How to make Ghee from butter at home

Clarified butter is known as Ghee in Hindi and several other names around the world, is used in many ways in India – in cooking, for serving, dipping into or brushing on food, for religious purpose, and also as skin softener for dry skin during winter.

Ghee made from grass-fed butter is packed with vitamin A, D, E and K leading to some interesting health benefits. A staple in traditional cooking and Ayurvedic medicine, ghee is made through a simple process of boiling butter and then pouring off the butter fat, leaving behind the proteins and the milk solids. The clear liquid we get is known as clarified butter.

In my kitchen, wherever required I replace rancid highly processed vegetable oils with grass fed ghee. May be following our traditional system of cooking is much for our benefit, which even research have proved. If I get a chance to visit India I would love to share the method to making ghee the traditional way and not from the store bought butter, which is far better in taste and health benefits. 

Homemade ghee (clarified butter) from butter:

Prep time	Cook time	Total
0 min	15-20 min	20 min

How to make ghee at home using unsalted butter

AUTHOR: Monali

RECIPE TYPE: Cooking tips

CUISINE: Indian

SERVES: approx. 1 lit ghee

INGREDIENTS (measuring cup used, 1 cup=237 ml)

• 2 lb. unsalted butter
• A tiny pinch of salt (optional) 

DIRECTION

1. On medium heat, place unsalted butter in a pan. Let it melt and stir it once in a while. At this point it will be light yellow in color.
   
2. In 10 minutes the melted butter will form a thin foamy layer on top of light yellow liquid on the bottom.
   
3. In a while, the light yellow liquid gets translucent and you start to see some more thick milk solids at the bottom of pan. Stir once in a while.
   
4. When you see the liquid bubbling and when it starts to look transparent almost light golden yellow in color with white foam on top, the solids slowly starts to form. Continue stirring.
   
5. When you see the dark golden yellow colored clear liquid easily, the clarified butter (ghee) is ready and it is time to remove the pan from the heat.
   
6. If you heat the pan any longer your ghee will start to scorch, turn darker in color, and taste bad. turn off the heat and strain the clarified butter (ghee) through a mesh or tea strainer in a dry and clean (or sterilized) glass jar.
   
7. When ghee reaches room temperature, add just a tiny pinch of salt in the bottle of ghee and stir it around with a spoon. 
   
8. This helps to get the texture that you see in the ready made ghee. This golden yellow liquid will become grainy in a couple of hours.
   

IMP- Do NOT add salt if you want to use ghee for fasting or festival food.

Fresh homemade ghee/clarified butter is ready for use. It can be stored for several months at room temperature.

What to do with leftover milk solids in the strainer?

Well, you can add the milk solids into the dough while you knead wheat flour for making roti or eat it! …yes it kinda tastes like khoya. If you keep it out for too long, it will start to taste sour.

NOTES

• I used 2 lb. unsalted butter and it yielded 4½ cups of ghee. You can use half or double or triple amount of unsalted butter and follow the same procedure.
• The texture, color or taste of ghee depends on the source of milk from which the butter was made and the extent of boiling and simmering.
• Clarified butter has a higher smoke point than regular butter and is therefore preferred in cooking some recipes.  
• Clarified butter also has a much longer shelf life than fresh butter.