Ghee, Glorious Ghee

final revision!

Sometimes the right book totally trumps Ma Google. My extensive searching for the ghee-making techniques never brought up such a simple, straight-forward recipe as one I found in Monsoon Diary: A Memoir With Recipes by Shoba Narayan, a lovely book that I got from the library and fully intend to purchase for our recipe shelf.

The resulting ghee was far better clarified than any I have made before.

Ghee

(yield: 1/2 cup)

2 sticks unsalted butter

1. Cut butter into small wedges and heat in a heavy pan over medium heat until it boils.

2. When surface is completely covered with foam reduce heat to very low. Cook, stirring occasionally, until a thin crust forms on the surface and the milky white solids fall to the bottom of the pan: about 8 minutes.

3. Continue to cook, watching constantly and stirring occasionally to prevent burning, until solids turn light brown. and the butter deepens to golden and turns translucent and fragrant, about 3 minutes. (Making it this way was the first time I ever caught the wonderful fragrance you get when ghee is done.)

4. When the ghee stops bubbling you can safely assume it is done. Remove from heat, let it cool and pour into a jar.

Narayan does not direct you to strain. You don’t really have to because the browned solids are carmelized and easily sink and stick to the bottom but I still ran it through cheesecloth–using much less cheesecloth than when I wasn’t cooking the butter for long enough.

The carmelized solids can be scraped up, stored in the fridge and recycled as a decadent addition to hot cereal

Ghee will keep up to two months in a warm room temperature, longer if kept cooler. Best to keep tightly sealed. We keep it on our stove but it never takes long to use it up!

Edited post from July 17th, 2006:

I have been dabbling in ghee for awhile, and becoming increasingly attached to its taste, smell and ethereal appearance in a glass jar. It is India’s original cooking oil; basically ultra-clarified butter. Ghee tolerates long periods of non-refrigeration and high cooking heats. In Hindu temples, ghee is burned and used to anoint. It is also used as an internal and external remedy; also as a massage oil. (I could never use it as a massage oil or lotion because I would end up gnawing on my own flesh.)

I just think it tastes amazing, smells wonderful and enhances just about anything you put it in or on. Mixed with a hot spicy recipe, it mutes the burn. It is the fault of ghee that I could never go vegan. Fortunately our cholesterol levels are still within normal limits; so far, so good anyway! It is possible to enhance your flavors with ghee without overdoing it, by using a vegetable-based cooking oil to start, then add a small amount of spiced ghee at the end.

Trying to search online for a definitive difference between ghee and clarified butter is a bit like cracking the Da Vinci Code. It seems that many people are keepers of partial data, so that no one of them can give away the secret. My search was persistantly hampered by the fact that I was reading commentary and instructions written by American, not South Asian cooks. Apparently, South Asian cooks who blog and post recipes just assume you have ghee in the kitchen.

Ultimately, with help from several sources, I learned that clarifying butter basically takes less time and does not include the carmelization of the milk solids that separate from the butter while you are gently boiling it. Therefore, clarified butter has a shorter shelf-life and a lower smoke point when it is heating. It works well as a ghee substitute, but it’s not true ghee.

Ghee can be made from slighty sour cow’s milk or buffalo’s milk (fattier than cow’s milk) but I have not seen evidence that the ghee in Indian groceries is from buffalo, and it is very expensive.

In a round about way, I learned about beurre noisette. This was the only hit I could find that talked about the carmelization process. It turns out that this is ghee!

And from my India connection: Michelle tells me that Gibi makes ghee from whole cream and gently boils it for a long, long time, stirring frequently, until all the solids settle to the bottom and brown. The solids then become a separate food, even a dessert with a little sugar added.

Click and drool:

Garlic chapatis brushed with ghee while hot, then lightly salted.