How to Make Ghee(Clarified Butter)

Ghee - Clarified butter

Making ghee is neither difficult nor complicated, but it does take some time. Bringing out the sweet, nutlike flavor of the melted butter requires long, slow cooking to fully evaporate the water and allow the milk solids to separate and float to the surface leaving clear, amber-colored ghee.

Begin by heating the butter in a large heavy saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. When the surface of the butter is covered with a white foam, reduce the heat to as low as possible and simmer uncovered. From time to time remove the solids that accumulate on the surface. Make sure the ghee doesn't burn. If ghee is cooked over too high a heat or cooked too long, it will darken and give off apungent odor.

How much time you need for preparing the ghee depends on how much you are making (see table below). The finished ghee should be golden-colored and clear enough to see through to the bottom of the saucepan. Carefully ladle the ghee into a can or crock and allow it to cool uncovered to room temperature. The milk solids skimmed off the surface and the solids remaining in the bottom of the pan can be mixed into cooked vegetables, soups, and grains.

Ghee properly prepared and stored in closed containers in a cool dry place will keep for months.

Preparation and cooking time

Quantity of butter	Cooking time	Yield of ghee
2 Ibs (1 kg)	1/2 hr	1 3/4 Ibs (800 g)
5 Ibs (2.5 kg)	3 hrs	4 1/2 Ibs (2.2 kg)
10 lbs (5 kg)	5 hrs	9 Ibs (4.6 kg)

Several points to remember when frying with ghee

• There are two types of ghee: usli ghee and vegetable ghee. When we refer to ghee in this book, we always mean usli ghee, or genuine ghee, which is clarified butter and can be made at home. Vegetable ghee is a combination of various vegetable oils and can be bought in large cans.
Vegetable ghee may be less expensive and lighter, but it can never compare to real ghee for flavor.

• Ghee is pure butterfat. Since it is has no milk solids to turn rancid, it will keep for months, even without refrigeration.

• All ingredients to be deep-fried should be prepared, shaped, cut, or rolled close at hand, and at room temperature. When using ghee to pan-fry spices, gather all the spices first, so that the ghee doesn't burn while you're looking for them.

• Before putting ghee in a pan for deep-frying, make sure the pan is perfectly dry. Avoid mixing or splashing water into hot ghee. The ghee will splatter violently.

• The ghee may foam when moist vegetables are deep-fried, so leave enough space at the top of the pan to prevent spilling over. You can tell if the ghee is hot enough for deep-frying when a morsel of food dropped into it rises immediately to the surface and sizzles. Then lower the heat just enough to keep the ghee from burning.

• If the ghee is too hot, it darkens and burns the outside of the food, leaving the inside undercooked; if it's not hot enough, your food will soak up too much ghee and become greasy. Cover the surface of the ghee with only one layer of food, leaving enough space for the food to move. Too much food put into the ghee at one time will lower the temperature.

• To conserve ghee, which devotees sometimes call "liquid gold," drain the fried foods in a colander or strainer placed over a pan to catch the drippings. Filter the ghee through several layers of paper towels or a fine sieve before using it again, otherwise residues from the previous cooking will burn, discoloring the ghee and altering its flavor.

• For deep-frying, you can use the same ghee for several weeks, as long as it isn't burned. If the ghee stays dark even after being filtered, or if it gives off a pungent odor, it should be discarded.