Clarified butter tips and recipe

Clarified butter is a healthy fat for cooking you can buy or make at home with my tips and step-by-step recipe. Ghee is integrated in Middle East Mediterranean cuisines, contrary to the general belief that Indian are the only ones that use it for cooking.

Every country or ethnic group has its own version of ghee. Instead of olive oil, Egptian use mostly samna, as they call clarified butter. Lebanese and Palestinian also cook with ghee.

In North Africa, Moroccan flavor couscous and other traditional dishes with clarified butter. Ethiopian have their own spiced version of butter ghee.

Click here for an illustrated step-by-step clarified butter recipe. Or continue reading for essential tips before you start.

By boiling off the water and removing the albuminous curds that bring about rancidity, clarified butter can be kept unrefrigerated for months, or years if you bury it like Moroccan do! For peoples living in very hot climates making butter ghee was always a necessity.

Ghee adds flavor to your food, and is good for your health too. According to reputable Indian Ayurvedic practitioner, Dr. Vasant Lad, ghee

helps digestion because it stimulates the secretion of digestive juices.

Before you start making ghee

Always use unsalted butter.

Use organic butter or the best butter you can find. Cheap butter contains lots of water, and chemicals that make the ghee making process very difficult or downright impossible. Cheap butter burns mush faster, takes a long time, and you'll never obtain an excellent ghee.

If you have never made ghee before, begin with at least 2 pounds (1 kg) of butter, as I reccomend in my illustrated ghee recipe. Small amounts of butter burn very easily. Later, when you are familiar with the ghee cooking process, you can prepare any amount you like.

Make sure the pot where you make the clarified butter is clean and dry. Sorry if this tip sounds silly, but it's important for obtaining a pure golden oil that keeps for months.

While cooking the butter ghee

Remember that the pot should be uncovered during the whole cooking process.

How to store clarified butter

Clarified butter should be stored covered in a glass or earthen jar. Indian and Middle Eastern have special containers for ghee. I didn't have any, so what I use is a ceramic jar traditionally used for curing olives, and it's perfect.

Don't let any water get into your clarified butter jar or ladle it out with a wet spoon. A drop of water can promote bacteria and spoil the ghee. When I started mking ghee, I made a point of wiping the spoon before dipping it into the ghee, and now I always do it automatically.

Ghee keeps unrefrigerated for months. There is no need to keep it in the refrigerator, but if you live in a very warm climate and it makes you feel uncomfortable, you can refrigerate it. As ghee hardens quite a lot when refrigerated, it's sensible to keep a small jar of ghee unrefrigerated on your kitchen shelf for everyday use.