those fats I had never heard of a year ago.  Would you know ghee if you bumped into some on the street?

Ghee, pronounced with a hard “g” like “go” and a long “e” like “see”, is also called clarified butter, and it’s pure butterfat with the milk solids, impurities and any water removed. It has a couple advantages over using butter:

• Very high smoke point (400 degrees), so stable for high heat sautéing
• More easily digested for people with milk sensitivities, since the milk proteins are all removed
• Shelf stable and easy to use

Jenny at The Nourished Kitchen has a great rundown at Ghee: A Wholesome Fat if you’re interested in more information.

I completed my personal Monday Mission this week by making ghee for the first time.  You can buy it, but it’s considerably more expensive than butter, from what I understand.  I can’t say I’ve ever seen it being sold, but then again I’ve never looked.  The process is fairly easy, although I made sure to complicate matters!

Most sources say to clarify at least a pound of butter at a time; I chose to use only two sticks in case I totally messed it up (see what sort of snafus I got myself into this week at my baking day post…P.S…the sourdough bread actually turned out delicious!) and wasted the butter.  This is why I advocate a baby steps approach, my friends!

Ultimately, I was successful in my little experiment and will work on using ghee over the coming week or two.  I will make it again, unlike pie pumpkins!  If you’d like to try home-clarification of your butter, read on…

How to Make Ghee

Ghee is made by simply melting a bunch of butter, allowing it to boil (very gently) for a while to cook off the water and separate the milk solids and impurities.  At the end of the cooking time, you’ll have three layers of “stuff” in your pan:  milk solids at the bottom, impurities/foam at the top, and beautiful yellow ghee in the middle.

1. Put your butter in the pan (Next time I will certainly clarify at least a pound of butter at a time.  As long as you’re dirtying dishes, you might as well get a big result.)
2. Melt over medium or so heat until liquid; continue to cook around medium-low.  You need high enough heat to keep a little bubble action going, but not so high that you burn your milk solids straightaway.
   
3. Cook for a spell, somewhere between 8 and 30 minutes, depending on your source.
   
4. You know the ghee is done when three things happen:  (1) the foaming decreases, (2) the milk solids at the bottom begin to turn brown (note:  begin is the key word there) and (3) if you blow gently or push aside the foamy part, the middle layer is clear enough for you to see the bottom of the pan easily.
   

   Still cloudy in the middle...

   

   Getting clear under the foam...

   

   Checking for brown on the bottom...nothing yet.

   

   Time to turn off the heat - I see brown stuff.

5. This site told me to add 1/8 tsp of salt to help the solids move to the bottom better, but I forgot!
6. Remove from heat and allow the finished ghee to cool slightly.  Then you must begin the task of separating the three layers.
   
7. I chose to skim off the top layer most of the way with a spoon.  It seemed the option with the least margin for error in my book!  I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that I can eat this part on toast, but I’m not certain so it’s sitting on a plate waiting for me to figure that out!  (Then again, if this is the impurities, maybe I don’t want to be eating it.  Hoping someone can help me update this section…)
   

   The foam/impurities (?) from the top don't look too attractive.

8. You can just pour the ghee off and avoid the milk solids at the bottom, but I figured I wouldn’t be able to get that part right, so I chose to filter the finished ghee through a coffee filter in a colander.  Make sure you choose a big enough bowl to catch anything coming through the colander (see below for sad details).
   

   Be careful not to overfill the filter; it doesn't drain very quickly.

   

   The brown stuff mainly stays in the bottom of the pan...also not too attractive!

   

9. The brown stuff stays in the filter, and below you have gorgeous, golden ghee – see?
   
10. Store your ghee in something you can leave on your counter (covered) for easy access while you cook.  I chose a wide dish easy to scoop from so I don’t waste any ghee at the bottom.

How Much Ghee Comes from a Half-Pound of Butter?

I can’t tell you exactly how much ghee comes from two sticks of butter.  I’m an impatient person.  Waiting for the ghee to drain through the coffee filter was too much for me. I didn’t think it would happen, so I started trying to hurry along the process, and in so doing I spilled a bunch of my ghee on the counter.  Sheesh.

Did I scoop it up with a spoon and put it back in my ghee-bowl?  Uh, yeah.  I’m too frugal to waste and too proud to lose out on the work I did.  And crazy.  Have I mentioned I’m slightly crazy?  I read somewhere that you lose about 25% of the butter in the ghee-ing process, so that would leave ¾ cup of ghee from a cup of butter. That looks about right with what I have left!

I was telling my husband that my afternoon had been rocky because I lost some of my ghee. He looked at me funny and quipped, “Are you okay?”  He’s never heard of ghee before!

How to Use Ghee

Basically you can use ghee just like butter, but with less fear of smoking out in your pan and a richer flavor.  Mainly for sautéing, you can also put it on your toast or add it to cooked dishes for flavor and mouthfeel.

Who’s trying ghee next week? (Just don’t lose yours.)

By the way, I used these sites to help me figure out the system:

• The Nourishing Gourmet’s Making Ghee
• Aayi’s Recipes How to Make Ghee
• A Life(Time) of Cooking Ghee Whiz! How to Make Ghee
• eHow’s How to Make Ghee and Ghee: Clarified Butter

Lots more on fascinating (and fear-inducing) fats at the Fat Full Fall!

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If you missed the last Monday Mission, click here.

Kitchen Stewardship is dedicated to balancing God’s gifts of time, health, earth and money.  If you feel called to such a mission, read more at Mission, Method, and Mary and Martha Moments.

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• Fight Back Friday at Food Renegade
• Frugal Fridays at Life as MOM
• Ann Kroeker’s Food on Fridays
• A Beautiful Life at The Inspired Room
• Make it from Scratch Carnival