How To Make Ghee (Indian Clarified Butter)
Learn how to easily make ghee at home using just 1 ingredient! You will never go back to store bought ghee.
Equipment
- Heavy bottomed pot or Dutch Oven
- Strainer or Cheesecloth or Muslin
- Ladle Or Spoon
Ingredients
- 16 oz (~450g) Butter high quality, preferably unsalted butter
Instructions
- Cooking Pot Selection - Chose a heavy and tall cooking pot. You need a tall pot because during boiling, the butter froths a lot and might foam too. I recommend choosing a stainless steel pot or white enameled cast iron pot (the white colors helps you observe the color of milk soilds at the of bottom of the pot)
- Peel the paper off the unsalted butter sheets or blocks. Add butter to the cooking pot. Both salted and unsalted butter work, I have used both. Just don't use the ghee made from salted butter while making desserts.
- Place the pot on stove on a medium flame. Let the butter melt.
- As the butter melts, it will start bubbling. Once you see it getting frothy, reduce to low heat.
- Leave the melted butter to simmer. As it will become hotter it will start getting foamy. If you wish you could skim away the foam with a spoon for a clearer clarified butter. I dont do anything. I just let let it do its own thing.
- In about 20-25 minutes, you will hear crackling sounds and frothiness will reduce considerably. You will see a liquid layer having a clear, pale yellow appearance while the solids at the bottom turn brown.This can take up to a 20-35 minutes. Your ghee is ready.
- Switch off the stove and take the pot off the heat. The contents are still quite hot. Leave aside for 10-15 minutes or more. This step is important, I have had few accidents when I strained the ghee while it was still quite hot and the glass jars broke (I know, emabarassing!)
- Strain the golden liquid layer into a dry glass jar through a fine-mesh strainer. It will be pale golden color. Discard the browned milk solids. Add a pinch of salt, as the ghee cools, this brings out a wonderful grainy texture. If you do not have a fine mesh, you could line your soup strainer with a cheesecloth, coffee filter or paper towel and then strain.
- Storage - Ghee is shelf stable and has a long shelf life due to low moisture content. During cold months, you can leave it in an air tight container at room temperature. It will have a soft consistency (similar to nut butter). During warm months, its best to store refrigerated to avoid ghee from getting smelly.
Notes
- Use high quality butter for the best tasting ghee.
- Simmer over low to low medium heat to aid gradual seperation of milk solids, moisture and fat from butter. Rushing the process could lead to uneven seperation or the mild solids might burn at the bottom
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!